Oxford choirs nominated for Gramophone Award

Arts 01 Oct 10 Three choirs, all linked to Oxford University, are the only nominations for a prestigious music award. They will attend a ceremony in London today, when the winner of the Gramophone Early Music Award and Gramophone Recording of the Year title will be announced. The three choirs are Christ Church Cathedral Choir; Phantasm, consort-in-residence at the University's Music Faculty at Magdalen College; and The Cardinall's Musick, founded in Oxford when its director, Andrew Carwood, was a lay clerk with Christ Church Cathedral Choir. Christ Church Cathedral Choir is directed by Dr Stephen Darlington and its entry, More Divine than Human , is a selection of music from the Eton Choirbook. The Choirbook is regarded as being one of the most difficult pieces of music composed to be sung by children. It was written for the boy trebles of Britain's many choral foundations in the late Middle Ages. John Ward's consort music for five and six viols was recorded by Phantasm, whose director is Professor Laurence Dreyfus.