OUR CHORAL WORKSHOPS
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Platinum Consort, directed by Scott Inglis-Kidger, is the leading provider of high-quality choral workshops in the UK, attracting singers from Europe, the USA, and even Australia. Expert and enlightening vocal coaching is at the heart of what we do. You will explore compelling repertoire in one of our beautiful London homes: the riverside church of St Mary’s, Battersea and the candlelit choir stalls of St Barnabas, Pimlico.
Our choral workshops are designed to challenge and stimulate experienced choral singers. We work quickly with only limited note-bashing, and we keep the groups fairly small. We therefore expect you to prepare music in advance or be a proficient sight-reader. Our goal is to enable every one of you to love your voice, through our welcoming atmosphere and our community of like-minded singers. If you are new to Platinum, please do register with us as a singer and feel free to peruse our 2019 programme by scrolling down below. We look forward to welcoming you to one of our Flagship Workshops, Bach Club days or Early Nights sessions soon. #LOVEYOURVOICE |
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FLAGSHIP WORKSHOPS
"I learned so much and found the whole day extremely enjoyable; singing with very friendly and like-minded people."
"Both Scott and Ghislaine were able to match their obvious expertise with their enthusiasm, which made for a very fun day."
Dodecahedral Polyphony: Guerrero, Victoria, Tomkins & Gabrieli
£50.00
Saturday 30th March 2019
In this workshop we explore music in 12 parts set in various tri-choir combinations. We begin with Spanish Renaissance composer, Francisco Guerrero, whose Duo Seraphim is a fine example of the glorious spatial effects created by antiphonal composition. Following this, we have another Spanish master, Tomás Luis de Victoria, and his more exuberant setting of the psalm Laetatus Sum, this time with four Cantus parts. In contrast, we immerse ourselves in late Tudor England with a very different approach to 12-part writing with Thomas Tomkins’ O Praise the Lord. Tomkins adopts a convoluted and highly polyphonic single-choir texture, abound with false relations typical of the time. Finally, we turn to the home of ‘cori spezzati’ – St Mark’s Venice – for Giovanni Gabrieli’s Gloria from the Sacrae Symphoniae of 1597.
Franciso Guerrero (1528-1599)
Duo Seraphim a12
Tomás Luis de Victoria (c1548-1611)
Laetatus Sum a12
Thomas Tomkins (1572-1656)
O Praise the Lord a12
Giovanni Gabrieli (c1554-1612)
Gloria a12
Scott Inglis-Kidger Director
Saturday 30th March 2019, 10:30-17:00
St Mary's Church, Battersea Church Road
London SW11 3NA
Cost includes music and break time refreshments
By purchasing this workshop you consent to receive information about our future events, by email, and agree to our Terms and Conditions: please see below. In accordance with our Privacy Policy, we will not share your information with any third party.
SOPRANO SOLD OUT: Please join the waiting list here
ALTO SOLD OUT: Please join the waiting list here
Magnificat: Pärt, Lassus & Lambe
£50.00
Saturday 11th May 2019
Arvo Pärt’s wife Nora said of his music, “The concept of tintinnabuli was born from a deeply rooted desire for an extremely reduced sound world which could not be measured, as it were, in kilometres, or even metres, but only in millimetres....” Pärt is one of the leading composers of the ‘Holy Minimalism’ technique, in which he combines the Tintinnabuli style with the use of drones and luminous, melodic lines. Here we juxtapose Pärt’s Magnificat with two Renaissance settings: the first by Walter Lambe from the Eton Choirbook at the turn of the 16th century; and the second, labyrinthine setting in 10 parts by the outstanding Franco Flemish composer Orlande de Lassus.
Arvo Pärt (b1935)
Magnificat
Orlande de Lassus (c1530-1594)
Magnificat super 'Aurora lucis rutilat' a10
Walter Lambe (c1450-1504)
Magnificat Octavi Toni a5
Scott Inglis-Kidger Director
Ghislaine Morgan Associate Director
Saturday 11th May 2019, 10:30-17:00
St Mary's Church, Battersea Church Road
London SW11 3NA
Cost includes break time refreshments. Participants will be provided with a copy of the Lassus and Lambe, but are kindly asked to purchase their own copy of the Pärt.
