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Foundation Futures Ceremony


A performance of John Barber’s music at the Foundation Futures Awards Ceremony, celebrating his win as part of the Arts Foundation Awards which led him to collaborate with Echo on his debut album.


28 FEB 2024

PURCELL ROOM

SOUTHBANK CENTRE, LONDON


Sweet Disharmony


Echo returned to the stunning setting of North Yorkshire's Birdsall House in a programme celebrating the searing beauty of dissonant harmony in sacred music, from the genius of William Byrd and Henry Purcell right through to contemporaries Roxanna Panufnik and James MacMillan.



ο»Ώ25 NOV 2023

BIRDSALL HOUSE, MALTON



Bat Sounding


As part of our focus on bats and echolocation this year, we invite Cambridge Residents to join a session with the Bat Choir, exploring what it is like to communicate in a “bat-like” way. This workshop begins with simple vocal exercises and scores for deep listening on Jesus Green.


We will learn the different calls of bats that live locally in Cambridge, and experiment with strategies for human echolocation. No prior singing experience required! 


25 OCT 2023

JESUS GREEN, CAMBRIDGE

Unfolding Silence


Echo collaborated with Finnish artist Hans Rosenström to put together a devised piece inspired by birdsong and developed using improvisation.


The final sound installation exhibited at Frieze Sculpture Exhibition in Regent’s Park, London in autumn 2023. The work offered an intimate place for listening, inviting listeners to experience a glade in the park in a new way.


20 SEP - 29 OCT 2023

FREE ENTRY

Album Insights


At this special event, Echo presented a showcase of works from their debut album, Innocence. Music included:


O nobilissima viriditas - Hildegard von Bingen

Hymne à la Vierge - Pierre Villette
Trois Chansons - Maurice Ravel
Nesciens Mater - Jean Mouton

‘Why did you separate me from the earth’ - ANOHNI 


8 OCT2023

LONDON


Latitude Festival


Echo went to Latitude Festival in Suffolk for a series of workshops and pop-up performances. We performed as part of ROOST, an artist collective that was in residency at Trailer Park, an area of the festival in the woods at Henham park.

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20-23 JULY 2023

HENHAM PARK, SUFFOLK


Unfolding Silence

Three studio days spent working with Finnish artist Hans Rosenström on birdsong-inspired improvised soundscapes.












STOKE NEWINGTON, LONDON

JULY 2023


Ensemble in Residence: Radley College













Echo were ensemble-in-residence at Radley College in Oxfordshire in June, presenting performances for students in Abingdon. As part of the project, we reached 400 local KS2 students and got every audience to perform with us in a programme of music featuring Meredith Monk,

RADLEY COLLEGE

JUNE 2023


Brighton College Autograph Concert Series




Echo took a flagship programme to Brighton's stunning Sarah Abraham Recital Hall, featuring music from the 12th century to the present day, with pieces by Hildegard of Bingen, William Byrd, and Maurice Ravel right through to improvisation and folksong


BRIGHTON COLLEGE

APRIL 2023

Broken Chord

A colleboration with choreographer Gregory Maqoma at Sadlers Wells
Echo collaborated on 'Broken Chord', a performance piece moving between concert, dance and performance, which retold the story of the first African choir to perform in Great Britain and the US in the late 19th century.
SADLERS WELLS, LONDON

17 & 18 MARCH 2023







Echo Sounding: A Performance

March 2023

Hypha Studios, London


A performance inspired by the echolocative strategies of different British bat species. Curated in collaboration with the artists Hermione Spriggs and Harsha Balasubramanian, as part of 'BEHOLD - a group show about touch' at Hypha Studios, London


 Visitors were invited to become participants in the show, encouraged to behold artworks through a collaborative multi-sensory tour designed by artists, writers and academics, who were either blind, visually impaired or sighted. BEHOLD sought to help reframe access to art by disrupting the hierarchies of perception and art education, by providing unusual and playful ways of experiencing artworks – beyond the visual and with the effect of heightening other senses.


