Portugal 2023
4th - 11th April 2023
Lisbon & Porto
Ishirini visited Portugal in April 2023, singing a programme of music by Portuguese and other European composers, reflecting and celebrating the cross.
Scotland 2022
9th - 15th April 2022
Glasgow, Oban, Argyll & Iona
Ishirini visited Scotland in April 2022, singing Passiontide music in beautiful locations.
Ethiopia 2019
6th - 16th April 2019
Ethiopia: Addis Ababa, Lalibela, Gondar
Ishirini visited Ethiopia in April 2019, performing concerts and collaborating with local musicians.
Florence 2018
25th-27th August 2018
Florence, Italy
Singing music associated with Florence, including some pieces from the Medici Codex and some associated with Savonarola, Ishirini performed in Orsanmichele church, the Museo di San Marco and the Biblioteca Laurenziana.
Georgia 2017
24th - 31st August 2017
Georgia: Tbilisi, Mestia
Ishirini visited Georgia in August 2017, performing concerts and services and collaborating with local musicians.
Ethiopia tour blog 2019
The blog for our tour to Ethiopia in April 2019.
15th April 2019
We’ve spent the day with the pupils at St George’s School, just round the corner from our hotel. We divided into 6 groups and went into the 6 different year groups, teaching songs and playing musical games. We had a tasty school lunch and then performed a concert, singing some of our pieces set to secular words, then leading the different groups in a song each and finishing with a whole school performance of One World, One Voice, One Heart Beating led by Rachel Waite. The classes were big but the children very responsive and the language of music allowed us to communicate with each other. We’re very grateful to Nicky Williams, Director of Education there, for giving us this great opportunity.
14th April 2019
We head into town to visit the main sites. In three separate groups we visit Fasil Ghebbi, the Royal Enclosure, Debre Berhan Selassie and Fasiladas’ Baths: World Heritage Castles, a Church protected by swarms of bees with biblical stories in frescoes on its ceilings, and King Fasil’s summer house, whose pool is visited at Epiphany by tens of thousands of pilgrims. We join to sing in the pool at the end of a long hot day before retiring to a wonderful meal at Four Sisters Restaurant.
13th April 2019
After a morning exploring the market or visiting St George’s church or relaxing in the hotel we take the short flight to Gonder. We recover in the afternoon, in the hotel pool or a bar in town.
12th April 2019
In the morning half of the group travel to Yemrehanna Kristos monastery, enjoying more views from the bus and then a great walk up to this church in a cave. We arrive back to rest before a concert in the architecturally stunning Ben Abeba restaurant where we keep singing despite strong winds.
11th April 2019
A day of exploring the rock- hewn churches in Lalibela. We are lucky to catch some chanting at some of them. While we had hoped to be allowed to sing in them, we don’t want to cause any offence, and in any case it is great to hear the music that is used in them every day rather than our pieces.
10th April 2019
We left first thing for the airport, for our flight to Lalibela. After a short flight and a windy bus ride through the countryside, spotting birds, animals and houses being built in stunning scenery we arrived at Maribela Hotel, our home for the next few days. We are warmly welcomed with juice and petals on the floor, and go off to our rooms to relax for the rest of the day. Sadly a few more of us have come down with a stomach bug so we take things gently.
9th April 2019
Tonight’s concert in the City Hall was really special. After a day spent doing a variety of activities ranging from wandering through Africa’s largest market in Mercato, to enjoying the geothermal pools at the Hilton, Ishirini joined Polyphonic Voices and Ethiopia Peace choir in a one-of-a-kind event. The venue was packed out and the audience warmly welcomed us to the stage, first individually and then jointly. Our amazing baritone soloist, Adrian Collister, was sadly ill, but our stand-ins Tom Allwood and Gareth Moss stepped effortlessly into his shoes. We are all buzzing - proud and grateful to have been a part of this truly visionary occasion. Pictures coming soon!
8th April 2019
We headed straight to the Ethnological Museum for our concert. Part of the Institute of Ethiopian Studies, the building is Haile Selassie’s former palace - we performed in the Empress’ bedroom to a small but appreciative audience. The quartet for the Britten Hymn to the Virgin needed to be separate from the rest of the choir so removed themselves to the bathroom! After the concert we enjoyed visiting the museum before heading to the City Hall to meet Polyphonic Voices, Peace Choir and their conductor Renata Dworak Berlin for the first time. The concert tomorrow is very unusual for various reasons and has been a massive undertaking for Renata and her team. We shared dinner with the Peace Choir and enjoyed hearing the piece coming together. Looking forward to the performance tomorrow!
