Feel the Spirit

Ayr Choral Union

Ayr Choral’s spring concert  promises to be a feast of glorious music starting with John Rutter’s Feel the Spirit. This selection of seven moving Spirituals is arranged expressively by the composer for choir and orchestra, with Afro-American songs such as Steal Away and When the Saints go Marching in – the legacy of American slavery.
No Ayr Choral Spring Concert would be complete without a great choral piece! Messa di Gloria by Giacomo Puccini is a joyful, uncomplicated choral work full of operatic vitality which Puccini composed when he was only 18 years old!

We end with some favourite Opera choruses including the sublime Easter Hymn from the opera Cavalleria Rusticana and Va Pensiero from Nabucco which expresses sadness and hope of the Hebrew slave exiles, singing of their homeland.

Once again our wonderful musical director, Andrew McTaggart will conduct the choir and orchestra, the Caledonian Consort, which will be joined by an impressive line-up of soloists including Mezzo-soprano Penelope Cousland, Tenor Matthew McKinney and Bass-Baritone Will Frost.