Echo Sounding

A Voice and Listening workshop                                       Feb 2023
As part of our focus on bats and echolocation, Echo Vocal Ensemble director Sarah Latto and artist and anthropologist Hermione Spriggs curated a workshop in deep listening, inspired by the echolocative strategies of different British bat species.

Chas

CHASING THE NIGHT

midwinter songs


Following one winter solstice as it unfolded across the Northern hemisphere, Echo's winter tour 2022 featured songs from five continents, exploring the unique blend of folklore, religion, magic and tradition that midwinter brings.


 Alongside traditional carols, the ensemble explored the magic of pieces by Poulenc, Britten and Rachmaninov and vocal music from Canada and Iceland. As part of the tour, Echo were joined by some very special guests: Danny Sewagudde and Denis Muggaga, who make up the British-Ugandan duo Ganda Boys. They are acclaimed for bringing a fresh sound to traditional Ugandan songs with a combination of English and Lugandan lyrics alongside their joyful brand of performance.

KINGS PLACE, LONDON


15 DECEMBER



BIRDSALL HOUSE, YORK


19 DECEMBER



NIGHT MUSIC

A recording project with Bristol-based composer John Barber, recording an E.P. of his music for voices, exploring themes of darkness  and night-time.


THURSDAY 24 NOVEMBER, LONDON


FUTURE SOUNDS
Echo worked with young

composers at the Royal

College of Music Junior

Department to create a

concert of world premieres

for vocal ensemble.




ROYAL COLLEGE OF MUSIC, LONDON

SATURDAY 26 NOVEMBER

LONDON WORKSHOP - ECHO/GANDA BOYS

WORKSHOP 27.07.22 


Echo have been working with Ugandan-born artists Danny Sewagudde and Denis Muggaga throughout 2022 in a number of recordings and videos.


We held a joint workshop in Bethnal Green, London on Wednesday 27th July, in which singers learnt more about Ugandan traditional music and our collaboration, and sang with the group.

RAGNAR KJARTANSSON: THE SKY IN A ROOM

EXHIBITION 25.06.2022–03.07.2022 


Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson draws on the histories of film, music, theatre, visual culture and literature to develop video installations, durational performances, drawing and painting.


This project, a collaboration with Ikon Gallery (Birmingham) and Artes Mundi (Cardiff), involved singers taking turns to perform an ethereal arrangement of ‘Il cielo in una stanza’, the famous song by Gino Paoli, originally released in 1960. Accompanied by the church organ, the piece was repeated, uninterruptedly, for five hours a day for several days, like a never-ending lullaby.


The performance took place at St Mary Magdalene, Tanworth-in-Arden, the place where singer-songwriter Nick Drake is buried. That English church, in the heart of the Warwickshire countryside, was the third setting for The Sky in a Room, following on from the Church of San Carlo al Lazzaretto, Milan (2020) and the National Museum Cardiff (2018).


EXHIBITION DETAILS

Performance times, 2-7pm every day.


VENUE

St Mary Magdalene

Tanworth-in-Arden, B94 5AL

ECHO

ROGER MCGOUGH

AMINITA FRANCIS

Hoxton, London, April 2022

This programme was put together in celebration of Echo's fifth anniversary. Cross-disciplinary art is a passion of ours, and for our birthday, we wanted to invite two of our favourite past collaborators to rejoin us in a collision of music and words.


 Roger McGough is an award-winning poet, playwright, broadcaster and author of over a hundred books of poetry for adults and children. He has been described as ‘The godfather of modern British poetry’ by the Metro and the ‘The patron saint of poetry’ by Carol Ann Duffy. 


Multi-talented musician and theatre-maker Aminita Francis is one of the co-creators behind BAC Beatbox Academy’s phenomenally successful Frankenstein: How To Make A Monster.


Echo's performance alongside these two incredible artists explored the ways in which spoken words and sung words can be combined, with music from the 16th century to the present day by Orlande de Lassus, Robert Ramsey, Undine Smith Moore and James MacMillan alongside improvisation and folksong.


