London boys choir to sing at Salt Lake cathedral

Friday, Jun. 21, 2019

SALT LAKE CITY — The Schola Cantorum, the liturgical choir of The London Oratory School, will visit Utah July 17-20 as part of its tour of the western United States. Madeleine Choir School families will host the 40 choir members, boys ranging in age from 8-18, in their homes during their stay. 

“We’re all very excited to welcome the boys and the staff from this choir here in Salt Lake and at the cathedral, in particular,” Madeleine Choir School Director of Music Melanie Malinka said. “It’s a nice cultural exchange for the families as well. It’s great for our kids to have the opportunity to know some kids who are doing what they’re doing, just somewhere else in the world.”

While here, the Schola choir will provide the music ministry for the 5:15 p.m. Mass at the Cathedral of the Madeleine on Thursday, July 18. The next evening it will perform “Sacred Treasures,” a concert of sacred music at the cathedral.

“Following our East Coast Tour in 2017, we were keen to visit the other side of the U.S.A. We had a wonderful joint concert in London in April 2017 with the Choir of the Cathedral of the Madeleine during their enormously successful European tour,” Schola Director Charles Cole said. “They very kindly offered to host us in Salt Lake City, and having visited a number of times myself, I was delighted to take up the offer on behalf of the boys of the Schola. Our visit to Salt Lake City will be the start of our U.S.A. tour in July, and we greatly look forward to singing Mass and a concert at the beautiful Cathedral of the Madeleine.” 

The relationship between the two choirs began after Malinka got to know Cole through the Church Music Association of American Sacred Music Colloquium. The Colloquium was held in Salt Lake City in 2012 and 2013. Malinka has participated as a conductor at the Colloquium over the last few years and has maintained a relationship with Cole.

The two schools’ programs are similar. 

“The Schola is exclusively focused on the treasures of the Catholic repertory, which is best represented by the renaissance repertory which encompasses the golden age of polyphony, as well as the Gregorian chant out of which it grew,” Cole said.

While in Salt Lake City, the Schola choir will visit Temple Square and tour the organs at the Salt Lake Tabernacle and at the Conference Center at Temple Square.

The July 19 concert will include works from the Spanish renaissance by Francisco Guerrero, Tomás Luis de Victoria, Alonso Lobo, Juan Esquivel and Cristóbal de Morales and the English Tudor period by William Byrd, Peter Philips and Thomas Talli.

“This is a beautiful opportunity to get to hear a choir that is outstanding and led by a very talented conductor as well, who has really brought this choir to a wonderful and amazing level,” Malinka said.

After visiting Utah, the Schola choir will head to California. There, its tour will include performances at the newly consecrated Christ Cathedral (formerly the Crystal Cathedral) in the Diocese of Orange, the Chapel of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity at Thomas Aquinas College, Santa Paula and three of California’s historic missions: Santa Barbara Mission, Carmel Mission Basilica and Mission Dolores. Choir members will conclude their tour by singing at a Mass at San Francisco Cathedral.

The tour marks the release of the Schola’s second album for AimHigher Recordings, “Sacred Treasures of Spain.” 

The London Oratory Schola will present a concert at the Cathedral of the Madeleine, 331 E. South Temple, Salt Lake City on Friday, July 19 at 7:30 p.m. Free and open to the public.