Director of Music

If you haven't done so already, take a look at http://www.directorofmusic.org/ This is the home site of Ben Saunders, Director of Music for the Diocese of Leeds.

On this site you can listen to samples of Ben's organ playing, as well as view some of his compositions, arrangements and editions.

St. Cuthberts CD date

BYC Primary School St Cuthbert and the First Martyrs recently undertook an all day CD recording, capturing not only the sound of the school choir, but of each class in the school.

Recorded in the fine acoustic of the school hall, all the long hours of careful practice for the singers paid off with great concentration shown by all. The music was directed jointly by Catharine Bolland, Music Co-ordinator at St. Cuthbert and the First Martyrs, and Christopher Johns, Assistant Director of the Bradford Youth Choir.

A wide range of repertoire was recorded ranging from folk songs, Latin Motets (Ave Maria - Cousins) through to African songs (Siyahamba) and contemporary Catholic classics such as 'Christ be our light' (Farrell) and 'Here I am, Lord. (Schutte.) Watch this space for CD release date!

SJC at City Hall

The choir of St. Josephs Catholic College, Bradford yesterday sang at a civic luncheon in City Hall at the invitation of The Lord Mayor. The reception and luncheon was given in honour of the Women's section of the Royal British Legion.

The choir members were honoured to meet the Lord Mayor, Councillor Choudhary Rangzeb & the Lady Mayoress Mrs Zahida Rangzeb. Thanking them for their wonderful singing, the Lord Mayor presented the choir with a crystal vase (which now sits proudly in the schools trophy cabinet!) and golden 'City of Bradford' badges to each choir member.

As the guests of honour arrived for the drinks reception, the choir sang a half hour program of classics, both sacred and secular which included music from shows (Grease, Les Mis) pop bands (Yellow Submarine, You raise me up) Irish folk music (Caleno Custoreme) and Hymns (Amazing Grace, Shout Joyfully to the Lord.)

After dinner, the girls presented a 15 minute program of music in the Banqueting hall itself. The choirs repertoire included some special requests on this occasion. Members of the British Legion requested 'White cliff's of Dover' and 'We'll meet again,' and the Lord Mayor requested the choir close with the county hymn, 'Lord of All Hopefulness.'

Beauty in Worship

Saturday's Telegraph carries an interesting article by Christopher Howse entitles The Lost Language of Worship. In it, the author comments on Pope Benedict's recent document on the Eucharist Sacramentum Caritatis, "The Sacrament of Love", noting the Popes desire for beauty in the liturgy.

Howse then goes on to state:


"The Pope hopes that "everything related to Eucharist should be marked by beauty". We know that music and architecture - a Byrd Mass, say and a Gothic cathedral - reach transcendently high beauty, which, while it reflects the godly work of the Eucharist, appeals to anyone sympathetic to the cultural conventions.


But most people in Britain today do not take to Byrd and cathedral architecture like ducks to water. They are bored by high culture because they are blind to its language. Worse, they have been led away from any chance of appreciating high culture by being fed noisy, ephemeral, brutish culture. A few hours of hip-hop videos at night-time inoculate against any appeal of renaissance polyphony next morning."

Well, whilst he might be right for much of the country, here in the Diocese of Leeds children do enjoy singing Byrd, and chant, and other forms of 'beautiful' music just as Pope Benedict calls us to do! However, they also enjoy pop music, hip-hop videos and the like also - just not in church!

Born for this

A traditional devotion dear to Catholics during the season of Lent is the Station of the Cross. Last night saw a musical production based on this theme entitled 'Born for This.' The performance took place at Leeds Cathedral and is part of CJM's 2006 Cathedral Tour which features Nottingham, Birmingham and Northampton in addition to Leeds.

The performance was led by CJM musicians Boyce and Stanley, completed with orchestra, professional soloists and a massed youth choir of 100 voices from BYC schools. All four of our BYC Secondary schools took part: St. Bedes, St. Josephs College, Holy Family Keighley and Yorkshire Martyrs.





The Born for this website describes how the production first came together:

As with many project of this scale, Born for This is a work that has matured slowly over several years. After reading Jude Martin's powerful, poetic reflections on the Stations of the Cross, in January 1994 Joanne Boyce agreed to write songs to accompany them.

Around the same time, Jude came across some beautiful impressions of the Stations of the Cross by the artist Peter Clare (these are part of a larger cycle of paintings called The Journey) Peter too, impressed by the music and the words, agreed to have his work included as part of the Born for This project.

These creative strands have come together to produce one of the most moving re-tellings of Christ's Passion.




Members of the St. Bedes Male Voice Choir with artists Boyce and Stanley:

Schools' Prom

St. Georges Hall, Bradford's premier venue for the concert performances, last night hosted the Annual Schools' Prom featuring over 300 musical pupils from across the Bradford Metropolitan area.