MESSIAH 250

Saturday 5th March 2022, St Swithin's Church, Bath

Messiah 250 was a project that brought together communities in Bath through music and celebrated the history of Bath’s association with Handel’s ‘Messiah’. It was a collaboration between Echo Vocal Ensemble, Paragon Singers, historian Andrew Clarke and theatre director Tom Guthrie. Following an extended and in-depth exploration series of workshops and rehearsals over the course of several months, Messiah 250 culminated in a large-scale concert staging at St Swithin’s Church in Bath.


This project formed a major part of the academic course for film students at Bath Spa University. They documented the workshop and rehearsal process, creating a film which will be free for audiences to view.


As part of the 4-month project, Echo helped run a series of singing workshops throughout Bath, including free workshops for young people in the city and, in partnership with charity Julian House, for homeless and vulnerable people living in Bath.

12 Days of Christmas


We repeated our popular '12 Days of Christmas' project in December 2021. In collaboration with The Gesualdo Six and The Swan Consort, 12 Days offered the gift of music to loved ones with 12 seasonal performances, delivered directly to the recipients' inbox from 25th December- 6th January.


Already Gone - December 2nd, Lancaster Priory


This performance, our first in Lancaster, was a programme of old and new music about nature and the climate emergency. From Benjamin Britten’s beautiful setting of ‘Five Flower Songs’ to ANOHNI’s call to arms, the programme celebrated natures abundance whilst warning of future scarcity.


Joy and Devotion - 5th November, London



We sang at the iconic venue of London's St Martin in the Fiel for the first time in November 2021.


We presented a stunning programme of old and new music from Poland, from 16th century masterpieces to music by brilliant contemporary composers Aleksandra Chmielewska, Roxanna Panufnik and Ania RocΕ‚awska-MusiaΕ‚czyck


Our concert concluded the 'Joy and Devotion' festival, which spanned three days and featured performances by incredible colleagues Tenebrae and The Gesualdo Six.

Music at the Polish Court - 4th November, Cambridge


Echo visited Cambridge to perform a concert exploring the work of composers living in Warsaw and Krakow in the 16th and 17th Centuries, featuring Gorczycki’s masterful Missa Paschalis as its centrepiece. 


Nordic Giants, 23rd October, Buckinghamshire


Echo performed at ECHOR Orchestra's inaugural concert, Nordic Giants, where the audience was immersed in the sounds of the wonderful world of Grieg and Sibelius, amongst other Nordic friends.

21 extraordinary string players brought music to life in atmospheric and unique surroundings, while an octet of singers from Echo Vocal Ensemble performed music by Sibelius, þorkell Sigurbjörnsson and Anna Þorvaldsdóttir.


After the hour long orchestral performance, audiences enjoyed a relaxed folk session from some of the best folk musicians in the country! 



Saturday 25th September - St Paul's, Winchester


We took our 'The Flight of Song' programme to the stunning setting of St. Paul's, Winchester, on Saturday 25th September. The programme featured pieces with texts that celebrate music, from Biblical psalms through to 18th-century poetry and soulful pop lyrics from the 70s.


The concert featured Benjamin Britten's masterful 'Hymn to St Cecilia' as its centrepiece, alongside pieces by Claudio Monteverdi, Judith Weir, Roberta Flack and Orlande de Lassus.

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Claudio Monteverdi - Cantate Domino (1620)

Orlando Lassus - Musica Dei Donum (1604)

Bernard Rose - Feast Song for St. Cecilia (1975)

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina - Exultate deo (1584)

Howard Skempton - The Flight of Song (2005)

Cecilia McDowall - Now may we singen (2013)

Daniel, Daniel, Servant of the Lord - arr. Undine Smith Moore (1952)

Improvisation on Bobby McFerrin - Circlesong no.4 (1997)

Henry Purcell - Hush, no more (from Fairy Queen, 1692)

Improvisation on 'Killing me softly' - Roberta Flack (1973)

Benjamin Britten - Hymn to St.Cecilia (1942)

Judith Weir - My Guardian Angel (1997)


In 2021, Echo toured a stunning programme of old and new music about nature and the climate emergency. From Benjamin Britten's beautiful setting of Five Flower Songs to ANOHNI's call to arms, the programme took listeners on a journey that both celebrated nature's abundance and warned of future scarcity. 


