St Michael's has a small yet vibrant and friendly SATB mixed choir. The choir is robed and sings for Sunday services and Vespers during the week. Feast Days and special services are also sung throughout the year.
The choir's repertoire is wide-ranging from Plainchant, Renaissance Polyphony, Baroque and Romantic styles, through to contemporary settings. Plainsong Propers, sung from the English Gradual, are a particular feature of the music and liturgy at St Michael's and are sung for all services.
Traditionally, Choral Scholarships are awarded annually, primarily in association with the Exeter University Chapel choir. The choir may also be hired for weddings, baptisms and funerals and other heritage events through the city of Exeter and beyond. Concerts and recitals are traditionally part of the annual pattern of music making for members of the choir here.
New members are warmly welcomed and a good ear and sight-reading skills are highly desirable. Choir members are also required to undertake online safeguarding training (CofE level C0) within three months of joining the choir.
St Michael's Organist is Matthew Clark and Tasha Goldsworth is the choir's Director of Music. For more information see the Music Team page.
Social Events ~ Camaraderie and companionship are an enjoyable feature of singing with the choir with social activities a natural by-product of membership. The choir takes part in annual events such as the exchange visit to the National trust at Tyntesfield in North Somerset. Members of the choir have sung at the Opening Service of the Devon County Show and also for the BBC Radio Devon Carol Service in Exeter Cathedral. Members of the choir are also affiliated with In Ecclesia and other vocal ensembles, which sing Choral Evensong at Cathedrals and Abbeys across the British Isles.
Tours ~ During the summer months, the choir has toured both at home and abroad. Locally, the choir has sung services and given recitals in churches in Devon and on Dartmoor, in association with the Churches Conservation Trust. Further afield, tours have included Yorkshire, Wales, Norfolk, Dorset -Fulda in Germany and we hosted an Anglo-Belgian choral collaboration in 2014.
Choir Practice ~ Tuesdays at 19:00 -20.30 and on Sundays at 10:00 – 10:45 am before Sung Mass at 11:00.
Image below ~
The choir in the Chapel at NT Tyntesfield, Somerset. © William Finnigan, 2019
Music List November 2021 - January 2022