The Epsom Choral Society, currently in its 97th season, is putting on a concert with a difference – an evening of Modern Choral Classics – where the choir is singing four outstanding pieces that have become classics in their own right.
Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, written 50 years ago, takes its text from the Book of Psalms in the original Hebrew and one of the jazziest of settings. The solo of the beautiful setting of Psalm 23 will be sung by boy treble Alexander Gillan, a chorister at Guildford Cathedral.
Morten Lauridsen’s Nocturnes is a choral work of radiant beauty. Lauridsen is described by Gramophone magazine as “the brightest star in the firmament of the American choral scene … a remarkable balance between the contemporary and the timeless”.
Eric Whitacre’s Cloudburst - inspired by the experience of the composer witnessing a dessert cloudburst with the choir clapping, finger snapping and thigh smacking to imitate the sound of rain. Eric Whitacre is a grammy-winning American composer loved by choirs all over the world.
Bob Chilcott’s Songs and Cries of London Town – a “perfect show stopping work with which to finish a concert”. Bob Chilcott, described the Observer newspaper a “a contemporary hero of British choral music”, is renowned all over the world for his exceptional choral writing.
