Shakespeare’s Sonnet 8 – “Music To Hear” First performance Wednesday 1st July

Southwark Cathedral in the City of London Festival National Youth Chamber Choir, conductor Ben Parry. As part of an all-Shakespeare programme The Play’s The Thing ,the NYCGB Chamber Choir will give the premiere of this SATB setting of the poet’s attempt to persuade a young man to get married by drawing an analogy between the harmonies of music and wedded bliss. https://www.nycgb.org.uk/summerfest15

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“Time Becomes A Song” London Premiere Thursday 25th June 7pm

Illumination Chamber Choir, conducted by Alexander Campkin, will give the first London performance of Janet’s popular song cycle of John Clare poems. Clare’s powerful evocation of nature and of his intense feelings for his first love are matched by the choral agility and melting beauty of the musical settings. Commissioned in 2009 by the family of Alfred Tealby, with support from OCR, the work was first performed in a special celebration of the life and…

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“Sleep, O Cluster of Friends” premiere at Saffron Hall, Saturday 6th June at 7:30pm.

Janet’s setting of Matthew Arnold’s elegy for the Brontes, for chamber choir and harp, will be sung by Granta Chorale as part of its summer concert. Harpist Anne Denholm returns to Saffron Walden to accompany the choir. The piece combines traditional and modern techniques for the harp, first evoking gentle summer on the Yorkshire moors but then recognising that the stormier side of the Brontes’ landscape was more in keeping with their muse. http://www.grantachorale.org.uk/event043.php  

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