The series began in London with a workshop and Q&A featuring the five shortlisted composers, before a series of three concerts reaching some of the UK's biggest cities: London, Manchester and Birmingham.


The Already Gone Tour was a Genesis Kickstart Fund project, supported by the Genesis Foundation. It was also made possible thanks to the Golsoncott Foundation, RVW Trust and The London Community Foundation: Cockayne - Grants for the Arts.


Find out more here



THE IMPROVISATION INITIATIVE

Creating sound 'in the moment' should be one of the most basic musical skills, and yet improvisation is very rarely taught or encouraged for singers of any kind.


 Echo ran a series focused on this art form, exploring its use historically in music by composers like Claudio Monteverdi and Henry Purcell, and showing how we can use those techniques in our music making today.


The three-week course aimed to show audience that improvisation within an ensemble singing setting is a joyful and accessible art form. The series culminated in an hour long HD broadcast performance by Echo.


Click here to find out more.

December '20 to Jan '21: 12 DAYS


Our collaborative project 12 Days was a partnership with Ryedale Festival, The Gesualdo Six and The Swan Consort.


. The series was filmed in the splendour of Castle Howard in North Yorkshire, and delivered an HD performance to the recipients inbox daily between 25 December - 6 January.


More details

Oct 2020


Echo INTERACTIVE



We ran an INTERACTIVE series of free online events in autumn 2020 for an online audience to take part in! With thanks to Arts Council England for their support in bringing this programme to you. Click here for videos and more info.




KITCHEN SESSIONS


In a direct response to the first national lockdown in 2020, Echo spent a socially-distanced day filming in an intimate home setting, and talking about the music in relation to some of the most relevant topics of 2020.


  1. Bruckner’s Locus Iste, plus analysis and a discussion on the western classical canon and its relevance 
  2. Improvisation on Nobody Knows, plus a discussion on COVID-19 and its effect on mental health
  3. Excerpt from Privilege by Hearne plus a discussion on Black Lives Matter and the classical music industry 



WATCH OUR KITCHEN SESSION VIDEOS

Saturday 6th June - Composition workshop
POSTPONED due to COVID-19

This free afternoon workshop in London, featuring the five shortlisted compositions of our 2019 Composition Competition has been postponed. The works by James Brady, Janet Oates, Karen Lemon, Lillie Harris and Rory Johnston were due to be rehearsed in an open workshop with the composers present, before a Q&A with each composer present, talking about compositional technique and their approach to the text. It will be rescheduled to 2021.

Friday 12th June - Concert at the GAP Festival
POSTPONED due to COVID-19

This collaboration with The Gap Festival featuring the world premieres of works by Lillie Harris and Rory Johnston in June was postponed due to the COVID-19 health emergency. 

Alongside the premieres, Echo were due to perform a set themed around the environment and the ecological emergency, including music by Britten, Palestrina, Hildegard of Bingen and ANOHNI.

This programme will be rescheduled to 2021.
Cambridge Alumni Festival

echo performed in Cambridge on Friday 27th September 2019 at West Road Concert Hall. The event was part of the Cambridge Alumni Festival, in the form of a panel discussion about choral music. Hosted by Katie Derham, the speakers were Gerald Finley, our conductor Sarah Latto and John Rutter. 

echo sang a programme of old and new choral music interspersed between the conversation.

Plainchant: Requiem aeternam 
Duarte Lobo: Introitus from Requiem a 6 
Thomas Tallis: O Nata Lux 
Jan Peterszoon Sweelinck: Gaude et Laetare 
John Rutter: Open Thou Mine Eyes 
Arvo Pärt: Bogoróditse Dyévo 
Judith Weir: Vertue 
Kerry Andrew: CoMA Blues

The University of Cambridge said of the event:
"The BBC’s Katie Derham (Magdalene 1988) hosted a panel of formidable musical talent, with John Rutter CBE (Clare 1964), Gerald Finley (King’s 1980) and Sarah Latto (Sidney Sussex 2007) and her choir, Echo, rounding out an amazing evening."

