Congratulations to all those involved in Saturday’s Sounding Shakespeare concert, which brought together the University Chorus and Symphony Orchestra together in resounding form in a musical pot pourri celebrating the Bard’s 400th anniversary.
Led by second-year Law student, Lydia Cheng, conducted by Susan Wanless, the orchestra opened with two pieces by Mendelssohn, before joining the Chorus in Rutter’s When Icicles Hang, complete with wintry textures and fifteenth-century verse. After the interval, the orchestra showed themselves in robust form in Bernstein’s Overture to ‘West Side Story’ complete with lusty cries of ‘Mambo!’ emphatically delivered by the players.
The final piece, Walton’s Suite from Henry V included seasoned Shakespearian actor Simon Paisley Day, who held the audience’s rapt attention in various speeches from the Bard’s play, concluding with a rousing Agincourt carol with the Chorus.
Both Orchestra and Chorus return in March with Puccini’s Messa di Gloria and Tchaikovsky’s yearning Sixth Symphony, performed in Canterbury Cathedral on Saturday 25 March.
Preludes (where you go I go) by artist Adam de Ville returns to the gallery to see out the Autumn term in a new form, and to mark its re-emergence, you are invited to view the images accompanied by a live performance of Gavin Bryars’ My First Homage, for two pianos, performed by Dan Harding and Matthew King.
Follow The Leader is a collection of powerful and revealing songs that prove that the quest for power may not always run the safest path, explored in music from Hamilton, Kinky Boots, Chicago, RENT and others.
The cast have been hard at work in rehearsals over the course of the term, and the directors of the showcase, Antonia Kasoulidou and Rakel Svendsen, declare that the show promises to be an inspiring, ingenious and intoxicating piece which explores the conflict between the deep desire to follow the herd, and the yearning to break with tradition and risk becoming an outcast.
Find out if you have the herd instinct or are prepared to take risks on forging a new path, as Follow The Leader comes to Colyer-Fergusson Hall on Saturday 3 and Sunday 4 December at 7.30pm; tickets available 
Amongst the repertoire the ensemble is currently preparing are works by Handel, Vivaldi, Elgar’s Serenade for Strings, Brahms and Mozart.
Their first performance is next month; keep an eye on the web for details of their concerts throughout this year.
On Thursday 10 November, a special performance by the Cecilian Choir, conducted by Your Loyal Correspondent, commemorates the anniversary of the Battle of the Somme with a new choral piece written by American composer David Lang in Studio 3 Gallery. Memorial Ground is an evocative, haunting meditation on the Battle of the Somme, but also reaches beyond it to commemorate all those who have lost their lives in conflict ever since. The piece was commissioned as part of the nationwide 14-18NOW project.
On Friday 11 November at 11am, third-year Music Scholar and trumpeter Alex Reid will play the Last Post in the Registry Garden; this is followed at 1.10pm by a lunchtime concert focusing on poet and composer Ivor Gurney. Arranged by Dr Kate Kennedy, the event dramatizes Gurney’s life as musician, soldier and eventually asylum patient, following his progress in his own words and music, with humour and poignancy.