The concert featured performances by the Bradford Youth Orchestra (who will tour Poland this Summer) local soprano Julia Williams from Bradford Girls’ Grammar School , and other young musicians from both primary and secondary schools who all performed to the packed house!

Making their third appearance in St Georges Hall in 6 months, the Bradford Girls' Choir brought to a close the first half of the concert. Opening with 'Hail, Holy Queen' from Sister Act the choir then sang 'God, beyond all names' which they recently performed on their BBC Radio 4 broadcast. The children in the audience particularly enjoyed the performance of 'You raise me, up' which followed, many of them could be seen mouthing the words as the choir was singing! The Girls' choir selections finished with a lively arrangement of 'Freedom is coming' complete with African drums bring the the first half of the concert to a rousing conclusion.

Girls' Choir Festival

Saturday saw the Yorkshire Cathedral Girls' Choirs' festival, which this year took place at Leeds Parish Church. Formed in 1998 by Louise Marsh of Wakefield Cathedral, the festival involves the Girl choristers and men from the Cathedrals of Ripon, Sheffield, Wakefield, Bradford, Leeds, York Minster and Leeds Parish Church. They come together annually to sing Evensong in one of the host institutions.

Music for this years service included William Mathias (Jesus College Service) and Sir Edward Elgar (Great is the Lord.) The choirs were directed by David Houlder, Sub Organist & Director of the Girls' Choir at Leeds Parish Church and accompanied on the organ by Dr Simon Lindley who performed the Elgar organ sonata after the service.

The girls choir at Leeds is the only Roman Catholic choir that participates in this festival, so it gives the choir the opportunity to learn repertoire that we wouldn't usually sing at the Cathedral!

BYC Choir wins Robertshaw Festival!

For the 3rd Year running, the Primary Schools singing class of the Robertshaw Festival in Bingley, has been won by a BYC school! Under the direction of Ms. Fernly, St. Walburgas pipped runners-up St. Josephs, Bingley (last years winners) by one mark to take the Harry Haddock shield!

The adjudicator was very positive in her comments about both BYC schools complementing them on their tone and clear diction. She also noted how delighted she was to hear primary schools singing in Latin - 'such a beautiful language to sing in!'

St. Walburgas opened with an Ave Maria by Mervyn Cousins, former Director of Music at Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral and now Director of Music of the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod , home of the famous 'Choir of the World' Competition. This was followed in a lighter vain with 'Chitty chitty bang bang! which drew rapturous applause from the audience.

St. Josephs also began with a Latin text, 'Jubilate Deo' in a setting by the Taize community. This contrasted with the song 'Hail, King of the Jews' in a sombre minor key in which the choir showed many different colours and dynamics.

BBC Daily Service

Today the Bradford Girls Choir broadcast the Daily Service live on BBC R4 LW. The broadcast took place in Emmanuel Church, Didsbury, Manchester requiring a pick up time for the choir of 5.45am!

To listen again to the service click here. (click 'listen again' Monday 5th March)

The service was presented by Clair Jaquiss and produced by Simon Vivian. They can be seen in the picture below with the Bradford Girls' Choir and Organist Benjamin Saunders and Choir Director Christopher McElroy.

Music sung by the choir ranged from a translation of the 6th Century hymn 'The Glory of these Forty Days' through to a contemporary piece by Catholic composer Bernadette Farrell 'God beyond all names.' Also featured was the hymn 'Just as I am' appropriately also written by a female composer, Charlotte Elliott in the 19th Century.

BYC Girls' to sing on the BBC

On Monday a significant milestone will be reached in the Bradford Youth Choir program with the first national BBC broadcast. The BYC Girls' Choir, 45 in number, will sing on the 'Daily Service' on BBC R4 LW at 9.45am.

Don't worry if you miss the broadcast as it is available again via the BBC's listen again feature from the website. I will post a link on Monday. A report in the local newspaper (The Bradford Telegraph and Argus) can be read here.

New Model for Children's Singing

The Diocese of Leeds is proud to administer what is the largest Catholic Youth singing program in the UK. Based on a unique partnership model between the Diocese and Catholic Schools, the program has begun to attract considerable interest around the country with several diocese's inviting the leadership team to advise them.

An article was recently published in 'Cathedral Music' about the diocese's model, which can be found here.

Llibre Vermell

The Bradford Boys' today performed at a concert at Leeds Cathedral as part of the Cathedral's weekly concert series. The concert consisted of music from the Llibre Vermell alongside Spanish organ and choral music by Correa de Arauxo - very much a 14th Century feel!

The choir sang 'Cuncti simus concanentes' (Let us sing together) as they processed into the Cathedral to a large and appreciative audience. For Catholics familiar with pilgrimages to shrines such as Lourdes, the notion of singing religious and devotional songs in procession will come naturally.

To complete their day in Leeds, the boys joined the Cathedral Choral Scholars to sing Mass for the Feast of St. David; music by Joseph Haydn and selections from the Llibre Vermell being the order of the day.