Earlier this year, members of KOFMA’s Aves Cantantes choir visited Kork in Germany and performed a concert in the town’s evangelical church. The local newspaper featured the choir, and so did the Baden Online website. Below is a translation of the article; you can find the original (in German) here.
Music for a summer’s night: as part of the “Kork Feiert” weekend festival, on Saturday 30th of June the Aves Cantantes choir from London performed a concert in the evangelical church in Kork.
We caught up with choirmaster Miles Lallement and soloist Laura Lamph to talk about their choir and the concert.
Your choir is called ‘Aves Cantantes’: what does it mean?
Miles Lallemant: It means ‘songbird’ in Latin.
Laura Lamph: Latin was once the primary language of Europe. We perform concerts in England, France, Italy, Ireland and Germany, with pieces from Bach, Rutter, Purcell, Vivaldi, Handel, Fauré and so on.
How did a London choir end up in the Kork festival?
Miles Lallemant: I used to be an organist in Taormina in Sicily, where Christa Wolf Pfrarrerin lived. We’ve been friends ever since.
Laura Lamph: We were talking about our idea of taking the choir on a trip and Christa spontaneously said: “Why not come to our Kork festival?”
Are you both professional musicians?
Miles Lallemant: Yes, I sing contralto in London choirs. I’ve had my own choir for three years.
Laura Lamph: I sing mezzo-soprano and I spend a lot of time travelling around Europe. I’m currently singing in some music festivals and opera houses in Copenhagen and London.
