Continuum
Continuum was founded in 2018 by Harry Guthrie aiming to represent the very best traditions of choral singing. The choir prides itself in offering original and dynamic interpretations of firmly established choral repertoire alongside promoting new commissions and under-performed pieces. Covering repertoire from the Renaissance to the present, Continuum’s singers are drawn from some of the finest choral institutions in the UK with many being current and former members of Trinity and St John’s College Choirs in Cambridge having met whilst at University. Many of the singers have performed with leading professional ensembles including Polyphony, Tenebrae, The Sixteen and Voces8. The choir typically comprises eighteen singers.
The choir gave its first performance at St Gabriel’s, Pimlico with Music for the Epiphany season. Further performances before the Covid-19 pandemic included a concert of madrigals and jazz for late summer; a concert of music for Remembrance featuring Herbert Howells’ Requiem and a Continuum commission by Harold Thalange; and a Lenten concert pairing Gesualdo’s Tenebrae Responsories for Holy Saturday alongside a contemporary setting of The Reproaches by Stuart Beer.
After a hiatus during the pandemic, the choir enjoyed a busy 2021-22 season taking in performances of Bach Cantatas, Hubert Parry’s Songs of Farewell and Benjamin Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols in 2021. In 2022, the choir performed a concert of Iberian polyphony closing with Alonso Lobo’s arresting Lamentations as well as a concert celebrating twentieth-century French and German music by Francis Poulenc, Maurice Duruflé, Max Reger that culminated in Arnold Schoenberg’s Friede auf Erden.
Upcoming engagements in 2022-23 include concerts of music for Advent in Bedford, Boxgrove and Sherborne; performing new commissions by Alexander Hopkins and Stuart Beer (an extended commission of the nine Tenebrae Responsories for Good Friday) and concerts commemorating the 400th anniversary of the death of William Byrd and the 10th anniversary of the death of Sir John Tavener.