Concert by the Lea Singers - Faure Requiem and Schubert Mass in G

Lea Singers

Lea Singers
Ambrose Quintet
Conductor – Neil Ferris
Organ Michael Higgins
Programme
• Gabriel Fauré: Requiem
• Franz Schubert – Mass in G major, D 167
• Johannes Brahms – Geistliches Lied, Op 30
• Anton Bruckner – Ave Maria
• Anton Bruckner – Os Justi
• Anton Bruckner – Christus Factus Est
The Lea Singers are a Harpenden-based chamber choir of 30 singers. Their aims are to achieve high standards of singing and performance, and to contribute to the local community. In 2014 they launched a Summer Singing Festival, to create an event where local singers meet, discover and sing together.
Their annual programme typically includes 6-8 concerts in the Harpenden area and further afield, a cathedral tour, open singing days and the occasional recording. The singers come from a wide range of musical backgrounds and have a thriving interns scheme for talented singers from local schools.
Over their 50 year history, the Leas have sung under 11 permanent conductors and many guests, each of whom has made a distinctive contribution to their style and repertoire. In December 2011 they appointed Benjamin Goodson to take up the baton.

Neil Ferris is Artistic Director and conductor of the professional chamber choir Sonoro and Music Director of Wimbledon Choral Society, one of London’s leading amateur choirs. Other choirs he works with regularly include Manchester Chamber Choir and Birmingham Bach Choir.
In demand as chorus master to the finest symphonic choruses in the UK, Neil is Associate Chorus Director of the London Symphony Chorus, Chorus Director at the Royal College of Music and Chorus Master at the Endellion Summer Festival. He has also worked with the BBC Symphony Chorus, BBC National Chorus of Wales, the Bach Choir and the chorus of Cambridge University Music Society. In these roles he has prepared choirs for Valery Gergiev, Bernard Haitink, Carlo Rizzi, Donald Runnicles, François-Xavier Roth, Thierry Fischer and Jac van Steen.