Historic visit by Corpus Christi College Chapel Choir

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Historic Auckland visit by Corpus Christi College Chapel Choir

The University of Auckland’s ties with the University of Cambridge will be to the fore with a visit next month by the renowned choir of Cambridge’s Corpus Christi College.

The University of Auckland’s ties with the University of Cambridge will be to the fore with a visit next month by the renowned choir of Cambridge’s Corpus Christi College.

The University's Faculty of Creative Arts and Industries will host a powhiri for the choir and Corpus Christi College Master Stuart Laing on Thursday 8 December, on the opening day of a week-long New Zealand visit.

Mr Laing, who is Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University of Cambridge and a former diplomat, will give a Politics and International Relations lecture later that day titled “Turbulent world: Can the Middle East’s wounds be healed?”

This hour-long public lecture will be held at 3pm in the Pat Hanan Room, Room 501, Arts 2 Building (207), on the University’s city campus.

The activities at the University are part of a tour by the choir which will also include concerts at Auckland’s St Matthew’s Church and Waiheke Island’s Piritahi Marae, and other events in New Zealand, Singapore and Hong Kong.

Associate Professor Deidre Brown, from the University of Auckland’s School of Architecture & Planning, says the visit reflects important links between the two universities.

“The University of Auckland has a number of staff who are graduates of the University of Cambridge, and others who have developed collaborative research projects with that institution. Indeed, there is a long tradition of scholarly exchange and influence between Aotearoa New Zealand and Cambridge, beginning early with Hongi Hika and Waikato’s work on Maori grammar there in 1820. The powhiri will be an opportunity to celebrate these enduring connections.”

Along with Associate Professor Manuka Henare from Auckland’s Business School, Associate Professor Brown is a recent Visiting Fellow to Corpus Christi College.

Dr Geoff Willmott, a senior lecturer in the University of Auckland’s Department of Physics who studied at Cambridge, sits on the selection committee for the Girdlers Scholarship for New Zealanders to undertake undergraduate study at Corpus Christi College.

Founded in 1352, Corpus Christi College is one of the ancient colleges in the University of Cambridge. It has a distinguished musical tradition. The College Choir consists of 18 undergraduate and post graduate students and two Organ Scholars. Recent trips have seen the choir perform in Instanbul, Milan, Amsterdam and Paris.

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