6.00 pm
St Michael and All Angels Church, Summertown
Lonsdale Road, OX2 7ES
£18, £8 students / under 25
Oxford Pro Musica Singers
Alis Huws (harp)
Mark Jordan (conductor)
Sounds and Sweet Airs
Melodious songs and sonnets of Shakespeare and others for choir and harp.
Oxford Pro Musica Singers rehearsing in Exeter College Chapel, Oxford, 2023
Summer in Oxford is typically the season of garden Shakespeare, and Oxford Pro Musica Singers is pleased to present our version of this beguiling combination for our summer concert: a programme of inventive Shakespeare settings and enchanting music for choir and harp, followed by relaxed drinks in the beautiful garden of St Michael and All Angels, Summertown.
We are delighted to welcome the former Royal Harpist, Alis Huws, to join us for this concert. The centrepiece of our programme is James Bassi’s Harpsonnets, which sets four sonnets of great contrast in tone and mood celebrating different facets of the poet’s love. We will also sing imaginative settings of Shakespeare by the Finnish composer Mäntyjärvi, the Englishman Murrill and New Zealander David Hamilton, demonstrating the international reach of his enduring words.
Alis will join us again for Cecilia McDowall’s Fancy of Folksongs, a rhythmically vital, almost dance-like compendium of four characterful English songs, and Holst’s Choral Hymns from the Rig Veda (Group 3), a compelling setting of the elemental Hindu sacred text for female voices and harp.
We warmly invite you to join us on this summer evening to enjoy these magical ‘sounds and sweet airs’, with which we’ll be pleased to serenade you.
Concert Programme
- James Bassi - Harpsonnets
- Cecilia McDowall - A Fancy of Folksongs
- Jaakko Mäntyjärvi - Shakespeare Songs
- David Hamilton - Caliban's song
- Herbert Murrill - O Mistress Mine
- Holst - Choral Hymns from the Rig Veda (Group 3)
Oxford Pro Musica Singers
Harp : Alis Huws - BBC Article / interview
Conductor : Mark Jordan
Right click below to download the poster
