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(see attached pdf)

Cover image: Johannes Brahms in 1853

In memory of Janet Williams

The Choir is dedicating this performance to the memory of Janet Williams.

At 10.30 on Thursday 10 February 2011 I took a phone call telling me that Janet had died in the earlier hours of the morning. She had been ill since the autumn with a cancer which it became apparent was not treatable. A couple of hours later the choir gathered for its regular rehearsal to continue working on the Brahms Requiem which it had at that stage been rehearsing for several weeks. The first words we were due to sing were the sopranos’ dramatic declaration at start of the closing movement: ‘Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord’.

Janet would have enjoyed this multi-layered coincidence in her own bright, thoughtful but not unduly reverential way. She had sung in the soprano section of the choir for several years, occasionally taking small solo parts, most recently one of the three treble parts in Britten’s Antiphon in our concert at St Mary and St Giles last April. I first knew her in Opera Milton Keynes to which she contributed enthusiastically, and when her working hours permitted she asked to join the choir. Self-effacing about her talents, she was in fact a good reader and had a sweet and poised voice of some charm. She was serious and curious about music too and often fed me background information about repertoire we were learning and sometimes challenged me with unexpected enquiries. It was her prompting that led me to the less frequently performed of Mozart’s Vesper settings which we sang last term: I felt it was a great shame that she was in the event not well enough to take part in the performance.

It could not have been more appropriate that this term the choir was preparing the Brahms Requiem when the news of Janet’s death came through. The work aspires to comfort those who mourn and it did that for us, as it has through the generations since its first performance. Some members of the choir contributed the opening movement to Janet’s memorial celebration and we now dedicate today’s performance to her memory.

If you wish to make a voluntary contribution in memory of Janet, she has asked that you donate to Willen Hospice, whose Hospice at Home team cared for her in her final weeks. Their website at www.willen-hospice.org.uk permits both online and Gift Aid donations.

Bill Strang

Ein deutsches Requiem, Op. 45Johannes Brahms (1833−1897)

Angela Caesar soprano

David Kirby-Ashmore baritone

John Byron and Anna Le Hair piano duet

It is misleading to associate Ein deutsches Requiem with the bearded old Brahms of popular iconography. He wrote it when he was still fairly young – no longer youthfully androgynous, but nevertheless only 33 when he started and turning 35 when he completed it by adding an extra movement for soprano soloist.

His motivation for writing it is not entirely clear. It may have been the descent into madness of his champion and mentor, Robert Schumann, and his death in 1856. Schumann’s wife, Clara, thought it was the death in 1865 of Brahms’s own beloved mother, Christiane. Probably it was some sort of cumulative combination of the two, but the famously tight-lipped composer gave no clue.

What is clear, however, is that he wished to create a work which would be a comfort to the bereaved. He was emphatic that his Requiem was ‘in no way whatsoever’ a substitute for the liturgical performance of the Roman Catholic Requiem Mass which, in any case, he found too pre-occupied with punishment and retribution: rather it was conceived as a concert piece. There is a precedent of a kind, however, in the Musicalische Exequien (Funeral Music) of Heinrich Schütz: composed for the exequies of a German prince and published in 1636, this draws on chorale tunes and an individual selection of texts including passages from Revelation and Proverbs, and is sung in German. The music of Schütz was neglected after his death and Brahms was one of the first to revive it. As conductor of the Vienna Singakademie, he gave performances of works by Schütz and J.S. Bach in 1863-4. His own Requiem subscribes to this same distinctively Protestant tradition: he made his own selection of texts from Luther’s Bible of 1534 which, as well as being an exemplar of unorthodoxy, retains something of the same cultural status in Germany as the King James translation of 1611 does in English-speaking countries.

The Requiem, however, is far from being an early work, although it is the one which made his reputation, both in Germany and abroad. At Opus 45 it falls about a third of the way through his published works. It is preceded by sonatas, variations and waltzes for piano solo and duet, several dozen songs, some thirty unaccompanied choral works for female, male and mixed voices, a handful of lightly accompanied choral works and some chamber music. He was therefore already an accomplished explorer of piano textures and an experienced manipulator of choral resources. However, he was still in the middle of the famously long gestation period of the First Symphony (1855–76). The only fully-fledged purely orchestral work to precede the Requiem is the First Piano Concerto: even the St Anthony Variations, Op. 56, in both its guises, piano duet and orchestral, comes after the Requiem, as do the Liebeslieder waltzes, Op.52 for four voices and piano duet. It is interesting that the correspondence around the Requiem reveals his uncertainties about some aspects of the orchestral writing (and over-scoring in places betrays his anxiety about how to make it work) but he seems to have had no qualms about the vocal writing – as indeed he had no doubts about his choice of texts.

