![St Frideswide in 14th century stained glass at Christ Church, Oxford [Photo: Wikimedia/Andrew Dunning]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvZ68XyNeJJ381uZuoDc1vjH3x5FX2KD7NO2Qimd7u1vjI97pUg6EjI1EdhEsKQTZ47i97TfaLhFNQGYM3T4Fgt-cfsHKQtwwiMFGi-X2TEGzPP6YwnKeXYW8-QmZDhZh503yc6KiKb7XtzJqgQMkfjgrJKGqoRCI5YAlxCLIEI856T0Vsw8ZXXA/s4896/St_Frideswide_14th-century_window_at_Christ_Church_Oxford.jpg "St Frideswide in 14th century stained glass at Christ Church, Oxford [Photo: Wikimedia/Andrew Dunning]") |
| St Frideswide in 14th century stained glass at Christ Church, Oxford [Photo: Wikimedia/Andrew Dunning] |
The Stephen A. Schwarzman Centre is the University of Oxford’s new centre for the arts and humanities. The Hopkins Architects-designed buildings house seven of the University’s humanities faculties whilst the public performance spaces include a concert hall, studio theatre, and black box performance space.
As an example of the sort of cross-cultural fertilisation that we might expect, artist and writer Edmund de Waal is a Schwarzman Centre Cultural Fellow. He was been working with academics on exploring the continuing resonance of the Psalms across the three Abrahamic faiths and beyond. The culmination of this work is a Day of Psalms at the Schwarzman Centre on 28 November which includes a sunrise concert from GBSR Duo (piano and percussion), the Colin Currie Group in Steve Reich’s Tehilim, and all manner of events exploring the psalms relevance from John Donne to writing workshops.
The evening concert will feature Nicholas Collon, Aurora Orchestra, the BBC Singers in a programme co-curated by Edmund de Waal. The concert features Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms (a work that celebrates Bernstein’s Jewish heritage with music worthy of Broadway), and Bach’s Magnificat (not strictly a Psalm but reflecting the Lutheran tradition), plus a new work by Nico Muhly.
Muhly’s Frideswide Psalms has been co-commissioned by Aurora Orchestra and the Schwarzman Centre. Frideswide was an Anglo-Saxon princess, who become the patron saint of Oxford and the University of Oxford. She is credited as the founder of an Oxford monastery which became part of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford. Muhly’s new piece involves ‘several interwoven psalms, whose imagery circles the life of the early medieval Saint Frideswide’ with texts both from the Book of Common Prayer and the 14th century Wycliffe translation.
There are three opportunities to catch the programme, at Saffron Hall on 27 November, at the Schwarzman Centre on 28 November and at Kings Place, London on 29 November.
Further information about the Day of Psalms from the Schwarzman Centre website, and see Aurora Orchestra’s website for details of their concerts.
