The Edinburgh Festival Chorus will perform with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in Glasgow and Edinburgh in March 2024 to mark the 150th anniversary of Verdi’s Requiem
This will be the final chance to catch them before their performance at the Edinburgh International Festival in August
The performances also mark their first appearances since the appointment of their new Choral Director, James Grossmith, in 2023
The Edinburgh Festival Chorus are set to perform Verdi’s Requiem this month in Glasgow and Edinburgh, 150 years after its premiere in Milan in 1874. These performances also mark their first public performances since the appointment of James Grossmith as Choral Director in September 2023.
The performances, which take place on the 21st of March at Glasgow City Halls and the 24th of March at the Usher Hall in Edinburgh, will see the Chorus performing the Verdi’s highly operatic funeral mass with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, conducted by the orchestra’s Chief Conductor, Ryan Wigglesworth.
Verdi’s Requiem is a highly theatrical and epic Catholic funeral mass which was written following the death of Verdi’s Italian poet, philosopher and novelist, Alessandro Manzoni.
The Edinburgh Festival Chorus are often credited as being the “choral backbone” of the Edinburgh International Festival’s programme. The chorus was founded in 1965 and has run continually since then. It’s comprised of 130 singers from all walks of life from all around Scotland who are selected through an auditions process and rehearse weekly.
Since the creation of the Chorus, its singers have had the opportunity to perform alongside the likes of Leonard Bernstein and the London Symphony Orchestra, Marin Alsop and the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra, Herbert von Karajan’s Berlin Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
This is the last chance to see The Edinburgh Festival Chorus in concert before the Edinburgh International Festival in August, where the Chorus will perform Alexander Grechaninov’s Passion Week.
The internationally-renowned chamber choir from Pomona College, California, USA, are about to undertake a concert tour of the UK, including concerts in London, Cambridge, York and Durham as well as appearances in St Andrews and Edinburgh on the 27th and 28th May, respectively.
The concert in St Andrews will be in conjunction with another student choir, the St Andrews Madrigal Group.
SING GENTLY
A choral celebration of music from the Americas and Britain
Pomona College Glee Club, California, USA
Joint concert with St Andrews Madrigal Group
Holy Trinity Church
South Street, St Andrews KY16 9NL
Saturday 27th May, 7.30pm
ADMISSION FREE
ST GILES AT SIX
St Giles Cathedral
High Street, Edinburgh EH1 1RE
Sunday 28th May, 6pm
ADMISSION FREE
The Pomona College Glee Club, Pomona’s elite chamber choir, has been representing Pomona College both internationally and at home for over 100 years.
Recent tours have seen the choir singing in prestigious venues throughout Germany, Poland, Italy and the Czech Republic as well as the UK.
Their current tour will visit London, Cambridge, York, Durham and St Andrews, as well as Edinburgh, presenting the very best of unaccompanied choral repertoire, including music by Beach, Byrd, McMillan, Walton, Weelkes and Whitacre.