Press Releases

University Summer Concert is the hottest ticket in town – University of Reading

Release Date : 09 June 2009

Local music lovers are getting warmed up for the University of Reading's summer concert taking place on Saturday 20 June. The University's Chorus will be joined by the Chamber Choir and Chamber Orchestra to celebrate the start of the summer with some joyous music.

Taking place in the University's magnificent Great Hall on the London Road Campus, they will be joined for the first time by the University's wonderful Wind Octet, performing Guy Woolfenden's Suite Française; charming, sun soaked music drawn from Royal Shakespeare Company productions of Love's Labours Lost.

Mozart and Haydn then take centre stage. The Chamber Choir will sing two of Mozart's best loved choral works, Ave verum Corpus and Laudate Dominum. Rachmaninov's serene Ave Maria will then be followed by Haydn's Little Organ Mass – distilled essence of the composer's gift for simplicity, profundity and joy.

After the interval Zadok the Priest, Handel's irrepressible Coronation Anthem leads us to Leonard Bernstein's exuberant Chichester Psalms. Celebratory, thankful and even warlike this is Bernstein at his eclectic best, mixing gorgeous tunes and driving rhythmic impulse to produce a work of verve and passion. The Chorus will be singing in Hebrew, and will be accompanied by the composer's brilliantly original ensemble of organ, harp and percussion

"Everything you need to start the summer will be here", said Stuart Dunlop, University Director of Music and Conductor for the evening. "Gorgeous venue, music of serenity and drama, of fun and downright celebration – even a glass of wine at the interval. What more could you want?"

The concert will take place on Saturday 20 June, at 7.30pm in the Great Hall, on the University's London Road campus in Reading. Tickets are £8 or £5 for concessions and can be booked by contacting Alex Richardson by phone on 0118 378 5256 or email at a.t.richardson@rdg.ac.uk

Tickets will also be available on the door.

Ends

For all University of Reading media enquiries please contact James Barr, Press Officer tel 0118 378 7115 or email j.w.barr@reading.ac.uk