Christmas Course 2023

About the course

Come and sing with us at Christmas! This is a special course with special music!

The course includes whole-group singing, music appreciation and music history, music theory plus singing lessons in small groups with a specialist singing coach.

This course is suitable for those children aged 7-13 who love to sing.

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We are considering offering after course care for children during the Christmas course. Please could you take a moment to complete the very short questionnaire HERE. It should take 30 seconds.

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We are currently running a Bring a Friend scheme. The terms of the scheme are:

– That one friend must be new to the Oxford & Cambridge Singing – meaning that they are not already on our mailing list or have attended any of our previous courses.

– That the £20 discount is one per family

– That the friend must book the full course

– That each friend must put the name of the other friend in the comments box while completing the form, so that we can match them up

– That both bookings relate to Oxford.

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Courses are structured so that each day will conclude with an informal concert, and the end of the course with a special concert featuring the music rehearsed during the full course.

The course includes whole-group singing, musical games and exercises to improve sight reading and small group vocal coaching with other children of a similar age. Every care will be taken to provide age and experience-appropriate tuition.

A typical day will consist of a morning warm-up session followed by full choir practice; a mid-morning break (please provide a nut free snack and water)  followed by smaller group sessions.  After lunch, there will be further group sessions, focusing on music reading and theory before a final full choir practice, another short break (please provide a nut free snack and water) and a final sing-through before the concert.

Each day will begin at 9.30 (registration from 9 am) and conclude at 3.30 (with a short concert at 3.15pm or 3pm on the last day).

About the venue

St Barnabas Church, Oxford was opened for worship on 19 October 1869. The land for St Barnabas was given by George Ward who was an Oxford ironmonger, and the benefactor for the Church building was the generous Thomas Combe, Printer to the University, along with his wife, Martha. The Church was essentially built to serve the spiritual needs of the workforce of the nearby Clarendon Press (subsequently the Oxford University Press) on Great Clarendon Street, as well as the residents of the growing west Oxford suburb of Jericho.

As one enters St Barnabas Church, one is struck at the breadth, and height of the interior space, with its majestic mosaic of Christ the King resting above a dramatic gilded canopy or baldacchino over the High Altar and the great openwork iron cross suspended above the nave (based on Fr Montague Noel’s SSC cross and memorably borrowed by Thomas Hardy in Jude the Obscure).

In 2019/2020 the Church and Parish is celebrating its 150th anniversary with a series of celebratory events, services and concerts.