Daniel Hathaway, clevelandclassical.com — Nov 1, 11

In his extensive and chatty program notes, guest conductor Tim Brown noted that he chose his repertory for Quire Cleveland through something of a misunderstanding, but he went ahead with plans to “construct a program that would take Quire out of its more accustomed comfort zone, and into corners of liturgical music from the English choral canon that would carry us from the early 1500s up to the end of the 20th century”.
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Donald Rosenberg, The Plain Dealer — Oct 31, 11

Timothy Brown, guest conductor — Oct 29, 11

Quire Cleveland celebrates the glorious tradition of English choral music with guest conductor Tim Brown of Clare College, Cambridge. From Renaissance masters like William Byrd to the romantic Ralph Vaughan Williams to contemporary composer Giles Swayne, the sonorities are exquisite and inspiring.

Renowned as a choral conductor, Timothy Brown served 30 years as director of the Clare College Choir of Cambridge University. He earned international acclaim through concert tours around the world and a discography of more than 50 recordings. Come hear his Cleveland début as guest director of Quire Cleveland, when Maestro Brown shares his expertise and artistry in a program that celebrates the great English choral tradition, from Renaissance masters to those still thriving today.

The program features works by the early Renaissance composers John Taverner and Thomas Tallis, their successors William Byrd and Henry Purcell, Romantic favorites like Charles Villiers Stanford, and more recent masters like Ralph Vaughan Williams, Lennox Berkeley, and Giles Swayne (b.1946). The range of harmonies is sure to provide drama and interest, with appeal to one and all!

Saturday, October 29, 2011, at 7:30 pm
Trinity Cathedral
2230 Euclid Avenue
Cleveland, OH

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Donald Rosenberg, The Plain Dealer — Oct 28, 11

A music teacher once told Timothy Brown that he should give up singing. He eventually would, but not before absorbing enough experience and information to guide choruses to the heights.

The British conductor, who led the admired Choir of Clare College at Cambridge University for 31 years, is about to aim in the same direction with Quire Cleveland, the professional choral ensemble with which he makes his local debut this weekend.

Brown will lead “Musick’s Praier: The Glories of English Choral Music,” which promises to stretch Quire Cleveland beyond its normal purview – the Medieval through Baroque eras. This weekend’s repertoire spans the 16th through 20th centuries.

“This is music that means a lot to me,” said Brown, 64, in an interview the other day. “You don’t hear it in concert very much.”

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Daniel Hathaway, clevelandclassical.com — Oct 25, 11

Timothy Brown spent thirty-one years as music director of Clare College at Cambridge University and conductor of its well-known, mixed-voice chapel choir before deciding to retire early just a year ago to devote himself to other projects including guest conducting. That’s what brings him to Cleveland this week. Brown will lead Quire Cleveland in two performances and an open rehearsal of a program of English church music — something he knows quite a lot about, having been a boy chorister at Westminster Abbey and a choral scholar at King’s College, Cambridge under Sir David Willcocks before settling in for his long tenure at Clare. We had a wide-ranging conversation over coffee with Tim Brown and Beverly Simmons, one of Quire’s founders and its executive director — and mother of David Simmons-Duffin, whose experiences in the Clare College Choir directly led to Brown’s invitation to come to Cleveland.

Brown’s choice of repertory for his appearance with Quire Cleveland comes directly out of his day-to-day duties as an Anglican chapel choirmaster and his work with a choir whose job it is to sing the daily services of Matins and Evensong and the Eucharist. That represents a 500-year tradition from the pre-Reformation days of Latin church music through today, and in the case of Quire, who have championed early music, represents a plunge “out of its more accustomed comfort zone” into music of the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries.
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