imported>Qwfp: Updated short description

2024-07-23T18:05:35Z

Updated short description

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{{Short description|Choir}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{More citations needed|date=June 2020}}
{{Infobox musical artist
| name = Crouch End Festival Chorus
| image = CEFCwithMD.jpg
| caption = CEFC with [[Music director|musical director]], [[David Temple]]
| image_size = 
| landscape = yes
| origin = [[Crouch End]], [[London]], England
| instrument = [[choir|choral]]
| genre = [[Classical music|Classical]], [[popular music]], [[soundtrack]], [[film score]]
| years_active = 1984–present
| label = Silva Screen, [[Chandos Records]], [[Signum Records]]
| website = http://www.cefc.org.uk
}}


'''Crouch End Festival Chorus''' ('''CEFC''') is a symphonic choir based in north London which performs in a range of musical styles, including traditional choral repertoire, contemporary classical, rock, pop and film music.

Led by musical director [[David Temple]], the choir has appeared in the [[BBC Proms]] concert series and has performed under the baton of conductors including [[Esa-Pekka Salonen|Esa Pekka-Salonen]], [[Semyon Bychkov (conductor)|Semyon Bychkov]], [[Edward Gardner (conductor)|Edward Gardner]] and [[Valery Gergiev]]. CEFC also features on the sound track of films and TV series such as Disney's ''[[The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian|Prince Caspian]],'' the BBC's ''[[Doctor Who]]'' and [[Amazon Prime Video]]'s [[Good Omens (TV series)|Good Omens]] TV series.

CEFC's patrons include the conductor [[Mark Elder|Sir Mark Elder]], bass-baritone [[Bryn Terfel]], film music composer [[Hans Zimmer]], rock artists [[Ray Davies]] and [[Noel Gallagher]], with whom the choir has performed live and in the recording studio and its co-founder, John Gregson.

David Temple was appointed MBE in the New Year's Honours List in January 2018 for his services to music.

== History and organisation ==
In 1984 John Gregson, the director of the then Crouch End Arts Festival, invited David Temple to become the Festivals's music director. Gregson suggested that the festival should have its own choir and invited Temple to become its chorus master. A scratch choir of amateur singers was formed to perform [[Verdi]]'s ''[[Requiem (Verdi)|Requiem]]'' and the choir was given the name Crouch End Festival Chorus. Its membership has grown to around 150 singers who rehearse weekly in [[Muswell Hill]] and perform at [[Alexandra Palace]] Theatre, and at venues across London including the [[Barbican Hall]], [[Royal Festival Hall]], [[Queen Elizabeth Hall]], and [[Royal Albert Hall]].

CEFC is a charitable company run by a board of trustees elected by its members, with the day-to-day functions of the organisation carried out by a management committee of volunteers from the choir's ranks. Members join the choir via a formal audition and all singers are re-auditioned every three years.

== Classical repertoire ==

At its own concerts CEFC performs choral music over a wide chronological range from [[Thomas Tallis]] in the sixteenth century to new commissions. Over the course of its existence up to summer 2022 it has performed the work of 113 composers from [[John Adams (composer)|John Adams]] to Hans Zimmer. The major British composers, [[Edward Elgar|Elgar]], [[Ralph Vaughan Williams|Vaughan Williams]], [[Michael Tippett|Tippett]] and [[Benjamin Britten|Britten]] feature regularly on concert programmes, as do European composers including [[Johann Sebastian Bach|Bach]], [[Ludwig van Beethoven|Beethoven]], [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart]], [[Felix Mendelssohn]], [[Francis Poulenc|Poulenc]] and [[Igor Stravinsky|Stravinsky]], and Americans including [[Leonard Bernstein|Bernstein]], John Adams and [[Philip Glass]]. In recent years CEFC has sought to include women composers in its programmes, including [[Fanny Mendelssohn|Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel]], [[Rani Arbo and Daisy Mayhem|Rani Arbo]], and Lillie Harris, and commissions from [[Jessica Curry]] and Laura Bowler.

