Queens’ Graduate Choir: Orpheus and Euridice by William Hayes

26 March 2022, Queens’ College Chapel. Orpheus - Jonny Tsang Euridice - Vic Olphin Conductor - Cleo Loi (@STCLoi) Videographer - Winnie Che (Instagram: ) William Hayes (1708–1777) was an English composer, organist and music theorist, and Professor of Music at Magdalen College, Oxford. Hayes through his writing and conducting spread the popularity of Handel, his contemporary, across England. Although his style was influenced by that of Handel, Hayes eschewed the grand oratorios of the latter, focusing on more modest forms such as the ode and the cantata. Though a prolific composer whose works were popular in his lifetime, Hayes’ works fell out of favour as a result of changing tastes in the 18th and 19th centuries, and have not received the same revival that many other Baroque composers saw in the 20th century. Recordings and modern editions of Hayes’ works are uncommon. This performance of ’Orpheus and Euridice’ by the Queens’ Graduate Cho