Haydn’s popular Nelson Mass will be performed in the Royal Dockyard Church, Chatham on Wednesday 29 March by the University of Kent Choir and Orchestra (Medway).

The Mass will be conducted by Dr Stelios Chatziiosifidis and the soprano will be School of Music and Fine Art alumna Philippa Hardiman. It will be preceded by a talk from Richard Holdsworth MBE about Nelson and the Historic Dockyard Chatham

In 1771, a 12 year-old Horatio Nelson arrived in Chatham to begin one of the most celebrated careers of all time. In a unique collaboration to celebrate these historic connections between Britain’s most celebrated naval figure and the award-winning Historic Dockyard Chatham, the School of Music and Fine Art (located on the Dockyard) and the Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust will present a performance of the Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus, Benedictus and Agnus Dei of Haydn’s popular Nelson Mass.

The Nelson Mass is Haydn’s largest and his only minor-key mass, set in D minor at the opening, but leading to a victorious D major finale. It is also one of his most well-known and beloved choral works, and notable for the demands on the soprano soloist. Haydn later catalogued the Nelson Mass as Missa in Angustiis (mass for troubled times).

Tickets, priced £10, are available for purchase from the Gulbenkian webpages and the Historic Dockyard.