== Commissions ==
CEFC has a long history of commissioning and performing new choral works.
{| class="wikitable"
!Date
!Composer
!Title
|-
|1985
|Ian Lawrence
|African Hodie
|-
|1990
|Howard Haigh
|Saeta
|-
|1993
|[[John Woolrich]]
|Far From Home
|-
|1994
|[[David Bedford]]
|I Am Going Home With Thee
|-
|1994
|[[Simon Bainbridge]]
|Herbsttag
|-
|1994
|[[Sally Beamish]]
|Love Is Leaping
|-
|1997
|[[Joby Talbot]]
|Finding Silence
|-
|1998
|[[Robert Hugill]]
|Here Be Angels
|-
|1998
|[[Paul Patterson (composer)|Paul Patterson]]
|Hell's Angels
|-
|2000
|Joby Talbot
|The Same Dog
|-
|2001
|[[David Bedford]]
|The City And The Stars
|-
|2004
|[[Orlando Gough]]
|Shift
|-
|2009
|Roland Perrin
|Heaven On Earth
|-
|2009
|Matthew Ferraro
|The Tension Of Opposites
|-
|2012
|James McCarthy
|17 Days
|-
|2014
|[[Murray Gold]]
|...When My Brother Fell Into The River
|-
|2014
|Will Todd
|Rage Against The Dying Of The Light
|-
|2014
|Bernard Hughes
|Salve Regina
|-
|2014
|James McCarthy
|Malala
|-
|2015
|Roland Perrin
|Lansky: The Mob's Money Man
|-
|2017
|Laura Bowler
|navigating the dog watch
|-
|2018
|Ryan Latimer
|Frigates & Folly
|-
|2021
|Jessica Curry
|Echo
|}

== Other classical concerts ==

CEFC have appeared regularly at the BBC Proms since 2001.
{| class="wikitable"
!Date
!Additional information
!Work
!Other performers and conductor
|-
|28 August 2001
|
|[[Prometheus: The Poem of Fire|Scriabin, Prometheus: The Poem of Fire]]
|Kirov Orchestra, Valery Gergiev
|-
|29 August 2002
|
|[[Kullervo (Sibelius)|Sibelius, Kullervo]]
|London Symphony Chorus, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Thomas Adès
|-
|11 August 2003
|
|[[Alexander Nevsky (Prokofiev)|Prokofiev, Alexander Nevsky]]
|London Philharmonic Choir, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Daniele Gatti
|-
|9 September 2005
|
|[[Daphnis et Chloé|Ravel, Daphnis and Chloé]]
|Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Esa-Pekka Salonen
|-
|31 August 2008
|
|[[Requiem (Verdi)|Verdi, Requiem]]
|BBC Symphony Chorus, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Jiří Bělohlávek
|-
|2 August 2009
|
|[[Te Deum (Berlioz)|Berlioz, Te Deum]]
|Bach Choir, Trinity Boys Choir, St Paul’s Cathedral Choir, BBC Symphony Chorus, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Susanna Mälkki
|-
|16 July 2010
|First Night of the Proms
|[[Symphony No. 8 (Mahler)|Mahler, Symphony No. 8]]
|Westminster Cathedral Choristers, St Paul’s Cathedral Choristers, Westminster Abby Choristers, Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, BBC Symphony Chorus, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Jiří Bělohlávek
|-
|12 August 2012
|
|[[Gurre-Lieder|Schoenberg, Gurre-lieder]]
|New London Chamber Choir, BBC Singers, BBC Symphony Chorus, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Jukka-Pekka Saraste
|-
|20 July 2014
|BBC Sport Prom
|[[Carmina Burana (Orff)|Orff, Carmina Burana]] (extracts), [[You'll Never Walk Alone|Richard Rodgers, ‘You’ll never walk alone’]] from [[Carousel (musical)|Carousel]], [[We Are the Champions|Freddie Mercury, ‘We are the Champions’]]
|BBC Concert Orchestra, Rebecca Miller
|-
|18 August 2014
|
|[[The Bells (symphony)|Rachmaninov, The Bells]]
|BBC Symphony Chorus, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Edward Gardner
|-
|9 September 2015
|
|[[In the Sweet By-and-By|Webster, In the Sweet By and By]], [[Charles Zeuner|Zeuner]], ''Ye Christian Heralds'', Marsh, ''Jesus, Lover of My Soul'', [[Lowell Mason|Mason]], [[Nearer, My God, to Thee]], [[Symphony No. 4 (Ives)|Ives, Symphony No. 4]]
|BBC Symphony Orchestra, Andrew Litton
|-
|31 July 2016
|
|[[Lera Auerbach]], Symphony No. 3: The Infant Minstrel and His Peculiar Menagerie
|BBC Symphony Orchestra, Edward Gardner
|-
|27 July 2017
|London Premiere
|[[Mark Simpson (clarinetist)|Mark Simpson]], The Immortal
|London Voices, BBC Philharmonic, Juanjo Mena
|-
|9 September 2017
|Proms in the Park: Hyde Park
|Songs of Ray Davies
|Ray Davies, BBC Concert Orchestra, Richard Balcombe
|-
|8 September 2019
|European Premiere
|[[John Luther Adams]], In the Name of the Earth
|BBC Symphony Chorus, Hackney Empire Community Choir, London International Gospel Choir, London Philharmonic Choir, London Symphony Chorus, LSO Community Choir, Victoria Park Singers
|-
|15 July 2022
|First Night of the Proms
|Verdi, Requiem
|BBC Symphony Chorus, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Sakari Oramao
|}

