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Inaugural Mumbai tour for Trinity Laban choir

Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance

Mar 20, 2018 — 3 min read

In April 2018 the Old Royal Naval College Trinity Laban Chapel Choir will be undertaking its first visit to India, where it will perform with the country’s first professional symphony orchestra.

The choir is working in collaboration with India’s premier cultural institution, the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) in Mumbai.

On Thursday 19th April 2018 the Old Royal Naval College Trinity Laban Chapel Choir will perform much-loved choral works, including Handel’s Dixit Dominus, with the Symphony Orchestra of India (SOI) Chamber Orchestra.

The choir will also embark on outreach work in Mumbai in an initiative that brings the transformative power of music to some of the most marginalised children.

The choir’s tour to India has been enabled by a lead gift from The Rumi Foundation, a UK charity that serves as the channel for the Verjee family’s ongoing philanthropic work.

The £46,000 needed to fund the choir’s tour has been raised through contributions and fundraising activities including proceeds from the choir’s new CD Roderick Williams: Sacred Choral Works. The CD is available to purchase online at prestoclassical.co.uk and on iTunes, and is also available to listen to on Spotify.

In February this year the choir performed Dixit Dominus in a fundraising concert at the beautiful St Peter and St Paul chapel of the Old Royal Naval College.

The ORNC Trinity Laban Chapel Choir is one of Trinity Laban’s flagship ensembles, performing weekly services and celebratory concerts at the magnificent Old Royal Naval College under the direction of celebrated choral conductor Ralph Allwood MBE. The ensemble is formed of fifteen choral scholars and thirteen volunteers, all but two of whom are students of Trinity Laban. It is unique in being the only collegiate chapel choir in the world to be attached to a specialist conservatoire.

About Old Royal Naval College Trinity Laban Chapel Choir

Trinity Laban is the only Conservatoire in the UK to support a collegiate Chapel Choir, making the ensemble unique amongst cathedral, church and collegiate choirs in the UK. Led by leading choral director Ralph Allwood MBE, the Chapel Choir is now regarded as one of the most outstanding sacred music ensembles in London. The choir sings a broad range of repertoire, ranging from renaissance polyphony, Baroque masses, large-scale 19th and 20th century works, to recording music by living composers such as Roderick Williams. As part of Trinity Laban, collaboration with orchestral and jazz musicians, historical performers, and composers is a particular feature of music in worship at the Chapel. Trinity Laban has long recognised the importance and value of training in choral traditions as part of a singer’s education: many graduates enjoy employment success in this field, and the skills gained from it are invaluable whatever branch of the music profession they progress into. The Choir gives approximately one hundred public performances each year. Its primary purpose is to enhance the liturgy and worship of the Chapel on Sundays and Monday evensong. In addition, the Choir contributes to a series of concerts in the Old Royal Naval College Chapel of St Peter and Paul, alongside a range of smaller recitals. The Choir has toured both abroad and in the UK and recorded a debut CD of works by Roderick Williams (available on the Signum label).

Trinity Laban’s links with India

Building on the success of the British Council GREAT Scholarships for Indian students pursuing education in the UK, Trinity Laban aims to establish further partnerships with India while celebrating its historic links with the country.

GREAT Scholarships were launched in 2016 and allow talented postgraduate music students from India to attain the very highest levels of training regardless of income and personal circumstance, while strengthening cultural links between India and the UK. Trinity Laban currently hosts three Indian GREAT scholars: Sandeep Gurrapadi (voice, tenor), Nourheville Khate (violin) and Jasiel Peter (double bass).

Trinity Laban’s Faculty of Music has over 125 years of history with India, and currently offers specialist summer academies for music teachers in Mumbai, Goa, Bengaluru and Hyderabad.