IT was just over sixty years ago that the Helensburgh Oratorio Choir made its public debut, singing Mendelssohn’s Elijah, a hugely popular choral work.
Since that concert in October 1963 the choir has gone from strength to strength, winning over audiences with performances of choral works of the highest quality alongside professional soloists and the Orchestra of Scottish Opera, leader Katie Hull.
Last autumn, 15 of its members and their Musical Director, Susannah Wapshott, the Chorus Director at Scottish Opera, made a successful trip to Sardinia, where their harmonies were widely praised at the International Choral Festival.
Review: Helensburgh Oratorio Choir, Helensburgh Parish Church, three stars
In December last year the choir performed Handel’s Messiah, at Helensburgh Parish Church.
Now, on Sunday, February 18 the choir, whose patron is the noted tenor and broadcaster, Jamie MacDougall, is marking its 60th birthday season with a special concert at Glasgow City Halls.
The main attraction will be Vaughan Williams’s rarely performed A Sea Symphony, which dates from between 1903 and 1909.
The Helensburgh choir will be joined by the Rosenethe Singers, an amateur choir based in Dunblane, by professional soloists in the shape of Lee Bissett and David Stout, and by an orchestra consisting of members of Scottish Opera and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
The eagerly-awaited concert will also feature the premieres of the orchestral arrangements of both Breathing Place, composed for the choir by Aileen Sweeney, and Derek Clark’s work, So Long at the Fair.
The choir’s chair, Alicia Tindal, has described A Sea Symphony as “a huge piece of music, and a really challenging work for the choir. We thought that in our 60th anniversary year we really need to push ourselves and take us out of our comfort zone and do something different”.
A measure of how large the concert will be comes from the fact that it will feature a hundred-strong choir and an orchestra of 65, to say nothing of an audience in excess of 500. The City Halls is one of the few venues in the West of Scotland capable of accommodating so many people.
It is a huge undertaking by any yardstick but the Oratorio choir has worked hard to pull it off, raising more than £10,000 in sponsorship from Creative Scotland, People’s Postcode Lottery, SCOPS Arts Trust, The William Syson Foundation and the Vaughan Williams Foundation.
Fittingly, given the seafaring theme, the concert will collect donations for the RNLI, which is celebrating its 200th anniversary this year.
The song goes on, no matter the cost
The concert will do much to enhance the profile of the choir in its anniversary year as it seeks to promote choral music and attract new members, specifically people aged 26 or under.
* Tickets: £18 (free admission for accompanied children), £10 for students (booking fee applies) from https://www.glasgowlife.org.uk/event/1/helensburgh-oratorio-choir
Visit the choir at www.helensburghoratorio.co.uk
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