On the the busiest week of the social year, the final week of term before we all head on our merry way home for the Christmas break, the Campanile Consort will be performing in the chapel at 8pm on Thursday 14th.
The Campanile Consort, one of Trinity’s most prestigious singing groups, comprising of sixteen of Trinity’s most talented and dedicated choral singers, will be performing its first-term concert arrangement, “Morning Star”, a mass service celebrating Advent. Featuring music from luminaries like Rheinberger and Byrd, amongst others, the choir aims to put on a magical evening of music.
Founded in 2007, the Campanile Consort has been gracing campus with arrangements of Sviridov and Gustav Holst (check the choir’s Soundcloud page for more) as it has put on concerts each term. The Campanile Consort proudly celebrates its decade of bringing choral music of the highest quality to Trinity, listing its current and former members to demonstrate the honour of being a part of Trinity’s most professional singing group.
The importance of the conductor is shown by the place of pride the conductor receives on the billing of the concert. It falls on Ciarán Fennelly to guarantee the standard of music is as high as is expected of the Campanile Consort, both by others and itself. “We put in two hours a week, with a couple of extra practices at the end”, Fennelly had to say before the consort’s rehearsal last Thursday. “It’s interesting to go deep into the music, to understand it as best we can, and perform it to the highest quality we can. I wanted to ensure there was a general theme of Advent in the music to reflect on the passage of time at the period of waiting that is Advent.”
The concert will be taking place in the Trinity College Chapel, the traditional venue for the consort. The chapel has hosted many events, from the Trinity Arts Festival commencement concert to TradSoc and Cumman Gaelach’s Samhain show, and has always served to enhance the performance. The sweeping acoustics and baroque furnishings have always added another dimension to chapel performances, be they trad, alt-rock and R ’n’ B bangers. However, no where can the chapel’s unique sonic palette be more effectively used than in choral music, a fact the Campanile Consort knows full well. The hall will add soaring echoes to the voices of the choir, creating a haunting musical experience that absolutely should not be missed.
A change of pace from an incredibly hectic time in all students’ lives, the Campanile Consort will be providing a beautiful refuge from essays, exams, dissertations, and the anarchy of your class’s 12 Pubs. As venues gear up for their Christmas blowouts, New Year’s re-blowouts and festively themed drinking marathons, Morning Star is the perfect event for those looking for a cultured, sophisticated night on campus. Tickets will be on sale at the door, with chapel opening at 7.30pm.