CEFC is also frequently invited to collaborate with major orchestras. Recent performances include Britten's [[War Requiem]] with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus under Semyon Bychkov in November 2013,<ref>David Nice, [[The Arts Desk]], 11.11.13. Retrieved 2016-02-21</ref><ref>Colin Anderson, The Classical Source,10.11.13. Retrieved 2016-02-21</ref> [[Hector Berlioz|Berlioz]]'s [[Requiem (Berlioz)|Grande Messe des Morts]] with the BBC Symphony Chorus and Orchestra under François-Xavier Roth in November 2016, [[Sergei Prokofiev|Prokofiev]]'s [[Cantata for the 20th Anniversary of the October Revolution]] with the [[Philharmonia Orchestra]] under [[Vladimir Ashkenazy]] in May 2018 and Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with the Philharmonia under [[Jakub Hrůša]] in April 2022.

== Popular music ==
In 2010, CEFC singers joined patron and regular collaborator Ray Davies on stage at the [[Glastonbury Festival]] performing to an audience of 50,000 people. The following year, the choir appeared again with Ray Davies in the final concert of the [[Meltdown Festival]] curated by the artist for the [[Royal Festival Hall]]. Also in 2011 came a performance with Basement Jaxx at the Barbican.

CEFC's working relationship with Noel Gallagher began in 2008 with an Oasis gig for the BBC's Electric Proms. After contributing to the debut album by [[Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds]] in 2012, the choir toured with the band throughout the UK, and again in 2015.

== Film and TV ==
CEFC features on a number of original film soundtracks including ''[[The Awakening (2011 film)|The Awakening]]'' (2011) ''Prince Caspian'' (2008), and [[Rocketman (film)|''Rocketman'']] (2019) as well as in music composed for the BBC's classic sci-fi series ''Dr Who.'' Composers Hans Zimmer and Ennio Morricone have both booked CEFC to perform in live concerts of their music.

==Recordings==
The choir has made recordings of [[Johann Sebastian Bach|Bach]]'s [[St John Passion]] and [[Benjamin Britten|Britten]]'s [[Saint Nicolas (Britten)|Saint Nicolas]] and [[A Ceremony of Carols]], conducted by David Temple. They have also recorded [[Hubert Parry|Parry]]'s ''Judith'', conducted by William Vann.

The choir has credits on more than one hundred CDs including albums by [[Lesley Garrett]], [[Katherine Jenkins]], [[Alfie Boe]], and [[Kate Royal]], and by rock and pop artists [[Travis (band)|Travis]], [[the Divine Comedy]], [[Robbie Williams]], Ray Davies, and Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds. Ray Davies' ''[[The Kinks Choral Collection]]'' featuring CEFC reached the UK top 30 best-selling albums in 2009 and ''[[Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds (album)|Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds]]'' achieved the top spot on the Official UK Chart in 2011.<ref>Archive Chart, UK Albums Chart, The Official Charts Company. Retrieved 2016-02-21</ref>

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://www.cefc.org.uk Crouch End Festival Chorus]

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:London choirs]]
[[Category:Classical music in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Musical groups established in 1984]]
[[Category:Musical groups from the London Borough of Haringey]]
[[Category:Crouch End]]

Crouch End Festival Chorus - Revision history

imported>Qwfp: Updated short description