Stour Singers

The programme, appropriately entitled ‘Celebrations’, opens with Haydn’s Te Deum for the Empress Maria Therese, a festive piece written in response to repeated requests from his royal admirer who was very fond of singing. Lord Nelson and Lady Hamilton attended the first authenticated performance directed by Haydn on 8th Sept 1800.

Then Stour Singers contribute to the worldwide celebration of Mozart’s birth 250 years ago with the Coronation Mass, regarded as the finest of his completed mass settings, composed for Salzburg’s Easter celebrations of 1779 and performed at the Coronation of Leopold II twelve years later.

The programme also includes the youthful Faure’s well-loved Cantique de Jean Racine which gained him a first prize in composition in 1865 and ‘Lauda Sion’ written in 1846 by Mendelssohn, a Protestant, for a celebration of the 600th anniversary of the first Corpus Christi procession in Liege at St. Martin’s Roman Catholic Church.

The music is shared with the Cherwell Orchestra & the soloists: Juliet Schiemann (soprano), Claire Bartram (mezzo soprano), Nicholas Mulroy (tenor), and Simon Thorpe (baritone), (Nicholas Mulroy is a Philip & Dorothy Green Young Concert Artist).

The conductor: Richard Emms.

Tickets: £7.50 from choir members, Clarkes, & at the door.

Accompanied children free.

New members welcome - no auditions.

Contact choir manager, Vic Twyman, on 01608-664215 for further details.

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Last modified: March 31, 2006