Saturday, 23rd March 2024 will see The Octavian Singers take our audience on a musical journey from darkness into light. Our concert, hosted by St Mary of Bethany Church, will include music describing the night-time, including John Wilbye’s Draw on Sweet Night and Camille Saint-Saëns’ Calme Des Nuits, contrasted with the lighter themes of Eric Whitacre’s Lux Aurumque and James MacMillan’s O Radiant Dawn. Sacred music from the Vespers settings of Sergei Rachmaninov and Aleksandr Gretchaninov will sit alongside the secular celebrations depicted by Clara Schumann in Abendfeier in Venedig, written as a birthday gift to her husband Robert.

The Octavian Singers aim to sing music by a diverse range of composers, including minorities whose music has been historically underrepresented. We are therefore proud to present the works of female composers and composers of colour such as Sally Beamish, Fanny Hensel (née Mendelssohn), Florence Price, Undine Smith Moore, and Mark Butler in this concert.

We hope that our audience members will enjoy the atmosphere of change as we move from one musical period to another, through a diverse range of emotions.