Royal Northern Sinfonia Chorus celebrates 50th anniversary

The Chorus of the Royal Northern Sinfonia is set to celebrate its 50^th anniversary later this month. The anniversary celebrations will be centred around a concert on 20 October.

The celebratory concert will feature the world premiere of a new work by choral specialist Kerensa Briggs, as part of a ‘snapshot of contemporary choral music’ including works by Roderick Williams, Joanna Ward, Oliver Tarney and Jonathan Dove. The celebration will close with a performance of Mozart’s Requiem.

Chorus director Timothy Burke said: ‘We’re overjoyed to be marking the 50^th birthday of the Chorus at this concert. Celebrating the choral music of today is as important to us as ever, so the concert’s first half presents five pieces written in the past five years, including North East composer Joanna Ward's I cannot get to my love and Kerensa Briggs’ A blue and tender flower, commissioned especially for this concert. In the second half we experience the power and poignancy of Mozart’s Requiem, his final masterpiece.’

Founded in 1973 by Royal Northern Sinfonia timpanist, Alan Fearon, the Chorus is made up of over 80 singers from across the North East who perform regularly alongside the orchestra, on their own and with RNS Moves, an inclusive ensemble of disabled and non-disabled musicians. Based at the recently renamed Glasshouse International Centre for Music, the Chorus embraces a broad range of repertoire and has worked with every RNS music director as well as with a variety of guest conductors including Lars Vogt, Karina Canellakis and Paul McCreesh.