“I loved the concert. I'm not very familiar with classical music, I know little about Bach … but I was moved in a way that I had not anticipated. The power of the work, plus the extraordinarily high quality of the choir and orchestra left me overwhelmed.”

Audience Feedback

My final season as Artistic Director after 58 years! Hard to believe - so much music, so many musicians, singers, players, dancers, composers, musicologists, linguists, producers, sound engineers, administrators, pupils, students, teachers, philanthropists, entrepreneurs, trustees, so many wonderful friends and relationships. What an extraordinary legacy! This programme, featuring some of the greatest music ever written, is a tribute and a thank you to them all - from my heart.

It seems fortuitous that the international spiritual study Can beauty save the world? comes to the University of Birmingham in September as a conference entitled ‘Reasons to Sing’ Singing, Spirituality and the Search for Meaning. The project’s philosophy and aims seem to sum up my musical life and present the perfect introduction to my final season with Ex Cathedra which includes a concert In 40 Parts, Bach Motets, Britten at Christmas, Christmas Music by Candlelight, Venetian Vespers, Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, Bach's St Matthew Passion and Monteverdi’s 1610 Vespers. Quite a farewell! You will also be able to hear my top ten selection of most beautiful pieces in the spiritual conference!

Before that, over Summer 2026 you can hear our unique interpretation of Rachmaninoff Vespers in some of the most beautiful venues: St James the Greater, Leicester, St Martin-in-the-Fields, London, Lichfield Cathedral and Gloucester Cathedral as part of the Three Choirs Festival. And you can also join us on our Grand Tour of Europe celebrating Burney 300 in St Chad’s, Shrewsbury, Charles Burney’s birthplace.

The new academic term welcomes our tenth cohort of Scholars. Their first concert with Ex Cathedra is a spectacular programme of music In 40 Parts including Tallis Spem in alium and Sing and glorify, Alec Roth Earthrise and Roderick Williams The Wilderness, a new Feeney Trust commission and an eagerly awaited world premiere.

There are two opportunities to catch a glimpse of James Burton in action before his appointment as my successor in September 2027. One conducting Bach Motets alongside Sven-David Sandström’s complementary commissions from the 20th century. A fascinating juxtaposition of empathetic styles (very Ex Cathedra). In the new year he will lead a Come and Sing at the CBSO Centre exploring Cherubini’s Requiem in C minor. It was one of Beethoven’s favourite pieces which was performed at his memorial service on 5 April 1827.

Britten at Christmas celebrates the 50th anniversary of one of the greatest composers of the 20th century. Sebastian Hill, a recent Ex Cathedra Scholar bound for stardom, is the seasonal Saint Nicolas. This popular Britten cantata typically brings together the whole Ex Cathedra family with the choir, CBSO, our Academy of Vocal Music, community choirs, and a guest Youth Choir. CBSO principal harpist Katherine Thomas accompanies the joyful and perennially fresh A Ceremony of Carols and the programme is completed with the virtuosic set of unaccompanied choral variations A Boy was Born.

This year’s 13 performances of Christmas Music by Candlelight in our favourite venues around the region will feature three discrete programmes for Consort, unaccompanied choir and choir and organ. For over 50 years Ex Cathedra has led the way with repertoire and programme planning. What to miss out is the question!

Ex Cathedra’s first concert with period instruments was in 1983 with the then newly-formed His Majestys Sagbutts & Cornetts; several recordings and tours followed over a period of 40 years. It is a great pleasure to be working with the Scholars and the next generation of players from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and the University of Birmingham directed by Jamie Savan. Venetian Vespers introduces ground-breaking polychoral gems by Gabrieli, Monteverdi, Donati and Freddi and madrigals by Cipriano de Rore (O morte, eterno fin) and Gesualdo (Moro, lasso).

The season comes to a suitably powerful conclusion with three giants of the repertoire which I particularly love and for which, over the years, Ex Cathedra, with its unique set of qualities, has gained a special reputation for its performances.

Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis is the most profound, emotional cry for peace and the perfect celebration for the bicentenary of his death in March 1827. Considered by Beethoven himself as his greatest work, the score is headed with the famous inscription: ‘From the heart may it go again to the heart’.

Bach’s St Matthew Passion is 300 years old. This liturgical reconstruction of the ‘great passion’ with our remarkable team of musicians from several generations is the ‘stuff of legends’.

And to finish - Monteverdi’s 1610 Vespers. One of the first works (alongside Machaut Mass!) to capture my imagination as a Magdalen undergraduate in 1970. Coming full circle it seems appropriate to end with this revolutionary, seminal and defining work with His Majestys Sagbutts & Cornetts, whose first concert took place in St Martin-in-the-Fields, London, 45 years ago.

As it was in the beginning! Amazingly, the philosophy and ethos of Ex Cathedra has not changed over the years and the legacy is worth cherishing. We must also make sure it continues into the future.

Jeffrey Skidmore, May 2026

Ex Cathedra is a B:Music Associate Artist