Warwickshire Singers celebrate 50 years with Leamington concert event

The Warwickshire Singers will celebrate their 50th Anniversary on VE Day weekend with their French partner choir.
Warwickshire Singers from the 1980sWarwickshire Singers from the 1980s
Warwickshire Singers from the 1980s

The concert of glorious baroque music will include well-known and rarely performed pieces.

The concert takes place on Saturday May 9, at 7pm in Holy Trinity Church, 9 Beauchamp Avenue, Leamington Spa CV32 5RE.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Warwickshire Singers have been singing to audiences in churches across the county for the last 50 years and, since 1985, have developed close links with a choir from near Paris, La Villanelle de Sceaux (Leamington’s twin town).

Sixty singers in double chorus, three soloists and a 15-piece string ensemble from Beauchamp Sinfonietta will perform various works, including three by Vivaldi.

The Vivaldi pieces include: Magnificat RV610, Beatus Vir RV597 and Domine ad adiuvandum me festina RV593.

The programme also includes the Miserere in C minor ZWV57 by Jan Dismas Zelenka, a little-known but increasingly highly-rated master of daring compositional structure, harmonic invention and complex counterpoint.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

As Leon James, musical director of Warwickshire Singers, said: “It’s difficult, but it’s awesome.”

Born in what is now the Czech Republic, Zelenka was seemingly overlooked during his career and completely forgotten after his death in 1745. Since the 1970s, however, recordings and recitals have been gaining ground, most notably in Germany and the Czech Republic and now in Leamington.

Warwickshire Singers was founded in 1970 by David H Jones, the then Warwickshire County Music Advisor, to take music out to Warwickshire.

Sadly, David died last year, unaware that his legacy lives on.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Some of the teachers he ‘invited’ to join are still taking part, and are as keen as ever to keep his ideas alive.

For further information or tickets (£15, under-18s free) use the following email: [email protected].

Related topics: