Saeculum Aureum is a five-part vocal ensemble based in Grahamstown/Makhanda in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. They perform music from the Renaissance to the 21st Century, in a wide variety of languages, styles and genres. One of their continuing projects is to present programmes exploring specific themes and commemorating important moments in history, for example a concert for the centenary of Armistice Day, and a program celebrating our shared humanity through folksongs from around the world.
The group celebrates their region by working with locally-based musicians and performing in a variety of historical venues. Their home city is fortunate to be a centre for the arts, hosting the National Arts Festival annually and being home to an extraordinary number of talented performers, including students and staff from the Rhodes University Department of Music and Musicology. In 2023, Saeculum Aureum started a concert series “Saeculum Aureum and Friends”, in which they are joined by other soloists. Grahamstown/Makhanda and its surroundings are historically important in South Africa, and the group performs in many of the buildings which form part of this rich heritage.
In addition to their other repertoire, the group is privileged to perform pieces composed or arranged specifically for the group. Their alto, Glyn Lloyd-Jones, composes and arranges many of the items in their repertoire. Other composers who have written for the group include Andrew-John Bethke, Ben Ryan and Cameron Luke. As part of the 2018 concert for the centenary of Armistice Day, Simthembile Xeketwana was commissioned to write a poem about the troopship SS Mendi, which was set to music by Glyn, using “Troyte’s Chant” – the tune which formed the basis of the song “Senzenina”.
Many of their concerts raise funds for local causes, including Food4Futures (a local feeding scheme), Ikhaya Lethu (a local orphanage), the renovation of St Bartholomew’s Church and towards the qualifications of women in music education.
For short biographies of our members, click on the links below:
Caitlin Webb
Soprano
Charles Antrobus
Tenor
Jessica Lloyd-Jones
Soprano
Jonathan Hughes
Bass
Glyn Lloyd-Jones
Alto
History
In the beginning of 2015, Michael Lambert, a lecturer of Classics, Latin, and Ancient Greek, came to Rhodes University to do some teaching. Wanting to get a small group together to sing madrigals on Friday evenings, he asked one of his students, Glyn Lloyd-Jones, if he knew anyone who could sing and might be interested. Glyn did. And so, he and four other choristers from the Rhodes University Chamber Choir turned up that Friday to sing madrigals in the Classics Museum, with a bottle or two of wine. Thus, the group came into being. After a few weeks, we decided it would be a good idea to schedule a performance, so that we would have something to work towards. This would require us to have a name, so we settled with “University Madrigal Singers”.
Over the next couple of years, we presented programmes of madrigals and motets from France, Spain, England and Germany, as well as a cumulative one with madrigals from all four. In the meantime, we had started taking the ensemble rather more seriously - we put on a couple of Christmas concerts and were looking to expand our repertoire to include new music. This necessitated a change of name, and so we became “Saeculum Aureum”.
Past Members
Jessica Taylor
Alto
Jess sang with the group in its early days. She was a member from 2015 to 2016.
Michael Lambert
Bass
Mike founded the group in 2015 and sang with us until the end of 2017. He still joins in rehearsals whenever he comes to town for a visit.
Ben Ryan
Bass
Ben was a member from the beginning in 2015 and has composed music for the group. His last engagement with us was a recording of Christmas music in December 2020.