Theatre of voices in a spectacular concert at Trinity College

Well, this is a complicated one. As part of the Cambridge Music Festival 2025 we have the Cambridge Music Conference whose Founder and Director Elizabeth Carmack brought about this 25th anniversary concert. to Cambridge where the whole international enterprise began.

Theatre of Voices, director famous Paul Hillier are the four young people who made it all happen – plus Rihab Azar on the oud ( a really lovely instrument I have never consciously heard before) and the organ. Powered by Christopher Bowers-Broadbent- in the second half which featured the Berliner Mass by Arvo Pärt, it was a key to the full joy of this piece.

But to start it was gorgeous soprano Else Torp and, Laura Lamph, a lovely alto, William Gaunt an outstanding bass ( home reared as a member of King’s College Choir) and Jakob Skjoldborg a glorious tenor. Copenhagen- based, they have entranced the world from Sydney Opera House to Palais Garnier the Lincoln Center to the Venice Biennale. And they have done amazing things ‘hologram appearances for 16 shows in Hong Kong’ – which gives you pause for thought.

Standing room only in Trinity College Chapel is rare but this concert was rammed to the gunnels. We heard Nigel Osborne’s it composition Tree of Life: it generated by his work in Lebanon on a therapeutic and educational project for Syrian children. The composition tells their stories, they are heart-breaking as the mystical music conveys.

Murray Carmack and Howard Skempton created Heraclitus a lovely ethereal piece and poetic joy, and great to see the composer take. a live bow.. Kevin Volans created the African bush adventure in sound.

The second half features the sublime creation that is Arvo Pärt’s Berliner Mass. Amazing the way composers make their way to the ancient form of the Mass and this was a breathtaking original version - the piece many members of the audience had waited for.

Music is all a bit of an adventure, as the woman next to me commented as she discarded the prolix programme.’ I am just letting it all wash over me’ she announced -- a wise choice with the overload of literature - especially the LBTQ+ History Month in Cambridge handout - indecipherable.

A fabulous and genuinely evening of musical originality .