A special relationship continues to grow between a small parish church and a top university.

On Monday, June 5, at 7.30pm the St Andrews Madrigal Group will be making a fourth visit by the university’s musicians to give a concert at the church of St Michael and All Angels in Winterbourne Earls as part of their annual UK Tour. 

Their Director of Music, Will Thorne, said, “We sing in many grand places on our tour but love coming to this small parish church in Wiltshire to sing.  

"We always receive a wonderful reception in the church and at the local Winterbourne Arms pub where we now have our delicious traditional pub supper after the concert.”  

The St Andrews Madrigal Group is a small ensemble from the University of St Andrews in Fife, Scotland.  To round off another successful year of music-making the group is embarking on their annual UK Summer Tour. 

The group will be traversing the UK singing in prestigious venues, including but not limited to Glasgow Cathedral, the Chapel Royal at Hampton Court Palace, Exeter College Oxford, Sherborne Abbey and Lancaster Priory. 

The group is celebrating it’s musical history, performing a wide range of repertoire from anthems by Byrd and Tallis, to folk songs by Vaughan Williams, to more contemporary works by Whitacre, Esenvalds and Morgan. 

Of course the group will also be performing a wide selection of madrigals, for which the group is best known, with favourites by Farmer, Morley and Bennett.

Links started with Winterbourne Earls in 2019 when the well known St Andrews acapella group called “The Other Guys” gave the first concert in aid of the fund to restore the St Michael’s church bells. 

Since then the Madrigal Group has visited wowing the audience by the quality of their singing. 

This year the concert will be in aid of the Salisbury-based charity ‘Multitude of Voices’ whose aim is to support female composers in particular by “the advancement of arts culture and heritage by promoting music and performance by and with those from underrepresented and marginalised groups”. 

The Rev’d Peter Ostli-East, the vicar of St Michael and All Angels said “The St Andrews connection has brought great joy to those who have come to the concerts by their varied repertoire, enthusiasm, and above all the great quality of their singing”.