Monteverdi Vespers (in aid of charity)

Monteverdi: Vespers
City Chamber Choir
Stephen Jones (conductor)
Simon Gilkes (tenor)
Matthew Long (tenor)
James Akers (theorbo)
Katharine May(organ)

Take a towering musical masterpiece sung in “the handsomest barn in Christendom” by one of London’s most highly regarded choirs and the result is sure to be an evening of exceptional musical enjoyment.

And that’s what will happen at City Chamber Choir's next concert: Monteverdi's Vespers.

The Vespers, published in 1610, were intended as a demonstration of the composer’s versatility and invention. Neglected for many years they are now rightly recognised as one of the greatest musical works of the early Baroque. Monteverdi’s masterpiece is by turns deeply spiritual, achingly human and positively visceral.

Stephen Jones, conductor of the concert says “I very much hope that the intimate scale of this performance, accompanied as it is by just organ and theorbo, will turn out to be close in spirit to Monteverdi’s original purpose of providing devotional music for a prince’s chapel.”

City Chamber Choir is an amateur group that performs to professional standards. Over its 25 years’ existence it has built a reputation for imaginative programming and outstanding musicianship, which has been recognised through a number of awards as well as critical plaudits.

The two tenor soloists, Matthew Long and Simon Gilkes, are students at the Royal College of music. Their participation in this concert has been made possible by the support of the Josephine Baker Trust.

Proceeds from the concert will support the work of two charities: Orchid, fighting male cancer, and Kings College Hospital Limb Reconstruction Trust.