The performance history of the Requiem is slightly complex. The first three movements were performed in Vienna on 1 December 1867 with only mixed success (as the notes on Movement 3 below will explain). The following Good Friday, 10 April 1868, the whole Requiem was given in the cathedral at Bremen: at this stage it consisted of six movements. In the succeeding weeks the aria for soprano was added: in this now familiar form it received its première at the Leipzig Gewandhaus on 18 February, 1869, followed quickly by numerous performances in other German towns. Soon Brahms came under pressure from his publisher, J.M. Rieter-Biedermann, to produce a piano-duet version which would increase its accessibility and further enhance its popularity. This version received its first performance on 7 July 1871 at a private gathering in the house in Wimpole Street, London, of Sir Henry Thompson, a notable surgeon and polymath. It was directed by Brahms’s friend, Julius Stockhausen, who also sang the baritone solos; the accompaniment was played by Lady Thompson, an accomplished musician, and the composer Cipriani Potter, still lively and enthusiastic in his eightieth year.

Without remotely claiming that the piano-duet version of the Requiem is superior to the original, orchestrated version, it is nevertheless notable that it is very skillfully written for the keyboard, with the assurance of its composer’s practised keyboard technique. Brahms was himself an excellent pianist and a regular concert performer, who undertook concert tours with the violin virtuoso Joseph Joachim and the singer Julius Stockhausen at around the time he was writing the Requiem.

Acknowledgement is made to The New Novello Choral Edition.The English translation provided in this programme is taken from the King James version of the Bible.

1. Selig sind, die da leid tragenSelig sind, die da Leid tragen, denn sie sollen getröstet werden.

Die mit Tränen säen, werden mit Freuden ernten. Sie gehen hin und weinen, und tragen edlen Samen, und kommen mit Freuden und bringen ihre Garben.

Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. Matthew 5:4

They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. Psalm 126:5–6

The emphasis of the texts which Brahms specially selected is on the comfort of the bereaved rather than, as in the Catholic Requiem Mass, on the salvation of the departed (‘Requiem aeternam’ – grant them eternal rest) and certainly not on judgment and the punishment of the wicked (‘Dies irae’ – Day of wrath).

The scale is expansive, so this opening movement alone lasts some 10 minutes. However, the form is basically a simple ternary structure, inasmuch as anything by Brahms can ever be described as simple: in this case a vocal re-working of the instrumental introduction is nested in the middle of the middle section.

This instrumental introduction is said to have been based on the Lutheran chorale ‘Wer nur den lieben Gott lässt walten’ (‘Who all his will to God resigneth’). The chorus master and composer Seigfried Ochs relates in his autobiography (1922) that Brahms himself told him that the whole Requiem was, essentially, founded on ‘a well-known chorale’ which Ochs subsequently identified. The resemblance can certainly be seen in the opening measures and also in the vocal theme of the second movement.

Also notable, in relation to the main key of the movement F major, is the choice of D flat major, the archetypal flattened sixth beloved of nineteenth-century composers, for the contrasting middle section.

2. Denn alles Fleisch es ist wie GrasDenn alles Fleisch es ist wie Gras, und alle Herrlichkeit des Menschen wie des Grases Blumen. Das Gras ist verdorret und die Blume abgefallen.

So seid nun geduldig, lieben Brüder, bis auf die Zukunft des Herrn. Siehe, ein Ackermann wartet auf die köstliche Frucht der Erde und ist geduldig darüber, bis er empfange den Morgenregen und Abendregen.

Aber des Herrn Wort bleibet in Ewigkeit.

Die Erlöseten des Herrn werden wieder kommen und gen Zion kommen mit Jauchzen; ewige Freude wird über ihrem Haupte sein; Freude und Wonne werden sie ergreifen, und Schmerz und Seufzen wird weg müssen.

