Summer – or at least the annual summer concert – is coming early this year for the Hepton Singers, the highly regarded chamber choir based in the upper Calder valley. The concert, previously held in late June or early July, is being brought forward to mid-May and will be held in the usual venue of Heptonstall Church on Saturday May 18th at 7.30pm.
The move to May fits better with the choir’s programme of rehearsals and helps avoid the summer holiday period. This year’s concert maintains the usual challenging programming of early music and contemporary choral works for which the Hepton Singers have built a considerable reputation in recent years.
Under the theme Light from the North – songs of wisdom and devotion the May concert will present almost nine hundred years of choral music, from a very early piece by Hildegard von Bingen, who lived from 1098 to 1179, to a new work Ave Generosa by the Norwegian-American composer Ola Gjeilo written only two years ago.
Also included are works by modern composers including Arvo Pärt, the Russian Alfred Schnittke, and the Polish composer Henryk Górecki. The choir will sing Górecki’s Totus Tuus, originally written when the Pope visited Warsaw in 1987.
Lovers of early music will enjoy a beautiful motet by Heinrich Schütz as well as a daring rearrangement of a Bach chorale by the Norwegian Knut Nystedt.
Richard Bunzl, Musical Director of the Hepton Singers says: “We believe the programme for this year’s summer concern will have something to appeal to everyone. The European choral tradition is a very rich one, and our selection of choral works by composers predominantly from Northern Europe demonstrates a part of this tradition at its most beautiful and sonorous.”
Tickets are available online or on the door.
