Pinsuti Chamber Choir presents: “Byrd and Bard”

Our next concert celebrates 400 years since William Byrd’s death, bringing together Byrd’s sublime “Mass for Four Voices” with the delightful and contrasting settings of songs by his dramatist contemporary, Shakespeare, composed by Jaakko Mäntyjärvi and R. Vaughan Williams.

In addition, as well as a secular partsong, we will be singing two of Byrd’s best-known motets, the uplifting “Sing Joyfully” and contemplative “Ave Verum Corpus”, with the challenging “Ave Verum Corpus Re-imagined”, by the contemporary composer Roderick Williams.  The modern vein continues with a setting of Silvestri’s “Sainte-Chapelle” by one of our favourite composers, Eric Whitacre, and Bob Chilcott’s arrangement of another setting of a Shakespeare song, this time by William Walton, “Touch her soft lips and part”.

To increase the choir’s linguistic challenge, we travel north to Iceland, singing the ethereal classical hymn “Heyr, himna smiður” (Hear, smith of the heavens) – a modern setting of a 13th century text.

We hope you will be able to join us for a great evening in the wonderful acoustic of Christ Church.

Tickets are £12 on the door or in advance from choir members, or from eventbrite (booking fee applies). Free for under-18s.