Work: Here is the little door

After the overload of concerts and carol singing around Christmas, most choirs have a well-deserved break before starting for another year, but not Vivamus. This young London-based choir entered 2013 in style with a candlelit concert for Epiphany. The concert’s main advertised work was Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols, with other composers on the programme including Leighton, Howells and Whitacre.

The King’s Singers epitomise a cappella musicianship. The group was originally formed in the 1960s by choral scholars of King’s College, Cambridge (and one from Christ Church, Oxford), but its current membership includes members who were previously choral scholars at Oxford, and even one member from New Zealand.

We trudged through the snow to Kings Place, full of anticipation for an evening of beautiful music and festive cheer. The Barts Chamber Choir, conducted by Ivor Setterfield provided this, with a wonderful program from traditional audience carols to lesser known pieces by Berlioz, Howells and Vaughan Williams.