Please note that we will in due course assign the Soprano and Tenor parts (of which there are three of each) for the Lassus.
By purchasing this workshop you consent to receive information about our future events, by email, and agree to our Terms and Conditions: please see below. In accordance with our Privacy Policy, we will not share your information with any third party.
SOPRANO SOLD OUT: Please join the waiting list here
ALTO 1 SOLD OUT: Altos please book remaining A2 places.
TENOR 1 SOLD OUT: Tenors please book remaining T2 places.
O Fiery Spirit: McDowall, Hildegard, Panufnik & Ostler
£50.00
Saturday 13th July 2019
In this workshop we will celebrate a small selection of choral music written by female composers. Setting the scene is the monodic work O Ignee Spiritus (O Fiery Spirit) by medieval composer and visionary Hildegard von Bingen. Fast-forward approximately 800 years and we have works by established composers Roxanna Panufnik and Cecilia McDowall sitting alongside one by Platinum’s very own Miranda Ostler. Of her setting of W.B. Yeats’ poem Cloths of Heaven, Ostler says "My only self-stipulation was that I wanted a sense of tonal dissonance to be present throughout". Speaking about her ethereal Kyrie after Byrd, Panufnik says "I loved the way that the melody of the first Kyrie eleison almost immediately transposes and capitalised on this harmonically by taking my version through several quite chromatic changes and adding an extra bass voice, thereby extra harmonic potential." McDowall’s triumphant Regina Caeli takes its lead from the plainchant of the same text, with Alleluias abounding between each verse.
Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179)
O Ignee Spiritus
Cecilia McDowall (b1951)
Regina Caeli
Roxanna Panufnik (b1968)
Kyrie after Byrd
Miranda Ostler (b1993)
Cloths of Heaven
Scott Inglis-Kidger Director
Ghislaine Morgan Associate Director
Saturday 13th July 2019, 10:30-17:00
St Mary's Church, Battersea Church Road
London SW11 3NA
Cost includes break time refreshments. Participants will be provided with a copy of the Ostler and Hildegard von Bingen, but are kindly asked to purchase copies of the McDowall and Panufnik.
By purchasing this workshop you consent to receive information about our future events, by email, and agree to our Terms and Conditions: please see below. In accordance with our Privacy Policy, we will not share your information with any third party.
TENOR 2 SOLD OUT: Tenors please book remaining T1 places.
Ralph Vaughan Williams: Mass in G minor
£50.00
Saturday 14th September 2019
Ralph Vaughan Williams said "There is no reason why an atheist could not write a good mass", and we are looking forward to exploring his Mass in G Minor, which is an exquisitely spiritual work. Written between 1920 and 1921, this luminous setting of the mass combines elements of plainchant, sixteenth century polyphony, modal harmony (inspired by folk song, and by his contemporary, Debussy) – all mixed together with Vaughan Williams’ own distinctive, piquant, bucolic and uplifting style.
Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)
Mass in G minor
Scott Inglis-Kidger Director
Ghislaine Morgan Associate Director
Saturday 14th September 2019, 10:30-17:00
St Mary's Church, Battersea Church Road
London SW11 3NA
Cost includes break time refreshments. Participants are kindly asked to purchase their own music.
By purchasing this workshop you consent to receive information about our future events, by email, and agree to our Terms and Conditions: please see below. In accordance with our Privacy Policy, we will not share your information with any third party.
SOPRANO 1 SOLD OUT: Sopranos please book remaining S2 places.
ALTO 1 SOLD OUT: Altos please book remaining A2 places.
TENOR 2 SOLD OUT: Tenors please book remaining T1 places.
The Renaissance Algorithm: Byrd, Mouton, Josquin & Tallis
£50.00
Saturday 16th November 2019
“Computers and Renaissance musicians have at least one thing in common: they can run simple algorithmic processes on fragments of music to create vastly more complex and nuanced musical compositions.” Jaran Feeley.