Ryedale Festival: 12th-27 July 2019

echo were ensemble-in-residence at the fantastic Ryedale Festival in July. To kick things off, we performed at Castle Howard alongside the Elias Quartet and His Majesty's Sagbutts and Cornetts, in a programme celebrating sacred miniatures. 

Henry Purcell (1659-95) Hear my prayer, Z.15
Roxanna Panufnik (b.1958) O Hearken
Thomas Tallis (c.1501-85) O Nata Lux
Michael Tippett (1905-98)Nobody knows the
trouble I see, Lord (from 'A Child of our Time')
Improvisation on 'Nobody Knows
Estêvão Lopes Morago (c.1575-1630) Oculi Mei
Maurice Duruflé (1902-86) Ubi Caritas
Arvo Pärt (b.1935) Bogoróditse Dyévo
William Byrd (1538-1623) Agnus Dei (from Mass
for four voices)
We were then lucky enough to collaborate with legendary poet Roger McGough in a late-night performance of words and music on the theme of mortality, featuring Purcell's 'Funeral Sentences' alongside music by Manchester icons The Smiths. 

Remember not, Lord – Henry Purcell (1659-1695)
When David Heard – Robert Ramsey (c.1590 – 1644)
There is a Light / Hide and Seek – The Smiths / Imogen Heap (arr. Latto)
Improvisation on Skye Boat Song 
Funeral Sentences for Queen Mary – Henry Purcell
They are at rest: Edward Elgar (1857-1934)
Improvisation on Why did you separate me from the earth? - ANOHNI
And I saw a new heaven: Edgar Bainton (1880 – 1956)

Throughout the week echo performed in Ryedale Festival Opera's performances of Henry Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, directed by Monica Nicolaides and musically directed by Eamonn Dougan.

Our final engagement of the week was to host a vocal workshop exploring improvisation in music from Baroque to the present day. A wonderful week of music making in beautiful Yorkshire!
 

Debut Sounds: 1st July 2019

echo were delighted to rejoin the London Philharmonic Orchestra and James MacMillan for 2019's Debut Sounds Concert at the stunning Queen Elizabeth Hall in the Southbank Centre. 

Debut Sounds is the culmination of a scheme featuring five emerging composers: Barnaby Martin, Clare Elton, Ashley John Long, Andrzej KaraΕ‚ow and Carlijn Metselaar. Each composer has spent the year working with the LPO and premiered their work at this concert.

echo sang music by Byrd, Lotti, Weir, Gorécki and Gorczycki between each orchestral debut, in a celebration of old and new music. 


Meet you in the Maze at Ikon Birmingham
On Friday 9th November, we performed at Ikon Gallery in Birmingham. We worked with the gallery to devise a programme of music inspired by artist Polly Apfelbaum and her exhibition Waiting for the UFOs (a space set between a landscape and a bunch of flowers). 

The concert took the form of a promenade, and explored mazes, puzzles and the navigation of the unknown, including music by Meredith Monk, Steve Reich and James Blake alongside improvisation, folk song and theatrical use of the gallery.
Press release
Daylight Music 292 - Union Chapel, London
On Saturday 3rd November, we performed as part of the Daylight Music series held from 12-2pm on Saturday afternoons at Union Chapel. For this casual and relaxed concert entitled 'Space in This Place', echo performed alongside clarinet and piano duo Group Listening and guitarist Gwenifer Raymond.

This performance formed part our project 'Meet you in the Maze', held on 9th November at Ikon Gallery in Birmingham. 
Miserere: Douai Abbey
On Saturday 29th September, we travelled to the stunning surroundings of Douai Abbey to perform James MacMillan’s captivating setting of the Miserere, alongside other masterpieces of the 16th, 19th and 20th centuries, including works by Britten, Parsons and Judith Weir.

