Our service of Choral Evensong for the Third Sunday after the Epiphany, at 5 p.m. January 26, will include the “St. Thomas Responses” of contemporary composer Joanna Forbes L’Estrange. She is a singer, composer, choral leader, and former member and music director of the a capella jazz group the Swingle Singers (1998-2004). She now composes and performs in classical, liturgical, and jazz genres. “Joanna Forbes L’Estrange’s canticles are fast becoming a favorite of church and cathedral choirs, both in the UK and in the USA,” YouTube reports. 

The liturgy is Evensong in E flat by Charles Wood (1866-1926), an Irish composer and teacher. His students included Ralph Vaughan Williams at Cambridge and Herbert Howells at the Royal College of Music. He is primarily remembered and performed as an Anglican church music composer, but he also wrote songs and chamber music, particularly for string quartet. 

An organ prelude at 4:45 p.m. by Music Director Dwight Thomas includes Felix Mendelssohn’s Sonata No. 6 in D minor. The Cathedral Chamber Choir sings. A freewill offering is taken and a reception follows.