“A friend took me to your concert – and what a treat… The Stanford Songs of the Sea were a joy and really suited the choir… I almost expected Duncan Saunderson to turn round and ask us all to sing…  Everyone in the choir looked happy, well-rehearsed. My friend and I went home relaxed. Thank you all again.”

Thus wrote an appreciative audience member after our concert on May 12th, a concert celebrating English poetry set to music. The highlight was the song cycle Frostiana, Randall Thompson’s setting of seven of Robert Frost’s poems, performed in its entirety for the first time to a UK audience. Featuring soloists Giles Underwood, Inigo Jones (Head chorister, New College Choir, Oxford), Stephen Taylor, Ben Durrant and Julian Littlewood, the programme also included music by Britten, Vaughan Williams, Stanford and Finzi.