Kingston Choral Society Autumn Concert : Da Vinci Requiem

Start: Saturday, November 18, 2023 7:30PM
End: Saturday, November 18, 2023 9:30PM

‘An Old Friend’ Brings Celebrated Composer to Kingston On 18 November at All Saints Church, Kingston, celebrated composer Cecilia McDowall will be in the audience when Andrew Griffiths conducts Kingston Choral Society in a concert of British music, the centrepiece of which is McDowall’s composition, the Da Vinci Requiem. The Da Vinci Requiem has a local origin - Wimbledon Choral Society commissioned Cecilia McDowall to write it in 2019, to mark the quincentenary of the artist and polymath’s death. The commission was close to the composer’s heart. Da Vinci’s Notebooks were a gift from her mother to her father, which fascinated her as a child, and which she thinks of as ‘an old friend’. The Requiem premiered in the Royal Festival Hall in early 2020. If you missed the original live performance, or heard and loved it, here’s your opportunity to catch it again. It is also available on CD from Signum. McDowall says, “I’m a huge admirer of Andrew Griffiths, and a passionate believer in the importance of choral singing at every level. We have some of the finest professional and amateur singers in the world here in the UK, and I love that choral singing permeates to the grass roots, so that I can hear excellent performances of my music by committed community choirs like KCS.” Kingston Choral Society has previously performed two of Cecilia McDowall’s compositions – a Fancy of Folksongs, in 2013 and again in 2022, and Christus Natus Est in 2019. The concert also features Benjamin Britten’s Te Deum in C, George Dyson’s Hierusalem and Grace Williams’s Elegy for Strings. The choir will be accompanied by the Thames Sinfonia, and joined by award-winning soloists, soprano Katherine Crompton and baritone Gareth Brynmor John. We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Sir George Dyson Trust. Kingston Choral Society is grateful for the financial support of the Humphrey Taylor Richardson Charitable Trust. Tickets available from: https://kingstonchoralsociety.org.uk/kcs/?event=britten-dyson-mcdowall or on the door Programme: Britten: Te Deum in C Grace Williams: Elegy for Strings Dyson: Hierusalem Cecilia McDowall: Da Vinci Requiem Orchestra: Thames Sinfonia Soloists: Katherine Crompton (soprano), Gareth Brynmor John (baritone). Conductor: Andrew Griffiths Cecilia McDowall (b.1951) is one of the UK’s leading composers of sacred and secular choral music. International Record Review has praised her for “a communicative gift that is very rare in modern music”. In 2020 McDowall was presented with the prestigious Ivor Novello Award for a 'consistently excellent body of work'. And in 2021, received the coveted annual commission to write the carol for the Choir of King’s College to be part of the much-loved Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols broadcast world-wide on Christmas Eve. In 2023, Signum released a CD of McDowall’s Da Vinci Requiem performed by Roderick Williams, Kate Silver, Ben Hulett, Wimbledon Choral with the City of London Sinfonia, conductor Neil Ferris. Kingston Choral Society has previously performed McDowall’s A Fancy of Folksongs in 2013 and 2022 and Christus Natus Est in 2019