Cambridge University Chamber Choir (CUCC) aims to provide the best student singers with the opportunity to perform, to the highest possible standard, repertoire that is not usually undertaken by Cambridge chapel choirs. Directed by Martin Ennis, with associate conductors David Lowe and Nicholas Mulroy, it typically undertakes three or four projects a year.
CUCC often places an emphasis on secular music rather than sacred, and it often foregrounds repertoire that allows singers to appear as soloists or in small groups. However, the choir also performs on a regular basis with groups such as Cambridge University Orchestra and the Faculty of Music’s Collegium Musicum (a period-instrument ensemble directed by Margaret Faultless). CUCC members are also frequently offered opportunities to take part in projects involving multiple choirs.
The chamber choir is a fantastic opportunity for experienced singers who are looking to work in a more intimate environment or on a project basis. Through choosing such a diverse range of repertoire, the ensemble takes the university’s best choral singers and helps them achieve standards that exceed their expectations. Recent highlights have included participation in an international festival of sacred music in Yale, collaborations with the Cambridge University Orchestra in works by Vaughan Williams, Nielsen, Stravinsky and Brahms, pioneering performances of Venetian polychoral music, and participation in The Cardinall’s Musick’s 25th-anniversary performance of Tallis’ Spem in Alium.
Auditions typically take place at the start of the academic year, though expressions of interest from experienced singers are always welcome. Those wishing to audition are asked to prepare one short solo; they will also be asked to undertake sight-reading and aural tests. For more information on the choir, please contact Katharine Ambrose.
2020-21 Season:
We are delighted that the Chamber Choir and Collegium Musicum are planning a joint concert on Saturday 23 January 2021, directed by Maggie Faultless and Nick Mulroy.
The programme and rehearsal schedule are as follows:
Choir and members of Collegium
Purcell Let mine eyes run down with tears
BWV 150 Bach Cantata
Collegium only
Corelli opus 6 no 4 D major
Maddalena Sirmen Violin Concerto
Chamber Choir/Collegium Musicum rehearsal schedule
West Road Concert Hall for all rehearsals and the concert
18 Jan 7pm – 10pm
20 Jan 7pm – 10pm
22 Jan 7pm – 10pm
23 Jan 2pm – 5pm plus 2 x 1 hour concerts 7pm & 9pm
The choir will be just 8 singers due to a Covid-19 limit of performers on West Road stage
Second concert
The Choir hopes to perform a Brahms concert directed by Martin Ennis in the Easter term and hopefully this will involve more singers.
AUDITIONS
The auditions for the Chamber Choir will be on-line and the deadline for submission is Monday 7 December, 9am.
Your audition can be any piece between 1.5 minutes – 3 minutes (video, or just audio).
When you email your link to the video please give me the following information:
Your college
If you sing in a chapel choir
Singing experience
Confirmation that you are free for the concert and all the rehearsal dates or if you only wish to be considered for the Brahms concert.
Video instructions
Please make a video recording of your audition and upload it to Youtube as an unlisted video.
You then need to send the link to your video to Chloe Davidson ( ) no later than 7 December, 9am. Your video title should look something like ‘Chloe Davidson – soprano, University of Cambridge Chamber Choir Audition’.
Ensure that your camera angle gives a clear view of you, and adjust your microphone levels to avoid distortion if possible. If you record more than one piece, you need to then stitch them together so that you just send us one video
Your audition video will be watched and discussed by the panel, and then we will be in touch as to whether you have been successful.
2019-20 Programme:
On Saturday 18 January 2020, the choir joined forces with some of Cambridge’s top College choirs for Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony , conducted by Andrew Gourlay in King’s College Chapel.
On Tuesday 3 March 2020, members of the Chamber Choir will perform as part of the Cambridge University Lunchtime Concert series with players from Cambridge University Collegium Musicum, directed by Nicholas Mulroy, in West Road.
On Thursday 23 April 2020, the choir will perform secular works by Brahms, directed by Martin Ennis, as part of the Cambridge Brahms Festival, in Robinson College Chapel.