The Gents wish you all a happy and successful New Year! We’ve got plans for gigs and concerts galore, a CD to release and a Garden Party to plan! Our first resolution for 2012 is to reach the heady heights of 1000 followers on our Facebook page. We’re at 985 as of today, so only a few to go! Here’s the link: http://on.fb.me/u144Lq
Sorry we’ve been away so long! Here’s our latest video (thanks to Varsitv) from our concert at the Maypole on November 30th to get you into the festive mood! You’ll find a lot of the tracks on our CD, A Gentle Christmas.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8E_oA5-J-iY
We’ve got loads planned for next year, including a Lent concert in St John’s College Chapel. Watch this space for more information.
Merry Christmas everyone!
The Gents will be singing a concert at Burghley House on 1st October 2011 in celebration of the College’s Quincentenary this year. This is a return visit for us (we last performed there in November 2010) and is particularly special because Lady Margaret Beaufort, the founder of our College, was Lady of Deeping (nearby). William Cecil, who built Burghley House, was also a Johnian.
The concert is in aid of Cancer Research. For further information, including information on how to purchase tickets, please download the flyer.
St John’s College is celebrating a rather special birthday this year: its Quincentenary. Founded on the 9th April 1511 by the executors of Lady Margaret Beaufort, the College is 500 years old in 2011. To celebrate, the Gents will be singing a special Compline in Chapel on the 3rd March at 10pm, to which all (not just members of College) are welcome. The service will be a reconstruction of what might have been heard at Compline in 1511; entirely in Latin, and featuring only music written before 1511.
Further details, including music, to follow. For now, just save the date for what promises to be a memorable journey back to the earliest days of the College.
Who said Christmas comes at the end of December? In Cambridge it certainly doesn’t – with less than two weeks left of term, ‘Cambridge Christmas’ will soon be in full swing all over the university, and the Gents are no exception!
We’ve got two performances lined up, both of which have now become a staple of our wintry calendar.
The Maypole Gig
On Wednesday 1st of December at 9pm, the Gents will be singing a set at our favourite haunt, the Maypole Pub. The place will be packed out so, even though we start singing at 9pm, it’s a good idea to get there early so you’ve got a chance to grab a good seat and a glass of the Maypole’s legendary mulled wine. Wrap up warm, too! Here’s a taste of what to expect from a Maypole gig two years ago:
Chapel Concert
For the third year running, the Gents will also be putting on a free concert in our own chapel at St John’s College on Monday 6th December at 12.10pm. This will have a broader range of music than the Maypole performance, taking you all the way from the Renaissance to Wham! We’ll be donating a retiring collection and 10% of all CDs sold at this concert to CLIC Sargent, a wonderful charity that does incredible work with children and young people suffering from cancer. The concert will be short – less than an hour long – giving you plenty of time to escape back to work or Christmas shopping in the afternoon. Do come and support us if you can!
Christmas CDs
Last year the Gents released a new Christmas CD – A Gentle Christmas – to critical acclaim. The CD will be available for sale at all our events, and can also be ordered through our website using the link above.
On 3rd October, the Gents will be singing a programme from Renaissance polyphony to the Beatles at St Mary Magdalene Church in Geddington, Northamptonshire. It’s the last chance to hear us before we start work in Cambridge for another term, so do join us if you can.
Tickets are £8, including wine and light refreshments at the interval, and are available from Robert Wooton at rwwootton@talktalk.net.