Welcome!
A choir of students, alumni, and friends of the University, specialising in Renaissance choral music. We perform two principal concerts in Edinburgh, one before Christmas and one before Easter. Other concerts take place out of the city and on tour.
COME TO OUR CONCERTS
You'll find details of upcoming concerts in Edinburgh and elsewhere on this site.
HIRE THE CHOIR
TO PERFORM
The Edinburgh University Renaissance Singers is available for performances in and around Edinburgh.
Email: eursingers@gmail.com
JOIN US
Auditions are held in September each year. To apply for an audition, email:
Email: eursingers@gmail.com
Edinburgh University Renaissance Singers | Composition Competition 2023
The winner of the Composition Competition is Harrison Reeves-Smith.
Originally hailing from Northamptonshire, England, Harrison Reeves-Smith (b.2001) is a composer currently based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Working primarily within chamber and solo music, Reeves-Smith has written for a wide array of ensembles and performers on an international level, including the Red Note Ensemble, Calliope’s Call, and the Homburg Symphony Orchestra. Currently in their final year of their Undergraduate in Music at the University of Edinburgh, Reeves-Smith’s work focuses on understanding new ways of perceiving time and space through music, unearthing these central aspects of sound and bringing them to the forefront of musical conception and aesthetics.
The competition judges said: This is an impressive and evocative work, written in highly effective style which combines harmonic and textural interest with singability/playability. We found the choice to use a recurring harmonic motif (or chord progression) in the vocal parts was a compelling way to give the piece a sense of unity and a distinctive character, and we thought this was an excellent means of balancing the more improvisatory/through-composed saxophone part. Throughout, Eschaton shows a real sensitivity to setting the text in a way which matches both the natural emphases and the meaning. The writing for voice and saxophone is highly idiomatic, and although some passages may represent a challenge to the ensemble in terms of co-ordination, the prefatory note made it clear that some amount of push-and-pull is to be expected and is not necessarily undesirable. Overall, this piece uses its vocal and instrumental resources to great effect and looks like it will be enjoyable to sing and play. The score was highly readable, well-presented and made the composer’s intentions clear.