Twelfth Night is an important moment in the religious calendar, marking the end of Christmas and the beginning of Epiphany. However across the centuries it has acquired many mysterious traditions associated with the ushering in of the new year, one being the 'Wassail'.
Bridging this gap between the sacred and profane, our seasonal programme of unaccompanied choral works by Barber, Poulenc, Nørgård, Mahler, Rachmaninov, along with Howells and Warlock and early English composers, will see The Carice Singers' hallmark of magical, warm and pure sound at its most imaginative.
The Carice Singers is a British vocal ensemble directed by George Parris, described as possessing a "beauty of tone" and "musicality" that "few can match" (Gramophone Magazine, 2016). Since its founding in 2011, the ensemble has performed at many festivals and venues throughout the British Isles and in Germany (including Cheltenham Music Festival and the Oxford Lieder Festival), in addition to making recordings for Naxos and the BBC Music Magazine.
George Parris combines his role as Founder and Conductor of The Carice Singers with further studies in Choral Conducting at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, where he is also a member of the Helsinki Chamber Choir. He read Music at both Cambridge and Oxford universities and has received a Certificate of Merit from the Elgar Society for his research on Elgar's music. He has worked with the Croatian Radio-Television Choir, and observed the Danish National Vocal Ensemble, RIAS Kammerkor and the Latvian Radio Choir.