50th Anniversary Gala Concert and World Premiere of The Ice is Listening by Cecilia McDowall

Cecilia McDowall The Ice is Listening

Vivaldi Gloria

Bach Mass in G Minor

Join us for the world premiere of The Ice Is Listening  by Ivor Novello award-winning British composer Cecilia McDowall, commissioned especially to celebrate the 50^th Anniversary of Henley Choral Society.

Inspired by Henley’s location on the Thames, with text created by Oxford-based poet Kate Wakeling, The Ice Is Listening is a cantata about the delicate relationship between water, ice and humanity and the intricate, longstanding connections between all three. The work accordingly passes through time and space, both close and distant, exploring the uneasy pageantry of the 1683-4 frost fairs on the Thames, and reflecting on what we stand to lose as the Greenland ice sheet melts.

This gala concert also includes the Vivaldi Gloria, one of sacred music’s most uplifting choral works, and the extraordinarily inventive Bach Mass in G Minor.

With a star cast of young soloists, and the talents of the London String Collective, you are warmly invited to this very special occasion introducing a compelling anthem for our times.

Richard Harker, conductor

Emily Armour, soprano

Eli Rolfe-Johnson, soprano

Lara Harvey, mezzo

Nick Allen, tenor

Ali Sutherland, bass

Tickets £20.00 (under 18s £5.00)