In this modern age the ‘algorithm’ (an unambiguous set of rules which solves a problem) has a great presence in our lives, from sending a message on our mobile phones, to learning and reading music with midi files and tablet computers. In this workshop, we look at an ancient musical algorithm – the canon – which results in some of the most unexpectedly sublime works of the Renaissance period by Josquin, Mouton and Byrd. We will also create our own complex Renaissance canon as we improvise on Tallis' motet If ye love me.
Josquin des Prez (c1450-1521)
Agnus Dei III from Missa L'homme armé
William Byrd (c1539-1623)
O salutaris hostia
Miserere mihi, Domine
Jean Mouton (c1459-1522)
Ave Maria, gemma virginum
Thomas Tallis (c1505-1585)
If ye love me (recomposed)
Scott Inglis-Kidger Director
Ghislaine Morgan Associate Director
Saturday 16th November 2019, 10:30-17:00
St Mary's Church, Battersea Church Road
London SW11 3NA
Cost includes music and break time refreshments.
By purchasing this workshop you consent to receive information about our future events, by email, and agree to our Terms and Conditions: please see below. In accordance with our Privacy Policy, we will not share your information with any third party.
SOPRANO SOLD OUT: Please join the waiting list here
ALTO SOLD OUT: Please join the waiting list here
TENOR 2 SOLD OUT: Tenors please book remaining T1 places.
Claudio Monteverdi: Christmas Vespers
£50.00
Saturday 7th December 2019
We all know and admire Monteverdi's famous Vespers of 1610, thought to have been written as a showcase for his appointment as Maestro di Cappella at St Mark’s, Venice. Monteverdi, however, wrote many more exuberant psalm settings in his Selva morale e spirituale of 1640, many of which may have been performed as complete Vespers sets. Denis Stevens, in his edition for Novello, carefully re-imagined a Christmas Vespers service by Monteverdi, complete with plainchant antiphons such as Hodie Christus natus est. This reconstruction, which uses works from the Selva morale, contains a particularly beguiling setting of Beatus vir, and is a thrilling alternative to the 1610 set. We hope this will mark the beginning of Christmas for all our singers.
Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643)
Christmas Vespers
Scott Inglis-Kidger Director
Saturday 7th December 2019, 10:30-17:00
St Mary's Church, Battersea Church Road
London SW11 3NA
Cost includes break time refreshments. Participants are kindly asked to purchase their own score.
By purchasing this workshop you consent to receive information about our future events, by email, and agree to our Terms and Conditions: please see below. In accordance with our Privacy Policy, we will not share your information with any third party.
SOPRANOS SOLD OUT: Please join the waiting list here
ALTO 1 SOLD OUT: Altos please book remaining A2 places.
BACH CLUB
Exploring the complete cycle of sacred cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach
BACH CLUB“Monteverdi gives us the full gamut of human passions in music, the first composer to do so; Beethoven tells us what a terrible struggle it is to transcend human frailties and to aspire to the Godhead; and Mozart shows the kind of music we might hope to hear in heaven. But it is Bach, making music in the Castle of Heaven, who gives us the voice of God - in human form.”
Sir John Eliot Gardiner Join us on a journey of discovery as we embark on our first year of singing the choruses and chorales of Bach's complete cycle of sacred cantatas. £50 per workshop 
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SATURDAY 9 FEBRUARY 2019
Cantata BWV 1 Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern Cantata BWV 2 Ach Gott, vom Himmel sieh darein Cantata BWV 3 Ach Gott, wie manches Herzeleid SATURDAY 27 APRIL 2019
Cantata BWV 4 Christ lag in Todes Banden Cantata BWV 5 Wo soll ich fliehen hin Cantata BWV 6 Bleib bei uns, denn es will Abend werden SATURDAY 8 JUNE 2019
Cantata BWV 7 Christ unser Herr zum Jordan kam Cantata BWV 8 Liebster Gott, wenn werd ich sterben? Cantata BWV 9 Es ist das Heil uns kommen her SATURDAY 12 OCTOBER 2019
Cantata BWV 10 Meine Seel erhebt den Herren Ascension Oratorio BWV 11 Himmelfahrtsoratorium Cantata BWV 12 Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen. |
