6 November
The Crossrail Project
Caroline Metcalf and Emily Tibbitts, Crossrail
Caroline Metcalf, project manager for Bond Street Station, and Emily Tibbitts, site manager for Tottenham Court Road station, will give an overview of the status of the project to build a new railway across London, with particular reference to their individual stations. In doing so they will describe some of the contemporary opportunities for women in engineering.
Come and sing Carols with Highgate School Band in Pond Square and refreshments afterwards at 10A South Grove -Highgate Society.
Free entry – complimentary tea and cake – non members welcome
This is the third in what is now becoming an annual Highgate Society event – a January afternoon
travel talk and tea. Our first, in 2016, featured visits to North America by Catherine Budgett Meakin
and to the Andes by Richard Webber. Last year it was the turn of Michael Hammerson who dusted
off his slides and diary account from 1966 to treat us to a wonderful account of his experiences as a
young man visiting the battlefields of the American Civil War.
This year our focus shifts to Asia where we will hear travellers’ accounts of visits to three countries in
the Caucasus and Central Asia that receive very few foreign visitors.
The presenters will whet your appetite for a visit with images of magnificent mountain scenery as
well as heritage site of world-wide significance. This will be presented within a broader discussion of
sustainable tourism, the impact of the collapse of the Soviet Union, geo-political uncertainty and
social acceptance and resistance to the spread of Western values.
Do you need a guide to visit these countries? Or should you join a group? How safe will you be? And
how easy is it to engage in meaningful discussion with the views of local people? Come and hear.
Programme
3.15 1: Kyrgistan: Guyonne James
3.40 2: Armenia: Richard Webber
4.05 Questions, answers and discussion in response to talks 1 and 2
4.20 Tea
4.35 3: Iran: Betty Pires + team (the precise members of which are to be confirmed)
5.00 Questions, answers and discussion on practicalities of a central Asia visit
Every one is welcome to come and meet members and non-members of the Highgate Society.
2018 marks the centenary of the birth of composer, conductor, author, music lecturer and pianist Leonard Bernstein, whose most famous scores include West Side Story, On the Town, Candide and On the Waterfront.
Commissioned from Bernstein by the Dean of Chichester Cathedral for the 1965 Southern Cathedrals Festival, the Chichester Psalms received its UK premiere on 31st July 1965 and has gone on to become a highly popular staple of choral societies to this day. Consisting of three short movements, the Chichester Psalms is sung in Hebrew.
Our programme of 20th- and 21st-century compositions is completed with choral works by Janacek, Morten Lauridsen and Vaughan Williams.
‘Highgate as a Conservation area’ exhibition
Come and learn about the Highgate Society and the CA.
Richard Webber illustrates the Lifestyles of the super-rich in Edwardian Highgate – “Then and Now; Great Houses from past Highgate”.
The Mansions of Highgate Ridge
A talk by Richard Webber: Sun, July 8, 2018 7:00 PM. Book on eventbrite. Limited space so booking essential!
This is the story the Great Mansions of the Highgate Ridge, and the visionaries who lived in them. Using seldom seen material from the HLSI archives, the lecture focuses on the lifestyles of the early owners of these houses and the pioneering reforms for which many of them fought. Now that London has because a location of choice for the global rich, the lecture considers what we can learn from the similarities and differences between the lifestyles of the new occupiers of these mansions and those who lived in them a hundred years ago.
Professor Richard Webber was one of the lead researchers on the recent ESRC project, on this topic. Professor Webber is Visiting Professor at University of Newcastle. He is the originator of the Acorn and Mosaic systems which classify people by the neighbourhood in which they live and is a long term resident of Highgate.
Highgate is the location of arguably the finest collection of 20th and 21st Century Modern Homes, many of which are hidden from public view. Professor David Porter will give an illustrated talk on these and the progressive thoughts behind many of the schemes.
Places are limited so booking is essential through eventbrite, although the talk is FREE
Come share your poems at a welcoming open mic session
And take up the monthly poetry challenge set by members
£2 entry includes, tea, coffee, cake (sometimes) and biscuits
Tessa and Ian Henghes and Karen and Mark Rogers will talk about their travels in Uganda with slides and tea with cake!
John Allan will give a talk – Local Heroes – Modern Movement Architects in North London. He will present works by Wells Coates, Erno Goldfinger and Bertold Lubetkin, including conservation projects he has carried out on their key buildings such as Isokon Apartments, Willow Road and Highpoint. As a director of Avanti Architects, John is a foremost expert on the restoration of modern buildings, is founding chairman of DoCoMo-UK and chairman of the Isokon Gallery Trust
Please book:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/local-heroes-modern-movement-architects-in-north-london-tickets-53861601500
Get into the Christmas spirit with an evening of sacred music, popular festive songs and traditional carols from acclaimed choir Voxcetera.
Enjoy beautiful choral works spanning 400 years, from anthems by Byrd and Praetorius to contemporary composers including John Rutter, Eric Whitacre, Morten Lauridsen and Cecilia McDowall. And there’ll be dazzling arrangements of popular songs and carols such as Winter Wonderland, Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas and Ding Dong Merrily on High.
It isn’t Christmas without a Christmas concert – so why not start the season in beautiful surroundings with joyous, tranquil and uplifting music.
Voxcetera chamber choir sings Gabriel Fauré’s much-loved, moving masterpiece, with soloists Ellie and Jamie Sperling, accompanied by violin, cello, harp and organ.
The concert will also feature Fauré’s Cantique de Jean Racine; a selection from Gustav Holst’s Choral Hymns from the Rig Veda, a collection of ancient Indian sacred texts; and Henry Balfour Gardiner’s dramatic Evening Hymn.
And you’ll hear beautiful music from contemporary composers: the hypnotic Northern Lights by Ola Gjeilo; and Paul Aryes’ sun-drenched love song Quanto sei bella.
Voxcetera is a north London-based chamber choir, directed by its founding conductor Jane Hopkins. Recent activity includes concerts at St Martin-in-the-fields, East Finchley Arts Festival, overseas tours and recording work.
Voxcetera returns to the beautiful St Michael’s Church with two dazzling works for choir and strings, written nearly 300 years apart.
Vivaldi: Gloria
In a crowded field, little beats this for exuberant Baroque joy. Yet it is full of variety, from the slow and tender “Et in terra pax” to the effervescent “Domine, Fili unigenite”, the choir accompanied throughout by sprightly strings, oboe and trumpet.
Ola Gjeilo: Sunrise Mass
“Most of my favourite composers are film composers working in America today” says the New York-based Norwegian composer Ola Gjeilo, and this thrilling mass pays tribute to the emotions, adrenaline and sense of wonder of film music. Scored for choir and strings and using traditional Latin texts, the 30-minute piece is strong on melody and rich in harmony, opening with gorgeous shimmering chords that emerge magically out of silence. It’s unmistakably modern, but it’s also in touch with early sacred music including Gregorian chant.
with:
Voxcetera chamber choir
Jane Hopkins, conductor
Ellie Sperling & Bethany Partridge, soloists
String orchestra, oboe, trumpet, organ
Voxcetera is a chamber choir celebrating sacred and secular music from medieval times to the present day under the direction of its founding conductor Jane Hopkins. The choir’s achievements include its popular Christmas concerts; performances with chamber ensembles of Fauré’s Requiem, Saint-Saëns’ Requiem and Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem, at St Michael’s Highgate; tours to Germany and Ireland; performances at St Martin-in-the-Fields, St. John Smith Square, St. Stephen Walbrook and East Finchley Arts Festival; appearances at the Science Museum, British Library and the Southbank Centre; and a variety of recording work.