Thomas Morley – workshop for voices with Will Dawes and Katie Bank on 21st June 2025

Plaine and Easie? The life and music of Thomas Morley

Following a very successful double-act on Weelkes in 2023,Will Dawes (music) and Dr Katie Bank (historical background and context) return to present a workshop on Thomas Morley.

Thomas Morley was more than a composer and Gentleman of the Chapel Royal. He was a businessman, a mover and a shaker. He propagated trends that altered the English musical landscape and had the expertise and competence to bring major projects to fruition, even politically sensitive ones. As a musician, Morley had a range unlike most of his contemporaries. Though he is mostly known today for his Italian-style madrigals and fa-las, he also wrote evocative Latin polyphony and experimented in a variety of musical idioms.

The music will include secular and sacred music by Morley in up to 7 parts, with texts in Latin, English and Italian. We will be singing Agnus Dei, I follow, lo, the footing, De profundis, Phyllis, I fain would die now, Laboravi, Nolo mortem, It was a lover and his lass and Now is the month of Maying (but not as you know it…)

Katie Bank is Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in the Department of History at the University of Birmingham. She has written and edited books and articles on English recreational music, William Byrd, Music in the Chapel Royal and musical-visual culture in Renaissance England. She was creator of ByrdCentral.com, a collaborative educational initiative between academics, teachers, and musicians that celebrated the quatercentenary of Byrd’s death, Katie is an avid choral singer and collaborates regularly with ensembles around the United Kingdom.

Will Dawes is a Choral Director and Baritone. He is Director of Chapel Music at Somerville College, Oxford, where he directs the only auditioned non-liturgical college choir in the University. He has directed the BBC Singers and the Eric Whitacre Singers as well as workshop days for Stile Antico and almost all the Early Music Forums in the UK. He was the founding Director of Music of Frideswide Voices, Oxford’s first group of 7-13 year-old girl choristers in over 500 years. For 16 years, he was a member of the triple-GRAMMY-nominated early-music ensemble Stile Antico and has also sung with some of the foremost choral ensembles in the UK including The Sixteen, The Cardinall’s Musick, Ora, Magnificat, Gabrieli Consort, Polyphony, and London Voices. He has twice curated a performance of the complete Latin works of William Byrd in 24 hours, both taking place in the church of St Mary Magdalen, Oxford, where he is Director of Music.

Venue   Dorridge Village Hall http://www.dorridgevillagehall.org/ is at the end of a driveway (with a height barrier) off the B4101 between Dorridge and Hockley Heath and is easy to reach from the M42. The satnav is not pinpoint accurate so when you get near look for the following:

From Hockley Heath, the driveway to the Hall is the first right after the Railway pub, before the “Welcome to Dorridge” signs and the start of the built-up area.

From Dorridge centre, the driveway to the Hall is the first left after Dorridge Park. If you get to the Railway pub you have gone too far.

Dorridge train station is approximately 10 minutes’ walk away. Directions can be provided on request.

The Organiser is Marion Thompson, 07436 540608

Booking is now open – book here by 13th June