More than 100 singers are expected to join the Prescot Festival Chorus to commemorate the centenary of the end of World War One this June.
The ‘Come & Sing’ choir gathers on Saturday 16 June to perform Gabriel Fauré’s stirring Requiem under conductor James Luxton, of Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral. The 19th-century choral composition is a prayerful plea for eternal rest, and is among the most popular classical works of its genre.
The evening concert also features Fauré’s Cantique de Jean Racine and Ave verum corpus, a short work by festival director Dr Robert Howard. In the second half of the programme, Haydock Male Voice Choir continues with the theme by including wartime songs among its varied programme.
“Six thousand soldiers were stationed at Prescot before leaving to fight in the Great War,” said Robert, “and many of the town’s own sons gave their lives for their country. It is only right that a century later we remember them in this way.”
The performance, as part of the 10-day Prescot Festival, takes place in the Jacobean church of St Mary the Blessed Virgin, a stone’s throw from the UK’s first WWI war memorial, erected in 1916.
“All soprano, alto, tenor and bass singers are invited to join us for this special occasion,” Robert continued. “We regularly attract a hundred or more choristers for the yearly ‘Come & Sing,’ and you’re welcome whatever your ability or experience.”
More details are online at www.prescotfestival.co.uk, along with the full programme for the 14th Annual Prescot Festival of Music & the Arts, which runs from Friday 15 to Sunday 24 June 2018 in the historic Lancashire town of Prescot, Merseyside.
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