St German’s gives platform to youth

James Qualtrough | February 4, 2013 | 0 Comments

The Cathedral Choristers with Dean Nigel Godfrey and Director of Music Peter Litman

The traditional Tuesday evening summer concerts in St German’s Cathedral are set to continue this year, but with a difference. There will be an increased emphasis on young performers, and efforts will be made to include musical theatre and dance groups alongside the more traditional choirs, bands and orchestras.

The cathedral has been extensively re-ordered in recent years and is now a more flexible performance space. New lighting was installed in 2012.

Jonathan King, Secretary of the St German’s Cathedral Foundation for Music and the Arts, explained:

“The Isle of Man is blessed with a thriving artistic life and St German’s Cathedral is very much part of that. We want to become more and more a place where people not only expect to hear high quality church music, but come to participate in and share all manner of artistic endeavour.

The Tuesday evening concert series is a centrepiece of the Cathedral’s contribution to performing arts. The trustees of the Cathedral’s Music and Arts Foundation want to build on the success of this series which did so well under the stewardship of Don Roworth and Bet Callin before him, and in doing so to turn the spotlight increasingly on young performers.

Last year’s series included both youth and wider community ensembles and organisations, and we hope to strike a similar balance this year. As part of that we will hope to find an opportunity to showcase the Cathedral Choristers, who continue to thrive under the directorship of Dr Peter Litman. We are also looking forward to a return visit by the Manx Youth Orchestra in July.

In giving an equally warm welcome to “grown up” community choirs and bands, we will be encouraging them to incorporate opportunities for young people into their events. This could be as simple as asking a pupil, child or grandchild to sing, play or read at some point in the programme.

There are a number of excellent musical theatre and dance schools in the Island and we hope they will seriously consider performing at St German’s and exploring the inspiration which this historic but now flexible space may give.

The artists will have complete freedom to design their programme. A previous expectation that every concert should include a hymn has been dropped.”

It is planned to run the series between 11 June and 24 September this year. The concerts will start at 7.45pm and last around an hour, with refreshments at the end.

Anyone who would like to participate is encouraged to get in touch with Jonathan King before Friday 22 February 2013. Jonathan can be reached by e-mail at jdc.king@yahoo.co.uk

Away from the Cathedral, Jonathan is also interested to hear from organists and other keyboard players who would like to perform as part of this year’s “Wurlitzer Wednesdays” series of lunchtime concerts in the Villa Marina Arcade.