7th April 2019
Today we had a relaxed start and then rehearsal in the hotel. After a break for lunch we headed to Holy Trinity Cathedral, the second most religious place in Ethiopia as well as the site of Sylvia Pankhurst’s grave. St Matthews was just round the corner, and after a brief rehearsal in situ we gave our Christus Vincit concert. The audience were very appreciative. One audience member said “This is so unusual for us, we soaked it up. I thought, this is what it will sound like in heaven!”.
(©️ Gareth Moss)
6th April 2019
We’re here in Addis Ababa! All but 2 of us enjoyed a barbecue in the beautiful garden of Freddie and Zoe Carver, our original link to Ethiopia and a great help in our preparations. Looking forward to singing and our first concert tomorrow.
4th April 2019
Bags packed... arrangements in place... we’re on our way! Very much looking forward to the tour.
17th Feb 2019
Great concert in Teddington! Feels like the tour is really happening now. Thanks to the Jacobs family, all the staff at the churches and our great audience!
Egypt tour blog 2024
The blog for our tour to Egypt 31st March-7th April 2024
6th April
The Pyramids! We explore the massive site independently and join together for lunch at Khufu’s restaurant. The view can’t be bettered, and the food is a very classy version of the Egyptian staples we’ve been enjoying over the last week.
5th April
We leave on the bus for the American University in Cairo’s New Cairo complex for a day in the recording studio! After a tour of the beautiful though deserted campus from John Baboukis (it’s the weekend, and during Ramadan - we don’t see a single student out on the campus), we get started on a 3-hour session, expertly directed by David Rafferty. The students and members of faculty are all very kindly giving up their time at the weekend to help us. We are very pleased to be able to work again with Dr Wael and John Baboukis on qanun, this time joined by a talented riqq player (a kind of tambourine) - and Nouran Khalil joins us from Cairo Choral Society to sing the verses of the monophonic version of Lamaa Badaa, also giving us expert tips on pronunciation!
4th April
Today many of us explore the mosque, synagogue and many churches of Coptic Cairo, meeting for lunch in Restaurant el Khan. We regather at the AUC campus off Tahrir Square for a rehearsal and sound-check at 7 (after a bite to eat in its peaceful gardens), before our concert - a late start of 9pm due to Ramadan. It’s a really memorable performance - we start the concert with some of our English and Latin repertoire at the front of the stage, then join the ranks of the Cairo Choral Society to perform monophonic versions of Lamaa Badaa and El Helwa-Di followed by SATB arrangements by ourselves. Cairo Choral Society sing a short set by themselves and we finish off tutti with Fauré’s Cantique de Jean Racine and the Kyrie and Gloria from Schubert’s Mass in G.
3rd April
Most of us spend the morning exploring the mosques and souqs of Islamic Cairo, coming together for lunch in the Naguib Mahfouz café in Khan el Khalili. In the evening we make our way to the Tahrir Square campus of the American University where we meet our collaborators, John Baboukis and his choir, the Cairo Choral society. Dr Wael plays some intricate qanun accompaniments to our Arabic pieces along with John, and accompanied by Mehmad Mamdouh on tabla. The Ewart Hall is a wonderful performance venue - once performed in by Toscanini, as John tells us!
2nd April
We bid a sad farewell to Anafora, having first visited its souvenir shop and its marvellous big church, currently being painted by a Finnish lady the nuns call Mother. She and her 2 apprentices have spent the last 11 years covering every inch of the inside and outside of the walls with parables and episodes from the Old and New Testament. Our upper voices sing Poulenc’s Tota Pulchra Es to say thank you to our fabulous host, Sister Maria, who has looked after us all marvellously. We head to Cairo and are pleased to find our home for the next 5 or more nights in the complex of All Saint’s cathedral. Some of us squeeze in a visit to the Egyptian Museum before reconvening for another feast at Abdou El Sid restaurant.
1st April
A packed day! We visit three of the Coptic monasteries in Wadi Natrun. We are delighted to be given permission to sing in all three - Bishoy, Syrian and Makarios. Each one has a different feel.
In the first, we sing the Kyrie from Byrd’s 4 part mass in the main nave of the ancient church, founded by St Bishoy in 340 AD. In the 2nd we have a wonderful and extensive tour , including St. Bishoy’s original cell, and some fascinating explanations of the layers of different frescoes, the door of prophecy, and the recent discoveries made by scholars from Leiden University. We sing the Byrd Agnus Dei in the frescoed altar.
In the third we have a brief but very warm tour, where the monk explains the Coptic language and their daily routine and answers some of our questions (he could confirm to the children that they also celebrated Easter by eating chocolate!).
He sang a chant, accompanied by cymbal, and we sang Clemens non Papa Ego Flos Campi in the main nave. On our return to Anafora we had a short break followed by our main rehearsal of the tour.
