THE Harlow Chorus concert at St Michael’s Church, Bishop’s Stortford, on 12th November is going to be fantastic, partly because of the wonderful music but also because we have, temporarily, Stephen Jackson as our Musical Director. Until earlier this year, Stephen was the Director of the BBC Symphony Chorus, and it is our very good fortune that he is now free to step in while our own Director is away.


The centrepiece of the concert is R. Vaughan Williams setting of Dona Nobis Pacem. Commissioned for the centenary of the Huddersfield Choral Society in October 1936, this moving and dramatic work combines a plea for peace after the horrors of previous wars with a sense of anxiety and foreboding about the possibility of further conflict.

The text combines words from the Latin Mass, the Old Testament, poems by Walt Whitman, and a passage from a speech given in Parliament by John Bright in 1855. At the time, Vaughan Williams claimed to be the only composer ever to have set a passage from the proceedings of the House of Commons!

The concert also includes two movements from ‘Spirit of England’ by Edward Elgar, Hubert Parry’s Three Songs of Farewell and Two Motets by Charles Stanford.

The music for this concert is just gorgeous –  stirring, reflective and majestic by turns, and Stephen is inspiring us to do full justice to it.

The soloists for this concert will be Joanna Songi, soprano, and Guy Hayward, baritone, and we will be accompanied by our wonderfully talented pianist Susan Graham Smith.

Tickets are priced at £l5 and £10 (£5 for those under 18), and can be bought online (no fee) at www.ticketsource.co.uk/harlowchorus or call 01277 362440, email [email protected], also on the door.