Website www.excathedra.co.uk | ||
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Ex Cathedra (/ˌɛks kəˈθeɪdrə/ EKS-kə-THAY-drə) is a British choir and early music ensemble based in Birmingham in the West Midlands, England. It performs choral music spanning the 15th to 21st centuries, and regularly commissions new works.
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Ex Cathedra was founded in Birmingham in 1969 by Jeffrey Skidmore, who is its artistic director and conductor. Originally conceived as a chamber choir, it now comprises a full choir of about 20 to 40 singers, the Ex Cathedra Consort made up of ten young professional singers who feature regularly as soloists, and a Baroque ensemble/orchestra.
Each year, the choir presents a season of eight diverse programmes in a variety of venues in and around Birmingham and London. It has also participated in concert series and festivals across the UK and in Europe, including the BBC Proms, Brighton Early Music Festival, Kilkenny Festival, Lichfield Festival, Lufthansa Festival of Baroque Music, Spitalfields Festival, Three Choirs Festival and York Early Music Festival. In 2008 it was invited to the Newbury Spring Festival, St. David's Cathedral Festival, Chelsea Festival and Chichester Festivities. The choir has also appeared at festivals in Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Italy and Spain. The ensemble collaborates regularly with other Birmingham-based arts organizations, including Birmingham Royal Ballet and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. It became an Associate Artist at the Birmingham Town Hall in 2007.
In 2009 Ex Cathedra was due to celebrate its 40th anniversary with a programme, XL Anniversary, that included a performance of Mendelssohn's Elijah on 18 October 2008, and to feature Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius in November 2009 and commissions from James MacMillan and Fyfe Hutchins. The choir also planned to make recordings of John Joubert's oratorio Wings of Faith, and pieces from its annual Christmas Music by Candlelight concerts.
Ex Cathedra Baroque Orchestra
The first period instrument orchestra to be established in an English regional city, Ex Cathedra's Baroque Orchestra was founded as part of the choir's 1983–1984 season and made its début with a performance of Bach's Mass in B Minor. The orchestra's principals regularly give master classes and coach students at the Birmingham Conservatoire as part of its early music programme.
Music education
Ex Cathedra has its own youth and children's choirs, the Academy of Vocal Music (for singers aged 16 years and upwards, trained by Jeffrey Skidmore) and the Junior Academy (6 to 16 years, trained by Rebecca Ledgard and Ex Cathedra vocal tutors), which meet on a project basis. In addition, since 1990 the choir has been involved in education programmes in schools and local communities. It runs Ring of Sound, an intergenerational choir for the Perry Common Regeneration Project; the Singing Medicine project at five wards of the Birmingham Children's Hospital; and singing workshops for Key Stage 2 boys at an inner-city Birmingham primary school; In the 2007–2008 academic year, Ex Cathedra conducted its Singing Playgrounds project in 24 schools in Birmingham, Coventry, Derby and London as part of the government's Sing Up initiative. It also introduced a project called Singing Mix, based on Singing Playgrounds, to help new Polish immigrant children to integrate. In addition, Ex Cathedra conducts activities for the Birmingham City Council's Arts Champions and Creative Futures schemes.
Recordings
Ex Cathedra has made a number of critically acclaimed recordings for ASV Records and Hyperion Records, and on its own label. It is well known for its recordings of French and Latin American Baroque music.
Hyperion lawsuit
In 2001, Ex Cathedra recorded four sacred works by Michel-Richard de Lalande for Hyperion Records. The sessions used newly prepared editions made by scholar Lionel Sawkins. Sawkins went on to sue Hyperion for royalties arising from his claimed copyright in the editions. The recording was issued but subsequently withdrawn from the market after Sawkins won the lawsuit and subsequent appeal. In his judgment in the initial case, Mr Justice Patten was critical of Ex Cathedra, stating: "It was clear to me that Ex Cathedra really played both sides off to ensure that the recording did proceed." The criticism was regarded as unfair by Ex Cathedra's chairman John Pulford, who said: "We were not on trial and had no legal representation to cover our interests. We did our best, and I did not expect our reputation would be called into question." Simon Perry, the director of Hyperion, said he did not realize copyright in the de Lalande works was being claimed by Sawkins until shortly before the recording session. Cancelling the session would have been costly to Hyperion. Perry felt that the dispute between Hyperion and Sawkins had been contributed to by poor communication by Ex Cathedra, which was then in the process of changing general managers, although he said: "I think there was a series of errors, but I don't think there was any attempt to do anything wrong."
Upon Hyperion's appeal, the Court of Appeal held on 19 May 2005 that Sawkins owned the copyright in his modern performing editions of the de Lalande music, even though de Lalande's music itself was out of copyright. The decision was not welcomed by all. Peter Phillips, the director of the Tallis Scholars and a music editor himself, said: "All the music I perform has to be edited, or we couldn't read it. But copyright should be there ... to reward creativity, not scholarship or diligence. How much an editor did or did not write should never be asked and judged upon during a million-pound lawsuit involving a small and innovative recording company."