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ENSEMBLE INFO

Ensemble Contact:

Email:

katy@gabrieli.com

1982

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Gabrieli is a choir & period instrument orchestra with a reputation for dynamic, emotionally powerful performances & award-winning recordings. Founded by Artistic Director Paul McCreesh over 40 years ago, during the last 2 decades we have developed Gabrieli Roar, in which young people perform great choral works alongside Gabrieli’s world class professional musicians.
Gabrieli Roar’s winter 2026 activity is Handel’s Christmas Story: an exciting, original programme by Paul McCreesh. This ‘new’ Handel oratorio is specially designed to celebrate Christmas and to introduce some of Handel’s greatest music to a new audience. It includes much of the famous Christmas music from Messiah and reworks other Handel pieces to tell the parts of the story Handel never set. The final celebratory scene gives the perfect opportunity to finish with the Hallelujah chorus.
The piece is scored for a full baroque orchestra - strings, flutes, recorders, oboes, bassoons, horns, trumpets, harpsichord & organ - giving the opportunity to introduce a wide range of historical instruments to our young singers & providing an 11-concert tour for 27 professional musicians. The creation of a new programme is always an exciting prospect for musicians & the use of a full wind section means that instruments which are not included in Messiah will have the opportunity of a large-scale Handelian Christmas project.
To deliver this project, a core of professional Gabrieli musicians tour to regional venues, being joined in each by c350 local young singers for a final workshop day &concert. A series of Gabrieli Roar workshops & local activity prepare participants for the event, engaging both the final performance group as well as wider communities (eg whole school year groups may participate in workshops whilst only choir members progress to the final concert).
As with all Gabrieli Roar projects, Handel’s Christmas Story is devised & conducted by Paul McCreesh, with pedagogical content & training delivery from Roar Creative Directors, Charles Béquignon-MacDougall & Emily Dickens. Every aspect of the project is delivered by outstanding professionals & is of the highest artistic & educational value.
In total the project engages over 6,000 young singers, many of whom will not have sung in a choir previously & most of whom will not have taken part in performances like these. It will also welcome a new audience to Handel’s music. Using regional performance venues enables parents & carers to attend, & we expect to reach audience numbers in excess of 5,000.
Schedule
22/11/26 rehearse
23/11 Truro Cathedral (confirmed)
24/11 Exeter Cathedral (c)
25/11 Tewksbury Abbey (pencilled)
30/11/26 Southwark Cathedral (c)
1/12 Coventry Cathedral (c)
2/12 Salford Cathedral (c)
3/12 Glasgow Cathedral (c)
04/12/26 Carlisle Cathedral (c)
07/12/26 Norwich Cathedral (c)
08/12/26 London Smith Square Hall (p)
09/12/26 St Albans Cathedral (c)

Gabrieli has been at the forefront of period instrument performance for over 40years, delivering innovative, challenging performances to ever wider & more enthusiastic audiences.
Our 2024 concerts include:
Bach Bminor Mass; Lucerne Festival
Venetian Coronation; Beaune Festival
Verdi Requiem; Ely Cathedral (Gabrieli Roar)
Morales Feast; Utrecht Festival
A Grand Georgian Christmas; 12 UK concert tour (Roar)
Our 2025 concerts include:
Handel Solomon; London, Versailles, Valencia
Purcell Dido and Aeneas; De Montford Hall, Southwark Cathedral (Roar)
Haydn The Seasons; Ely Cathedral (Roar)
Handel Messiah; Malta
Purcell Fairy Queen; St Martin in the Fields, Sion
Gabrieli has an extensive award-winning discography. In 2024, we released the first period instrument recording of Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius, which won both Gramophone & BBC Music Magazine awards.
"…this CD is brimful of edifying delights & surprises worthy of repeated listening. Most of all, its expressive choral & orchestral merits, to quote the words of Newman’s angel, are such that it ‘will gladden thee, but it will pierce thee too’" Gramophone Magazine
This ground breaking recording is very much in keeping with Gabrieli’s reputation for innovative performances, whether it be reconstructions of historical events (as in the iconic Venetian Coronation programme) or of original performances (for example, the large-scale concerts of Haydn’s The Creation and The Seasons, and the one-to-a-part versions of Bach’s Passions), More recently, our development of Gabrieli Roar has catalysed a series of creative projects tailoring core repertoire for the involvement of young singers of all ages and abilities.
Our education programme, Gabrieli Roar, works in partnership with youth, school & church choirs nationwide to create new opportunities for young people to sing great choral music. Through transformative projects, we nurture a love of choral music in young people & support their educators to deliver excellent, inclusive local provision. Our immersive projects inspire participants to explore great music and culture, building confidence & wellbeing, & expanding their capacity for learning. In 2026, we aim to engage with more than 8,000 young people at all levels from first access workshops to our flagship residential course. We also provide opportunities for advanced young singers to support our vocal faculty as Roar New Leaders, delivering warmups and helping to lead sectional rehearsals whilst learning skills in workshop leadership, rehearsal planning & choral directing. Successful Roar New Leaders progress to supporting our workshop leaders, adept in working with children and young people in diverse settings.
‘They will remember this forever. These are the things that they will remember from school’ Partner Music Hub