We were joined by all-female Glass Ensemble, who performed the UK premiere of David Lang’s ‘Love Fail’; a piece combining medieval re-tellings of Tristan and Isolde with stories from more modern sources. For three movements of this piece, three of echo's singers (Sally Carr, Lindsey James and Rose Martin) performed expressive movement in abstract depiction of the narrative, directed by Sam Cobb.
Ryedale Festival 2018
echo were invited to perform at Ryedale Festival 2018 in North Yorkshire on Saturday 28th July at St Mary's Church, Lastingham. This coffee concert formed part of the festival's Young Artist Platform, which provides the opportunity for emerging artists and ensembles to share in and contribute to its broad and eclectic programme.

Founded in 1981, the Ryedale Festival showcases exceptional musical performances, set in numerous and often lesser-known venues in and around the stunning North-England countryside. Entitled 'Hush, no more', the concert was an adaptation of our 'With His Song' programme, which explores music written about music itself. It included works by composers such as Lassus, Skempton and Judith Weir. Judith was the composer-in-residence for the Ryedale Festival 2018.
Music in Quiet Places
This concert formed part of a concert series titled Music in Quiet Places, based in Peterborough and the surrounding area. The concert took place at Priory Church, Deeping St James on the evening of Thursday 12th July. 

An octet of our singers performed a programme of music adapted from our brickxbrick concert, including works by Guillaume Dufay, Philip Glass and Richard Rodney Bennett.

 
echo presents: With His Song
We returned to light, bright (and, essentially in the summer heat, cool) interior of The Music Room in Mayfair for another lunchtime recital on Saturday 21st July for the latest concert in our echo presents series

The programme presented music and songs written about music itself. With pieces from the 16th century to the present day including Monteverdi, Palestrina, and Judith Weir, alongside an improvisation on Roberta Flack's classic song 'Killing me Softly'.
LPO Debut Sounds 2018: Common Language
The London Philharmonic Orchestra invited us back to perform with them for the second time in their yearly concert showcasing new orchestral works written by their young composers, known as LPO Foyle Future Artists.  This year's theme, Common Language, explored the common thread of Gregorian Chant, at The Queen Elizabeth Hall on Monday 9th July.

Four world premiers of these young composer's works were heard, each based on a different chant melody, and took the audience on a journey through the history of Gregorian chant music. It was a truly collaborative evening, with their works being performed by LPO players under the baton of our friend Sir James MacMillan - who had mentored the young composers. In between each piece, we performed a number of unaccompanied choral works including pieces by Machaut and Bruckner.
echo presents: brickxbrick
On Saturday 9th June, echo performed a lunchtime recital in the beautiful surroundings of St. Matthew's Church, Bethnal Green. It formed the fifth in the echo presents series, and explored themes of architecture and ambition. This drew together pieces by Palestrina, Bach, Steve Reich, and Joanna Bailie.  Particular highlights included Guillaume Dufay’s stunning Nuper Rosarum Flores, composed for the consecration of the Florence Cathedral in 1436 and an audience-participation performance of Reich's infamous Clapping Music.

echo presents: INNOCENCE
On Saturday 10th March from 1pm-2pm, echo gave a lunchtime recital at The Music Room in the heart of London - a venue that, despite its central location, is amazingly quiet, with excellent acoustics and filled with natural light. It formed part of our echo presents series, this time centring around the theme of 'Innocence' - exploring biblical purity and sin, childhood, parenting and the inevitable end of innocence.

The programme was built around that of a concert of the same name we performed in Birmingham in May 2017.  It included music by composers from medieval times to the present day, including Hildegard of Bingen, Maurice Ravel, James MacMillan and Kerry Andrew, alongside traditional music from Kenya, North America and even an improvisation on The Beatles. 

echo choir chiltern arts
Chiltern Arts Festival 2018: 'Take Note' Competition Winners
In the autumn of 2017, it was announced that echo won a place to be part of Chiltern Arts Festival's Young Artists platform 'Take Note'.  Founder and Creative Director of the Festival Naomi Taylor stated: "We were blown away by the quality of applicants to our Take Note programme in its first year. What stood out for me with echo was not only the outstanding quality of the singers in the group, but the honest, genuine passion that was evident from the way they performed".