We then had dinner in the fabulous Anafora communal dining area. After dinner we attended Anafora’s daily evening prayer in their church. This was packed with devotees kneeling and sitting facing the altar. The service was entirely chanted, led by a priest also facing the altar. There was a joint hymn accompanied by guitar at the end after which we sang the Byrd Benedictus and Joanna L’Estrange’s Drop, Drop, Slow Tears to the light of some mobile phones. We finished the day with a roaring bonfire lit by Sister Maria.
31st March
We leave on the bus for Alexandria. It’s a smooth journey until we reach the city outskirts, but we finally see the sea and the Corniche, and have lunch in Rooftop Restaurant. We explore independently in the afternoon, taking in the views and the sights and regather in Teatro Eskendria where we have a feast, and do our first singing after our meal to thank the staff.
30th March
We’ve arrived! On various different flights, and with more or less complicated journeys, we arrive in Anafora. For those of us who arrive in the dark it’s a mysterious place, lit mainly by candle. We have a very tasty dinner.
24th and 25th February 2024
It was great to meet up and rehearse the repertoire for the tour in St. Paul’s West Hackney, and a real privilege to sing some of our pieces in a lovely meditative service on Sunday. Thanks to Niall Weir and all the team for their warm welcome! We look forward to our next visit. Next stop, Cairo! 
Dāphā at Dattatreya Temple
A highlight of the tour to Nepal was the opportunity to sing in a Hindu temple in Bhaktapur, near Kathmandu. This was made possible with the help of Professor Richard Widdess, who has spent many years conducting ethnomusicological research into dāphā, the choral music sung there.
Richard introduced the choir to a piece of dāphā music as part of our pre-tour concert in Teddington in February 2016. Through Richard's presentation of just one piece, He Shiva Bhairava, we gained an understanding of the history, language, religion and architecture of the place as well as the music. We performed the piece as part of our concert, surely the first time that the music has been heard sung live in the UK. We were then very keen to hear an authentic performance on our visit to Bhaktapur.
Usually tourists admire the Dattatreya Temple from the outside; thanks to our musical introduction we were welcomed into the building and even initiated into the temple as members. As the sun set, we took our places sat on one side of the temple pavilion, and the regular choir took theirs on the other side. Those of us singing in the ceremony were given wreaths, annointed with red tikkas and given rice by women beautifully dressed in red saris. The temple was surrounded by locals, intrigued by the number of visitors. The instruments were blessed and the ceremony began.
The local choir first sang a number of pieces, including He Shiva Bhairava. Then it was our turn. Closely watched over by Shamsher Praden, Richard’s research assistant and our guide for the day, as well as Buddha Lal, a local musician, experienced in the complicated rhythmic structure of dāphā music, we sang the piece, aware we were not singing it perfectly but enjoying the experience of singing it in its intended location and as part of the intended ceremony. The local choir applauded our efforts and the ceremony continued, with more music, an offering of yoghurt and the presentation of Richard’s book to the local members of the temple.
This was an unforgettable, unrepeatable experience for the choir and we’re very grateful to the members of the temple, Shamsher Praden and Professor Widdess for making it possible. Ishirini was set up to share our musical tradition with others; through Richard's involvement with our tour we were able to have a truly two-way conversation, performing the music of another culture in situ.
28th March - 6th April 2016
Nepal: Patan, Bhaktapur, Kathmandu, Pokhara
Ishirini performed in various locations in Nepal, collaborating with university music students and schoolchildren and raising money for the Kathmandu University Music Department.
Nepal tour blog 2016
4th April: Village school/Green Pastures Hospital
Our last day together as a choir! We made our way to the nearby village school where 15 children and three teachers had come into school during their holidays to hear us. It was a very basic school with minimal resources. Ros and Alice did some great songs with them in the heat of the sun and Jeremy got them conducting us sing Os Justi. In the afternoon we took a bus back down the hill to Green Pastures hospital, the first missionary hospital established in Nepal with beautiful grounds. They specialise in patients with leprosy and spinal cord injuries; our concert was in the physiotherapy room surrounded by strange machines - our first decent acoustic! The audience of staff and patients responded to our music by singing a Nepali song - we'll have to learn it for our next visit!
3rd April: Free day in Pokhara
Ishwor took us on a 'jungle walk' down to the lake and put us on boats to get to the other side of the lake where we variously rode bikes, visited museums, shopped, organised our treks and chilled out in cafés.
