Chapel Choir
Emmanuel is one of the larger Cambridge colleges, with around 450 undergraduates, a fine campus in the centre of town, and a chapel designed by Christopher Wren. It has an extremely active musical life, in which the chapel music plays a central role.
The choir’s raison d’etre is to sing the weekly Choral Eucharist and Evensong in the college chapel during term. Eucharist takes place on Thursday evenings and Evensong on Sundays—making membership a relatively low time commitment. Rehearsals take place before these services and on Tuesday evenings. College occasions are marked with special sung services throughout the year.
Besides these regular commitments, the choir makes occasional visits to other British churches and cathedrals, and goes on a foreign tour each year (recent destinations including Italy, Hawaii, Mexico and Sweden). Over the last couple of years, the choir has broadcast for Mexican TV, premiered a new work by Nimrod Borenstein, sung in residence at St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, and performed jointly with the choir of Southwark Cathedral. Plans are afoot for a tour to Boston in 2009.