Inspirational visitors.
This week has seen some extraordinary visitors come to St Augustine’s Priory. We welcomed the Miraculum Children’s Choir from the Kodály School in Kecskemét, Hungary. Led by László Durányik, this world-famous choir has won accolades and awards for over twenty years and we were delighted to welcome them to Ealing as first stop on their concert tour of England.
On Wednesday 20th June they arrived and serenaded us in the Rose Garden before many of our parents and staff, kind hosts for the choir members, took them to their homes. This gave us a taste of the joys to come – even after a long, tiring journey the choir sang with a delicacy, musicality and clarity that was captivating.
On Thursday the choir ran workshops for our pupils and both seniors and juniors benefited from their experience and musical expertise.
Following this, the natural amphitheatre of our rose garden acted as theatre for a magical open air performance by the Miraculum Children’s Choir, thoroughly enjoyed by all who heard it.
The highlight of the visit was the choir’s concert in St Barnabas Church, Pitshanger Lane, on Thursday 21st June. 
The concert was in two halves, the first consisting of sacred music by Palestrina, Gibbons, Mendelssohn, Kodály and Bartók. Our Junior Choir joined with the Miraculum Choir to sing John Rutter’s ‘Clare Benediction’, while our combined Senior and Chamber Choirs sang Allan Naplan’s ‘Al shlosha d’varim’ (‘The world is sustained by three things: by truth, by justice and by peace’).
The second half featured arrangements of mostly Hungarian folk songs. The programme ended with the traditional American song ‘Bring me a little water, Sylvie’, and an encore of ‘And so it goes’, by Billy Joel.
The concert was glorious. The Miraculum Children’s Choir exceeded all our expectations and the church was filled with a beautiful, lovely singing that held us all entranced.
As one member of staff put it, ‘the singing of the Miraculum Children’s Choir was like being embraced by angels’.
Categories: Faith Life Junior Nursery Prep Senior Sixth Form Whole School
