THE ARMED MAN, the hugely popular Mass for Peace by Karl Jenkins, will be the opening concert of this years’ Exon Singers Festival, which takes place in Tavistock from 27th July to 1st August. The Armed Man will be the first in a series of Festival Evenings, which include an Organ Recital by Andrew Lumsden,
Read moreTHE EXON SINGERS is recognised as one of the UK’s leading chamber choirs. Founded in 1966, it has become renowned for its dynamic and expressive performances of music from the Renaissance to the present day.
The Exon Singers can often be heard on BBC Radios 3 and 4 and on CD. In January 2009 the choir completed a disc of previously unrecorded music by Philip Moore on the Regent Records label, which will be released in March 2010. Philip Moore was the choir’s Festival Composer in Residence in 2008, having then recently retired as Organist and Master of the Music at York Minster. Hot on the heels of this recording is a second disc with Regent, of music by Philip Wilby, recorded in December 2009 and to be released in 2011. Previous recordings by the choir include critically acclaimed discs with the Delphian label, of music by Howard Skempton, Dr Francis Jackson, and in 2004 a first recording of a reconstruction of Vespers by Tomás Luis de Victoria.
Under the direction of Matthew Owens, the choir has received considerable recognition for its commitment to commissioning new works from some of today’s most exciting composers – Richard Allain, David Briggs, Grayston Ives, Francis Jackson, Gabriel Jackson, Howard Skempton, Philip Moore and Philip Wilby. The choir is looking forward to welcoming Joseph Phibbs as Composer in Residence for the 2010 Tavistock Festival. Since 1973, the annual Exon Singers Festival has been based in the historic market town of Tavistock on the edge of Dartmoor, and includes the venues of Tavistock Parish Church and Buckfast Abbey.
