St Hilda’s College will host a May Morning celebration on the Regina Pisa Rooftop. Tickets cost £90 and include a performance from Hilda’s music students, a champagne breakfast, and an address from the Principal. Most importantly, it includes a view of Magdalen College’s Great Tower, where its choir will sing on May Morning.
This is the second year that Hilda’s will host this rooftop celebration, and the first time that members of the public will be able to purchase tickets. The event is among many celebrating May Day, which begins from around 5.00am at Magdalen Bridge.
After Magdalen’s choir sings the Hymnus Eucharisticus and three madrigals, there is a procession from the bridge up High Street and into the city centre. Throughout the city, Morris dancing, Highland dancing, and folk singing can then be found.
A donation to the St Hilda’s Music Fund is included in the price of the ticket. The College is hoping to raise £500,000 by the end of the year to further its reputation as “one of Oxford’s top colleges for the arts”.
Marking 30 years since the completion of the Jacqueline du Pré Music Building (JdP), the music fund will go towards upgrading the building’s audio-visual equipment, expanding community engagement, and supporting student music activity. The College is also launching an ‘artist fund’ to encourage a broader range of musical projects, particularly collaborations between guest artists and students.
The JdP was opened in 1995 as the first purpose-built concert venue in Oxford since the Holywell Music Room. Jacqueline du Pré was an honorary fellow of the College, considered one of the greatest cellists of the 20th century.
The College recently announced a new partnership with Music at Oxford (MaO), with the organisation to relocate into the JdP from 2nd May. Rebecca Dawson, Artistic and Executive Director at MaO, said: “We are thrilled by the possibilities that our new home will offer us: the Jacqueline du Pré Music building is a wonderful venue with excellent facilities, and we have held many successful concerts there.”
