The Story

One of the highlights of our year is Epiphany which is usually celebrated on the first weekend of every New Year. An ad hoc group of British and European singers mysteriously gather in the village for a Carol Concert on the Saturday evening, and then sing a Choral Eucharist on the Sunday morning. The singers then disperse their many ways until they all meet again in twelve months time. This wonderful event has been celebrated here for over 50 years and is a musical treat that should not be missed.

The Singers

The men are from various generations of King‘s Choral Scholars, or from cathedral or college choirs, while the women tend to sing with professional choirs such as the Bach Choir, Tallis Scholars and the Monteverdi Choir. Their number has included at different times internationally renowned soloists such as James Bowman (deceased), Edward Gardner, Charles Brett, William Kendall, Stephen Varcoe, and Sarah Fox. Several of our cathedrals have provided organists and conductors over the years – Salisbury, Winchester, St Paul‘s, Lichfield, Southwark, together with St John‘s and Jesus Colleges, Cambridge, St George‘s Chapel, Windsor Castle, The Temple Church, London, and Westminster Abbey. David Hill, director of the Bach Choir, has played the organ for the Singers for most of the last 30 years; and their current conductor, Simon Carrington, a professor emeritus at Yale University, was also one of the original King’s Singers.

History of the Epiphany Singers

The concert was the brain–child of Mrs Norah Ross, whose father was for some years priest–in–charge of the parishes of Badwell Ash and Great Ashfield, and whose two sons, David and Keith, were choristers at King’s College, Cambridge, Keith returning in due course as a choral scholar. In 1971, when Badwell Ash church was recruiting a choir and needed money for robes and such, Mrs Ross suggested that Keith might get some of his former King’s choral scholar friends together to give a concert in the church. This they did, and the concert took place over the Epiphany weekend in January 1971, with six singers and an organist/conductor.

Why in Walsham

The concert became an annual event, and for the first four years was held in Badwell Ash church. In 1973 a Sunday morning service was added, sung in Woolpit church, as it was again in 1974. The first Carol Concert held in Walsham-le-Willows church was in 1975, the Sunday service that year being in Great Ashfield church. Next year the carol concert was held in Woolpit, and the Sunday service in Stowlangtoft.

From 1977 onwards both events have taken place in Walsham-le-Willows, which the Singers decided that they preferred for many reasons: it was always warm, there is a good organ – and a good pub – in the right place, and the welcome and hospitality of Walsham folk are above praise.

And why Epiphany

The reason that this festival of the Church is often neglected in ‘choirs and places where they sing’ is that the singers, young and old, having sung up to and including Christmas Day (and sometimes beyond) are on holiday; and this, of course, makes recruiting for the Epiphany Singers easier, since professional singers, as most of them are, tend to start work later in January and so are free – and, it would seem, most willing, which might explain why the numbers have almost trebled over the years – to spend a couple of days making music in Suffolk.

The Epiphany Carol Concert is usually at 7.30 p.m. on the first or second Saturday in January, and the Choral Epiphany Eucharist is at 11.00 a.m. on Sunday. There is no admission charge and tickets are not issued, but donations are collected in aid of the church and organ fabric funds. Both events take place in St Mary‘s Church, Walsham-le-Willows, Suffolk IP31 3AB