2nd April: Flight to Pokhara/World Peace Pagoda
It was a very short time in the air, but we had a good view of the mountains above the clouds. The air is noticeably cleaner, and there's a much more rural feel - we saw fields and cows on our drive from the airport. The road up to the hotel got less and less paved, bringing us finally to a wonderful view over Phewa Lake. After lunch we headed to the World Peace Pagoda, where Ishwor, the manager of Siddhartha Garden Ayurveda, had arranged for us to perform. It was a ten minute walk, but concert shoes were a mistake, particularly as we had to take them off in the pagoda anyway! It was the most amazing setting. Our audience came and went as we looked out over the foothills of the Annapurna range, finishing with Tavener's Lord Prayer sung while walking round the stupa.
1st April: Boudhanath/German Embassy
We spent a calm few hours wandering round the stupa at Boudhanath, sadly missing its top, but still a fascinating place full of Buddhist culture and devotees.
We then headed across town to the German Embassy for the evening's concert. After a rousing introduction from the Master Drummers of Bhaktapur in the Ambassador's beautiful gardens, there were speeches from the German Ambassador, Lochan Rijal from the music department and the Vice Chancellor of the university. We then had a chance to meet some of the audience who had been invited to the fundraising concert from various embassies and cultural and other organisations before more drumming. We presented our contribution to the fundraising effort (the $1800 raised in Teddington and Welwyn) and started our set with Prof Wegner's piece, where the two halves of the choir represented two human tanburas (drones) accompanying a bravura performance on the tabla by Abhaya Shrestha. We then continued with pieces by Mendelssohn, Bruckner, Dove, and Tavener, trying to make the best use of the unusual performance space with a number of different positions. The audience were very appreciative and there was a very supportive atmosphere towards the rebuilding project of the department. We really hope that people were inspired to support the department in their important work protecting and extending the musical heritage of the country.
31st March: Hindu Vidyapeeth
We had an incredibly warm welcome from the students and staff at Hindu Vidyapeeth. The children were very excited to see us (maybe the approaching holidays helped too!), and there was a lot of enthusiastic singing and chatting as well as an extremely tasty daal bhat.
An unexpected downpour didn't dampen spirits and a new plan was quickly made. The concert started with some gorgeous dancing and singing from the children, followed by the Tagore arrangement which all the children had learnt, some of our repertoire on the theme of prayer, and finished off by a gospel medley which got everyone singing and dancing. The day was rounded off with a very tasty Spanish tapas meal.
30th March: Bhaktapur
It's going to be difficult to sum this up in a short blog post. Bhaktapur is a totally captivating town, and you could spend weeks exploring it without discovering all its sights. We had a short time there but saw the rural location of the music department - still so beautiful in spite of its damaged buildings. We became human drones and learnt about Nepali classical music the best way possible - by singing a piece ourselves, led by our soloists, Buddha Lal and Abhay and the head of the department Lochan.
We had a tasty lunch overlooking Nayatapul square full of pagodas, temples, bells, goats. We had a brief tour taking in Potters' Square, the Royal Palace and a Buddhist monastery.
And we became members of the Dattatreya temple so that we could be eligible to sing dapha music as part of their ceremony. Women in beautiful costumes anointed us with tikkas, gave us flowers and rice before we heard the local choir sing several songs and then did our own version.
It was an amazing experience to feel part of the ceremony with so many onlookers and smiles. All made possible by the guiding and organising of the tireless Shamsher. An amazing day.
29th March: Exploring
A great day exploring the Durbar squares of Patan and Kathmandu and ending up with a very tasty meal in Thamel House Restaurant. We squeezed in a couple of hours of rehearsal too, as well as some time by the hotel pool!
28th March: A choir comes together
By 6 pm we were all safely arrived, enjoying a tasty dinner at the Summit hotel, having taken a surprising variety of routes to get here (via Bangladesh, India, Turkey, Oman etc).
A freak thunder storm cleared the air, giving us great views of the Himalayas from the hotel.
26th March: Almost ready to leave
Getting packed...
25th March: Schedule finalised
Thanks to a huge amount of organisation and kindness by friends and contacts in Nepal the schedule is finalised enough to share with the choir. We are looking forward to workshops at the university, singing in a temple, a concert at a school, the German Embassy and the World Peace pagoda, as well as visits to a school and hospital in Pokhara. Exciting!
22nd February: The journey begins...
Our pre-tour concert in Teddington went really well and it was great to meet the whole choir finally! Really grateful to Richard Widdess - through teaching us a single piece, he gave us an understanding of the history, language, religion and architecture of the place as well as the music, so our visit to Bhaktapur will now mean a lot more.
27th December: Dreaming up a theme
Our Christmas job is thinking of a theme for the music that we'll sing in Nepal. We decide on Prayer, thinking of the gorgeous prayer flags seen all over Nepal, and the beautiful music that it will allow us to sing.
20th December: Green light
Excited to hear from Richard Widdess who has just visited Bhaktapur. He confirms that a tour will be possible so we inform the choir that it will be goin