We started our 40th anniversary season with a celebration of Baroque greats, entitled ‘Sound, trumpet, sound!’ where we were joined by fantastic local soloists, with links to Cantorum over the years. Our first concert back after the lockdowns, it was great to be back singing together!

Christmas was a little different due to ongoing restrictions to keep covid secure, so we performed two shorter concerts, with the afternoon concert selling out.

In the spring, we finally got to perform our twice-postponed concert of Rachmaninov’s Vespers at Eton College Chapel. We had been half way through the rehearsal series when we went into the first lockdown in March 2020. Plans were tentatively made for October until it became clear that wasn’t going to be possible. It wasn’t plain sailing for us this time either, as covid was still very much around and unfortunately a number of the choir had to miss the concert. We were then shocked to hear that Russia had invaded Ukraine and left us questioning if we should still go ahead, but we did and Ollie made a heartfelt speech about how music transcends all and the fact that a number of the movements in this work are based on Ukrainian chants. We opened by singing the Ukrainian national anthem – a very poignant moment that will stay with us for a long time.

The summer term was busy with Platinum Jubilee concerts as we were invited to sing at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle as part of a massed choir for Windsor’s Jubilee celebration. We then performed our own Jubilee themed concert a few weeks later in Marlow. A very fitting end to the season.