A Flight of Angels

Lancing College was founded by Nathanial Woodward in 1848. The French Gothic chapel in which this recording was made towers over the Adur valley. It guards the port of Shoreham and is dedicated to the saints Mary and Nicolas after the town's ancient churches. Many will know it as a landmark from the coast road, railway, South Downs Way or even Shoreham's increasingly busy airport which attempted to feature (without success) in this recording. Follow the Adur inland or the South Downs to East or West and the legend and the antiquity which drew composers such as John Ireland and Sir Arnold Bax to the county provides rich experience. The sequence of pieces on this disc is a spiritual pilgrimage and a celebration of 150 years of the college.

Sarah Stobart

Sarah lives in Steyning in Sussex, a few miles from where this recording was made. On graduating from the Birmingham School of Music, where she studied with Pamela Cook, she undertook further studies in London with Jessica Cash and has since gained a considerable reputation as an oratorio soloist and recitalist, performing throughout the United Kingdom.

She sings regularly with many of the leading early music ensembles and has broadcast and recorded with the Hilliard Ensemble, the Taverner Consort and Choir and the Choir of the Enlightenment. With these and other groups she has appeared at numerous festivals in the United Kingdom and Europe, including Edinburgh, Bath, Paris, Ravenna, Beaune and Zurich, as well as the BBC Proms.

Sarah has a regular recital partnership with Charles Macdonald and is a member of a number of small ensembles. She also partners her sister, Carolyn Chadwick, in the soprano duo Cara Sorella.

Charles Macdonald

Charles Macdonald is a Yorkshireman by birth, and studied at the Royal Manchester College of Music before becoming organ scholar and a Deputy Organist at York Minster under Dr Francis Jackson.

Following a lectureship at St John's College, York, Charles moved south, becoming Organist and Librarian at Cranleigh School. Since moving to Sussex he has been sometime director of the Brighton Consort, and at St Andrew's Collegiate Church in Steyning.

He was recently appointed as Organist to the University of Sussex and owns "Macdonald Music Service" in Steyning, a leading music retailer serving the South East of England, specialising in organ and choral music publications.

He has a special interest in English music and is in demand both as a recitalist and accompanist.