Part of the Early Music in Hexham 2020 concert series.

The Abbey is delighted to welcome Ensemble Pro Victoria to perform a range of early choral works.

There are a number of free tickets available to those in full-time education. Contact Jez Light on 01434 611904 for more details.

Tickets are available from the Hexham Abbey Gift Shop

Ensemble Pro Victoria were founded in 2015 at Cambridge University for the performance of early music. A flexible ensemble performing one to a part, their focus has ranged from Spanish counter-reformation polyphony to pre-reformation English music, through to expansion of forces to present Monteverdi, Bach, and polychoral Venetian repertoire. Summer 2020 will see EPV release their first recording of music by Tomas Luis de Victoria, A Renaissance Giant, recorded in the chapel of Castle Howard and launched at St Mary’s, Bourne St. Chelsea during their In Terra Aliena – Lamentations programme.

March 2019 saw EPV perform Eton Choirbook – Early Music reimagined at the Newcastle Early Music Festival, including the Eton Choirbook epics of Browne Stabat Mater and Cornysh Salve Regina, and a rare departure from early music with music by Matthew Martin including his Sanctissima (reimagining Guerrero’s piece of the same name), and Missa Speravimus, with the composer playing Newcastle University’s Aubertin organ.

EPV return to Newcastle University in 2020 as Artists-in-Residence, with two festival AHRC-funded festival weeks in March and November. Presenting music sung in Choirbook formation, polychoral repertoire with New Vocal Ensemble (Newcastle University’s premier vocal ensemble) and monastic repertoire with Hexham Abbey Choir, their presence will support the work of Professor Magnus Williamson on the Tudor Partbooks project, including interactive concerts and lectures.

29 March 2020 sees EPV collaborate with Endelienta Baroque for the first time to perform Bach’s St John Passion in a small-forces, period performance at St Mary’s Bourne St., Belgravia.

EPV have enjoyed annual concerts at Cambridge’s West Road Concert Hall since their inception, and have previously expanded as an ensemble to include period instruments twice; Monteverdi Vespers in the chapel of King’s College, Cambridge, directed by guest conductor Adam Hickox, and Bach Christmas Oratorio, also in King’s Chapel in 2017, directed by Richard Gowers.