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New Recording by St Peter’s College Choir, Quintin Beer and Piers Connor Kennedy
7 March 2025
In a special choral and orchestra performance on Saturday 22 February 2025, the Choir of St Peter’s College Oxford (Quintin Beer, Director of Music) celebrated the release of their latest recording, Fresh stone: Music by Piers Connor Kennedy (Acclaim Productions). The disc is available for purchase now from St Peter’s College’s in-Lodge store or online here, or for streaming online on all major platforms, including here on Spotify
Fresh stone includes original, never-before-recorded works written for the Choir of St Peter’s College during Kennedy’s tenure as Associate Composer (2022-2023), in addition to works composed during his time as a student at St Peter’s College and throughout his subsequent career.
Director of Music Quintin Beer said,
‘This recording is affecting in all sorts of ways: emotionally direct, narratively compelling, imaginatively rich, harmonically supple and deeply dutiful towards the writers of the texts. Piers, himself a St Peter's alumnus, and more recently as our Associate Composer, understands what makes our students and choir tick, and has a craftsmanship as a composer that produces stylistically varied music which is an utter joy to sing. I hope you will hear as much joy in our sound as we had in making the recording.’
Composer Piers Connor Kennedy said,
‘It’s a very great pleasure to see this recording fruit from the Choir of St Peter's College Oxford - my dear alma mater - sounding wonderful under the direction of Quintin Beer. There is a particular warmth to the sound of this Choir which I love. Mark Damazer, sometime Master of the College, used to describe St Peter's as the 'buzziest' of Oxford's Colleges, and similarly there's a special frissant in this recording, combined with a richly blended sound which I feel draws out a sort of tenderness or candidity from the pieces on the album. There are some pieces here which I consider to be really rather old: ‘Song of Innocence’, for example, which was written for St Peter's Choir whilst I was still an undergraduate choral scholar. And then there is a collection of works which trace the intervening years up to my residency as Associate Composer at the College alongside my DPhil studies (2022-23), during which I composed ‘Three Songs to St Peter’ and others. I am enormously grateful to Quintin Beer for all his work and care over the past couple of years bringing the album to completion, to our producer Adrian Lucas also for lending his expertise and craftsmanship to every aspect of the album's production, and also to the Choir for their commitment and musicality. Thank you all so much.’
Master of St Peter’s College, Professor Judith Buchanan, said,
‘I am delighted to see this latest recording from our wonderful College Choir, showcasing the strikingly beautiful work of St Peter’s alumnus Piers Kennedy, and under the baton of our exceptional Director of Music, Quintin Beer. I commend it to you as a special listen.’
About the St Peter’s College Choir
The Choir of St Peter’s College Oxford is one of the finest mixed-voice choirs in the University. It comprises around 30 auditioned students studying a range of subjects, some of whom hold choral scholarships. The Choir has an established reputation in Oxford, and further afield, for its choral excellence, diverse repertoire, and collegiality. During University terms, it sings two Choral Evensongs a week under its Director, Quintin Beer. The Choir can also boast one of the most cherished acoustics in Oxford in the impressive College Chapel, the Church of St Peter-le-Bailey. Former Directors of Music include Prof Edward Higginbottom, Jeremy Summerly and Dr Roger Allen. Under Dr Allen’s Baton, the Choir produced two recordings, Anthems and Motets of the Romantic Tradition (2013) and The Church Music of Samuel Sebastian Wesley (2015).
About Quintin Beer
Quintin Beer has been Director of Music at St Peter’s since 2021. He obtained his MA in Choral Conducting from the Royal Academy of Music, studying under Patrick Russill and graduating with a distinction in July 2019. He was awarded the DipRAM, the Academy's own premier-prix for an outstanding performance in a final recital. Previously, he studied music at St John’s College Cambridge, where he held a choral scholarship in the world-famous College Choir. In addition to his role at St Peter’s, Quintin is Director of Music at St Cuthbert’s Church, Earl’s Court, and has a freelance career as a conductor. He has worked with a range of ensembles and festivals, including the BBC Singers, Ex Cathedra, the Grange Festival, the St Endellion Festival, the Britten Sinfonia, the Brook Street Band, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and the London Philharmonic Orchestra.
About Piers Connor Kennedy
Piers Connor Kennedy (Music, 2010) is a Welsh-Irish composer and singer based in Suffolk. His music has been performed internationally by ensembles including The Gesualdo Six, and the choirs of Trinity Wall Street and Westminster Abbey. Piers has received commissions from The Three Choirs Festival, the Edington Music Festival, Wigmore Hall, BBC Radio 3, BBC Sounds, The Choir of St John’s College Cambridge, The Choir of Trinity College Cambridge, and Christ Church Cathedral Choir Oxford, among others. Other recordings of Piers’s music include the triptych ‘Songs’ by the Choir of Trinity College Cambridge (Hyperion Records, 2025) and ‘The Worcester Canticles’ (The Choir of St John’s College Cambridge, 2024). In 2023, Piers completed his DPhil in Composition, supervised by Prof Martyn Harry, at St Cross College Oxford, where he held the Hélène La Rue Scholarship in Music. In January 2025 Piers became the 29th member of The King’s Singers, replacing Johnny Howard as the low bass.