Members of Ishirini feature in BBC documentary

Members of Ishirini were filmed on the 22nd of February in Abney Park as part of a BBC documentary about Isaac Watts, to be broadcast over Easter.

Abney Park to host international choir

See the article previewing our forthcoming concert in Abney Park in the Hackney Post.

£1000 raised for Kathmandu University Music Department

We're so grateful to our audience in Teddington at Sunday's concert for helping us to raise £1000 through ticket sales and donations. This will be a huge help to the music department as they find new buildings after last year's earthquake. 

Tour to Nepal Easter 2016

We are very happy to announce our plans to visit Nepal in Easter 2016. We hope to collaborate with students from Kathmandu University Music Department - the only university in South Asia to offer an ethnomusicology degree, as well as pupils from Hindu Vidyapeeth school in Patan, Kathmandu. We also plan a second leg in the mountains near Pokhara. For any further information or to suggest any contacts that might be interested in working together with us please contact Jo: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. 

Vespers underway

On Sunday we met in Bedford School to start rehearsals for the Monteverdi Vespers. We're very grateful to the school for their wonderful facilities, and very much looking forward to putting it together with instruments in a couple of weeks!

Another warm reception in Netherbury

 We were very pleased to return to St Mary's, Netherbury, and to welcome Eastertide one day early with our programme of Passiontide and Easter music. 

Rejoicing at Corpus

Ishirini are very grateful to the Master and Fellows of Corpus Christi Cambridge for allowing us to sing our programme of carols from the sixteenth century to the present day in their beautiful chapel. The choir continued to enjoy the facilities at Corpus as we and our guests had our Christmas dinner in the hall!

Rejoicing at Corpus (2)

Ishirini are very grateful to the Master and Fellows of Corpus Christi Cambridge for allowing us to sing our programme of carols from the sixteenth century to the present day in their beautiful chapel. The choir continued to enjoy the facilities at Corpus as we and our guests had our Christmas dinner in the hall!

Musica en las Montañas

We've just returned from a wonderful 5 days in La Alpujarra where we were looked after royally by the staff of the Hotel Poquiera in Capileira, and Cat Jary, founder and organiser of the Musica en las Montañas festival. 

We were overwhelmed with the numbers and warm response of the audience for our three concerts in Capileira, Salobreña and Pitres, and were very touched by the welcome extended by the archbishop in Granada cathedral, where we sang for the Feast of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary on the 15th of August. 

There's a blog post about our concert in Pitres on Saturday on the La Taha municipal website here.

St Mary's packed for an English Passion

We thoroughly enjoyed our concert on Saturday. Ishirini were joined by the Chamber Players Baroque and soloists from Genesis Sixteen to sing Bach's St John Passion in English. The Evangelist, Tom Kelly, told the story with an effortless panache and the baroque instruments accompanied with feeling and verve. The church was packed and we must extend our heartfelt thanks to Sarah Butcher for all her hard work in organising it. 

St John Passion in Welwyn

Our next concert is on Saturday!

The St John Passion is one of the most extraordinary works of the eighteenth century; please join us for a very special evening of music making.

We will be accompanied by The Chamber Players Baroque, which is led by Alison Bury and includes members of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Gabrieli Consort and English Baroque soloists. Soloists are from the ranks of The Sixteen.

Stoke Newington Contemporary Music Festival

The second annual contemporary music festival in Stoke Newington will take place in Old St. Mary's Church from the 1st to the 3rd of November, 2013.

Ishirini will be performing an afternoon concert on the 3rd of November, and will be featuring several of the pieces we have commissioned for previous tours.

More details coming soon. 

Ishirini in Walton-on-Thames

Ishirini will be performing in Walton-on-Thames on the 14th of April. For full details of our programme and how to buy tickets, please see the concert page. 

August festival with Palestinian choirs

Ishirini is delighted to be joining the Palestinian Choral Festival in August. Organised by the Choir of London, who have extensive experience in the region, the week-long festival will feature a number of visiting and local choirs, ending with a gala joint performance. 

More details coming soon...

Tour report from Jordan

Our recent trip to Jordan was hugely enjoyable. We joined forces with choirs from Syria, Jordan and UAE working together to produce a sold-out concert in Amman on the final night which featured music from each individual choir as well as pieces that we had learnt together in various workshops around Jordan under the direction of Professor Andre de Quadros and Shireen Abu-Khader.

The number of different locations we sang in was striking - they included workshops under canvas in Wadi Rum:

in the desert against the 'wall of sound':

and some spontaneous singing by Ishirini in the South Theatre in Jerash: 

We look forward to renewing the friendships made on the tour in future collaborations with the choirs who joined Aswatuna, as well as to returning to the fabulous country of Jordan. We'll add more photos to a new Jordan gallery soon. (Photos from top © Tom White, Aswatuna, Jo Willmott, Chris Maddock, Nicola Goldberg).

Aswatuna preview

This video gives an explanation behind the Aswatuna: Arab Sing concert that Ishirini will join in just a few days time. 

£800 raised for Cancer Research

We are delighted that proceeds from ticket sales and donations after our concert in Stanford-in-the-Vale raised £800 for Cancer Research. Many thanks to Joyce and Philippa Gardner for all their work in making that possible. 

Extremely warm welcome from Strzyżówski choir

We have just returned from a short trip to Poland, organised by our partner choir from Strzyżów. The two choirs joined forces for two concerts in Rzeszów and Kraków where we sang some of our own repertoire as well as some joint pieces including the new commission written specially for the tour by choir-member Owen Leech.

We are very grateful for all the help given to us by the members of Strzyżówski Choir, and were very impressed by how quickly they adapted to singing with us. We were also very impressed by the warmth of their reception and their encyclopaedic knowledge of songs which made the post-concert parties go with a swing! 

The choir very much enjoyed our brief visit to Poland, taking in the salt-mines at Bochnia, the splendour of the Mariacki church in Kraków and the cafés on the beautiful town square in Rzeszów as well as singing in two concerts and a service in just 4 days. 

New commission for Poland

Owen Leech is currently writing our latest commission, to be performed on our forthcoming tour to Poland. 

The piece will set a poem by E. E. Cummings in English and Polish, using the translation by Polish poet Julia Hartwig. 

Music of two Elizabeths for Diamond Jubilee

The concert programme at Madingley on June 3rd will celebrate the Diamond Jubilee with music from the ages of both Elizabeths including a new commission by Madingley's musician in residence, Tim Watts.