Our concert is devoted to choral music written in celebration – of love, nature, monarchs and religious figures.

The choir, led by Stephen Kerr, will be joined by soprano Amanda Hargreaves and a group of invited instrumentalists.

Works performed will include:

• the English round Sumer is icumen in (written around 1260) and a set of Renaissance songs celebrating the arrival of spring and the promise of warmer weather
• grand compositions by Henry Purcell and George Frederic Handel in praise of British kings Charles II and George II
• festive religious works by Claudio Monteverdi (from his Vespers for the Virgin Mary, 1610) and Antonio Vivaldi (his toe-tapping Gloria, composed in about 1715)
• various other pieces encouraging singing, dancing and general enjoyment of life.