Local Choral group tackles global disruption
In a world of disruption and disharmony, Ashtead Choral Society provided something of an antidote in our concert Harmonies of Humanity on 8 March at St Martin’s Church in Epsom. More than a concert, this was an explosive and educational exploration of rhythms and harmonies from around the world.
Our audience may have felt nothing much had changed as we kicked off in traditional mode with 16th-century harmonies—but from a composer based in Mexico. Five magnificent and rarely heard pieces by the French composer Lili Boulanger combined French expressionism with exoticism and mysticism from the first female winner of the Prix de Rome composition. This begged the questions: what might have been?—from a composer who died at 24—and what would she have made of International Women’s Day, which coincided with this concert?
We were delighted to be joined by the Percussion Ensemble of London, who treated our audience to an introduction to the ‘kitchen department’ with demonstrations of tuned and untuned percussion instruments. Who knew that, if hit too many times, the gong-like tam-tam would likely break the church windows?
The second half saw all these forces come together under musical director Dr Andrew Storey with the late David Fanshawe’s African Sanctus. Choir, percussion ensemble, lyric soprano soloist Madeleine Holmes, and pianist Steve Ridge wove in with recordings of music captured by the composer in the 1960s along the Nile River (masterminded from the sound desk by our own Chris Turner). The composer’s intent was to celebrate one people under music, and African Sanctus was something to behold aurally and optically. I hope we provided some hope for and refuge from the unstable and volatile world that our audience returned to at the end of the evening.
We were delighted to receive a letter from David Fanshawe’s wife, noting that he had studied under Boulanger’s sister and knew the composer of the Gospel Gloria, Dillo Dilworth, which we performed twice—once as an encore. We were also delighted that so many of our audience took time to say how much they enjoyed a different approach to the traditional concert format, which included short talks and percussion demonstrations. And we were thrilled that a few audience members liked the evening so much they enquired about joining the choir.
With that in mind, we are recruiting new singers of all voice parts as we grow from a current 100 members to 120. We welcome those keen to join a choir that performs the big choral works with professional orchestras and top soloists.
If you are interested in joining, do come along to our free event on the morning of 22 March in Ashtead to experience singing with us and discover the work we will be tackling at our concert on 24 May: Dvořák’s Stabat Mater.
Vincent Desmond, Chair
Ashtead Choral Society