Sunday 19th October 2008: Carmina Burana, Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford

The Epworth Choir continued their series of 50th Anniversary events with a concert at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford on Sunday 19th October. The concert opened with Bob Chilcotts’ SONGS AND CRIES OF LONDON TOWN’ followed by the World Premiere of Alan Simmons’ new work for adult and massed children’s choirs based on Samuel Pepys’ diaries – ‘THE GREAT FIRE OF LONDON’.

This exciting and atmospheric cantata was performed to great audience acclaim by a choir of 180 voices including many children from the Woking and Spelthorne area. The concert concluded with Carl Orffs’ CARMINA BURANA, the dramatic portrayal of the ‘merry’ lifestyle of medieval monks with it’s well-known ‘O Fortuna’ chorus.

The Epworth Choir,conducted by Neil Ferris were joined on this occasion by the Epworth Youth Choir, Spelthorne Young Voices, soloists Helena Dix, soprano, Marcus Hopkin, bass and Richard Scott, counter-tenor, the percussion section of the Chameleon Arts Orchestra and accompanists Alexander Chaplin and Christopher Cromer who also played a selection from Leonard Bernstein’s ‘West Side Story’.

” The concert was brilliant in every way……”

The Retiring Collection raised close to £500 in aid of Woking MIND