Celebration of US/UK accord will include cathedral classics and US and British folksongs
Cambridgeshire’s premier brass dectet, Prime Brass, is to join 100 young American singers in Ely Cathedral on Tuesday 4th July for an Independence Day concert to celebrate the special relationship between the US and the UK.
The concert, to include cathedral classics such as Zadok the Priest as well as American and British folk songs, will be conducted by Craig Jessop, former director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and Stan Engebretson, artistic director of America’s National Philharmonic Chorale both of them well-known figures in US music.
This is the second big Independence Day concert in Ely Cathedral to be organised by concert promoters Music Celebrations International, who bring choirs, orchestras and bands from the USA to perform in Europe during the summer every year. The previous concert, in 2018, commemorated 100 years since the end of World War 1.
Prime Brass will open the concert with its own version of the overture from Rossini’s The Italian Girl in Algiers, arranged by Paul Garner. Included in the programme will be old favourites from the UK such as Parry’s I was Glad, Stanford’s Beati Quorum and Vaughan Williams’ O Clap your Hands, as well as US favourites such as Randall Thompson’s Last Words of David and Stephen Paulus’ Pilgrim’s Hymn. Prime Brass will also perform George Butterworth’s The Banks of Green Willow.
Crowning glory will be An Atlantic Bridge, a magnificent compilation of British and American folk songs for six soloists and choir, arranged by Mack Wilberg, director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. His works have been performed by a host of internationally known artists, such as Renée Fleming, Frederica von Stade, Bryn Terfel, the King’s Singers, Madeleine Albright, Walter Cronkite and Claire Bloom.
The concert will finish with Somewhere from West Side Story, and An Irish Blessing arranged by James E Moore Jr.
The singers will come from some of the US’s premier choirs, including the National Philharmonic Chorale, the Peninsula Singers and the Providence Singers.
Ely Cathedral, Tuesday 4th July 2023, 7.30pm
Premium tickets cost £15, including preferential reserved seating and a glass of wine during the interval. Other tickets £10 (unreserved). Concessions £8 in £10 seats.
They are available from Ely Cathedral Box Office (Tel 01353 660349),
email: box.office@elycathedral.org or online from https://www.elycathedral.org/events.
All profits will go to East Anglian Air Ambulance
Press release from Ely Sinfonia
You must be logged in to post a comment.