We performed at the festival on Sunday 4th February 2018 in Henley-on-Thames. In the first half of the concert we sang a selection of French motets and chansons, before joining the Chiltern Arts Festival Chorus for a very special performance of Fauré's Requiem, conducted by our old friend Eamonn Dougan.
echo choir picture
Winter Concert 2017: 'A Night of Snow'
In our first winter season concert, we travelled to St Michael's Church, City Centre in Southampton on Saturday 2nd Decemeber, 2017 to sing a collection of songs for winter and advent.


echo choir exile

echo presents: EXILE

On Friday 22nd September 2017 at St. James Church , Paddington , and on Saturday 23rd September  at the Thames Tunnel Shaft , Brunel Museum , Rotherhithe , echo delivered two performances of a programme titled EXILE - exploring political and emotional exile, displacement and migration. The concert featured music from the 12th century to the present day, including pieces by William Byrd, Phillippe de Monte and Pedro de Cristo, and the UK Premiere  of ' songs of sorrow ' by  Sheena Phillips . The concerts also incorporated  theatrical use of the performance space, particularly for the performance at the Thames Tunnel Shaft, Rotherhithe , which was staged by Movement Director,  Rebecca Meltzer.


echo choir sounds sublime

Sounds Sublime

On Saturday 8th July 2017, echo performed at Sounds Sublime, the festival curated by The Sixteen. The day long, free festival is a showcase of the UK's most exciting ensembles in a variety of venues across central London. 

We sang in a joint concert with the fantastic and dynamic group London International Gospel Choir. The theme of the concert was songs about song, and music celebrating music with pieces by Byrd, Monteverdi, Pärt and Skempton, alongside vocal improvisation and folksong. 
echo choir debut sounds

Debut Sounds: New Musick

echo joined the London Philharmonic Orchestra for their Debut Sounds: New Musick concert at St. John's, Smith Square on Wednesday 12th July 2017.  

The concert was a collaboration between echo, the LPO and composers and instrumentalists from the LPO's Young Artist Scheme. It featured four world premieres of works by young composers, each of whom had spent the year working with the Finnish composer Magnus Lindberg. For this performance he set them a challenge to write a piece responding to Henry Purcell's 'Come ye sons of art'. 

echo performed alongside the orchestra in the Purcell, as well as performing a number of unaccompanied works by Purcell and one of our favourite modern composers James Macmillan, who takes over next year as the head of the scheme. We sang Macmillan's ravishing 'Data est mihi' from the Strathclyde motets, and his beautiful folksong arrangement of the Gallant Weaver. 
echo choir innocence
echo presents: INNOCENCE
On Saturday 13th May 2017 at St. George's Church, Edgbaston, Birmingham, echo presented a concert based around the theme of Innocence. It formed the choir's second performance as a new ensemble, and featured music exploring purity and corruption, from Biblical ideas of original sin, childhood and the innocence of sleep, through to the inevitability of the end of innocence.

The concert included music from the 12th century to the present day, featuring Herbert Howells 'Requiem' at its centre, alongside works by Purcell and Skempton, vocal improvisation and traditional folk songs from England and America.

In keeping with the concerts theme, a retiring collection in aid of Birmingham Children's Hospital was arranged, for which we raised over £140.
echo choir lands end
echo presents: WORLD'S END
This concert on Saturday 1st April 2017 formed our debut as echo. It featured music that explored apocalyptic thought, drawing upon biblical depictions of the Day of Judgement, through to huge political upheavals in the 20th and 21st centuries. We performed and discussed a range of music from the 13th century to the present day, presenting a recital that reflected and dissected the current political climate.

This concert's programme style formed the origin of what became our echo presents series: where a specific theme is explored, bringing together pieces from varied time periods and genres into unified musical narratives - as devised by our wonderful Artistic Director, Sarah Latto.
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