Canterbury Cathedral Choir to Perform in Distinguished Venues in Major Cities Offering Rich, Diverse Program of Choral Masterworks Spanning the Centuries
One of the world's preeminent choral ensembles will tour the U.S. and Canada in 1999, performing in some of the most distinguished venues in major cities and offering a rich, diverse program of choral masterworks spanning the centuries.
The Canterbury Cathedral Choir, under the direction of Cathedral Organist and Master of the Choristers David Flood, will make a nine-stop tour over fifteen days next April 6-20, performing six concerts in the U.S. and three in Canada.
The itinerary comprises:
- The Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, St. John's Newfoundland -- April 6
- Christ Church Cathedral, Ottawa -- April 8
- St. Paul's Anglican Church, Toronto -- April 9
- Holy Name Cathedral, Chicago -- April 11
- St. James Episcopal Church, Lancaster, PA -- April 13
- St. Mark's Church, Philadelphia -- April 14
- Trinity Episcopal Church, Hartford -- April 16
- the Cathedral of St. Philip, Atlanta -- April 18
- and the Church of the Incarnation, Dallas -- April 19
The tour choir will consist of the complete, full-time ensemble from Canterbury: eighteen boys between the ages of 8 and 12 years, twelve lay clerks (men's voices), Mr. Flood and Organist Andrew Bryden.
A performing organization with an international reputation for high standards, the Canterbury Cathedral Choir is the resident musical ensemble for the spiritual seat of the 70 million-member worldwide Anglican Communion that reaches into more than 160 countries. As the birthplace of English Christianity, and the church home to 103 Archbishops of the Anglican Church, Canterbury Cathedral has become sacred to pilgrims as an international shrine.
The Cathedral's appeal extends beyond religious interests to English literature with Geoffrey Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales" and T.S. Eliot's "Murder in the Cathedral". The walled City of Canterbury is one of Britain's centerpieces of medieval history and, along with the Cathedral, is one of its most popular tourist destinations hosting some 3 million visitors per year.
Under David Flood's leadership, the Canterbury Cathedral Choir has conducted critically acclaimed tours in Europe and North America -- including a highly successful tour of the U.S. and Canada in 1994. In 1997, the Choir celebrated the 1400th anniversary of the arrival of St Augustine in Canterbury with concerts in Rome and throughout France. That same year, Mr. Flood and the Cathedral hosted an American Children's Choir Festival with over 400 participants; they will repeat the event in 1999.
Canterbury Organist and Master of the Choristers David Flood received his musical training as an Organ Scholar of St John's College, Oxford, and through additional postgraduate work at Clare College, Cambridge. He was appointed Assistant Organist at Canterbury Cathedral in 1978, serving under Allan Wicks, and assumed the position of Organist and Master of the Choristers at Lincoln Cathedral in 1986. Two years later he returned to Canterbury to succeed Dr. Wicks, who was retiring. Mr. Flood is responsible for leading the Cathedral's extensive music program of daily sung services, special concerts and programs as well as the festive occasions of the church. Such occasions have included the enthronement of the Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey, and last summer's Lambeth Conference -- the worldwide gathering of bishops in the Anglican Communion held once a decade. Next July, David Flood will be part of the conducting team for the famed Berkshire Choral Festival in western Massachusetts.
Tickets for the U.S. concerts of the Canterbury Cathedral Choir tour are $25, $20 and $15 general admission, and may be charged by phone (all major credit cards) via a toll-free tour hotline (800-874-9330) or on the World Wide Web at http://www.stewartgrp.com/canterbury/, beginning January 2. Tickets may also be purchased by cash or check locally through the host venues, except Chicago. For Canadian concert tickets, contact the host venues.
The tour is under the joint management of Reputation Management, a marketing/communication strategies firm in Cambridge, Mass., and MTS Travel of Lancaster County, PA, a leader in the group travel and tour management industry.