For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away. 1 Peter 1:24

Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. James 5:7

But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. 1 Peter 1:25

And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. Isaiah 35:1

It is to be expected that a funeral march will be in the minor mode (here B flat minor) but less obvious that it might be in triple time. This opening material was the first music in the Requiem to have been written, inasmuch as it was originally conceived as the ‘slow scherzo’ of the two-piano sonata/symphony, now lost, which Brahms began to write in 1854 as his first attempt to commemorate his friend and mentor, Robert Schumann. The present piano duet version of the Requiem therefore represents the nearest we have to knowing what the original composition may have been like. In the meantime, other parts of it had found their way into the massive First Piano Concerto, which was completed in 1858.

The vocal version is presented as a simple unison melody. Jan Swafford cites it as a prime example of a distinctive type of Brahmsian minor theme evoking death – ‘hollow and archaic… the Brahmsian equivalent of the old Gregorian funeral chant, the ‘Dies Irae’’.

It is curious that, having avoided setting the text of the ‘Dies irae’, Brahms should have adopted a melody which, through its insistence on the minor third, nevertheless manages to suggest the ancient plainsong which has haunted and fascinated other composers:

A more lyrical section in the major mode (‘therefore be patient’) and a reprise of the gloomy opening ‘march’ lead to a short but forthright transitional passage (‘But the word of the Lord endureth for ever’) which transforms the mood to one of optimism when ‘the ransomed of the Lord shall return with singing’ – which they do in a variety of imitative and dramatic textures in the first of three Handelian fugal climaxes.

3. Herr, lehre doch michHerr, lehre doch mich, daß ein Ende mit mir haben muß, und mein Leben ein Ziel hat, und ich davon muß.Siehe, meine Tage sind einer Hand breit vor dir, und mein Leben ist wie nichts vor dir. Ach, wie gar nichts sind alle Menschen, die doch so sicher leben. Sie gehen daher wie ein Schemen, und machen ihnen viel vergebliche Unruhe; sie sammeln und wissen nicht wer es kriegen wird. Nun Herr, wes soll ich mich trösten? Ich hoffe auf dich.

Der Gerechten Seelen sind in Gottes Hand und keine Qual rühret sie an.

Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is: that I may know how frail I am.Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity.Surely every man walketh in a vain shew: surely they are disquieted in vain: he heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them.And now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in thee. Psalm 39:4–7

But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and there shall no torment touch them. Wisdom of Solomon 3:1

This movement follows a similar trajectory to the preceding one, but the drama is increased by the introduction of a further protagonist, the baritone soloist. It too begins in a sombre minor key, soloist alternating with chorus in contemplation of their mortality.

Temporary relief comes in a section in the major mode (‘Verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity’) before further anguished questioning ‘And now, Lord, what wait I for?’

A transformational passage (‘my hope is in thee’) leads to a magnificently affirmative fugue ‘the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God’. Brahms’s musical concept for this closing section is extremely unusual and bold: the entire fugue is played out over a tonic pedal point intended to illustrate the constancy of ‘the hand of God’. Given that a fugue depends in no small measure on the principle of tonal contrast, this device is counterintuitive musically, and the chromatic nature of the theme, and the complex harmony that it engenders, are doubtless partly intended to counterbalance this unyielding bass line.

In the orchestral version this pedal point is expressed by the timpanist as well as the lowest string and brass instruments. Unfortunately, in the first performance, which comprised only the first three movements, the over-enthusiastic timpanist all but drowned out the chorus, to the great puzzlement of the audience, and the displeasure of the critic Hanslick who described the experience as being like ‘the sensations of a passenger rattling through a tunnel in an express train’.

In our, hopefully more successfully judged, performance we will take a short pause at the end of this movement.

4. Wie lieblich sind deine WohnungenWie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen, Herr Zebaoth!Meine Seele verlanget und sehnet sich nach den Vorhöfen des Herrn; mein Leib und Seele freuen sich in dem lebendigen Gott.Wohl denen, die in deinem Hause wohnen; die loben dich immerdar.

How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts!My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.Blessed are they that dwell in thy house: they will be still praising thee.Psalm 84:1,2,4

This movement shares the simple lyrical poise of the opening movement. With its triple metre and charming, characteristically mid-nineteenth-century harmony, in the piano-duet version it approaches the mood of some movements in the Liebeslieder waltzes. More than any other movement in the Requiem, it has enjoyed a separate existence as a concert piece and an anthem in church services.

5. Ihr habt nunTraurigkeitIhr habt nun Traurigkeit; aber ich will euch wieder sehen, und euer Herz soll sich freuen, und eure Freude soll niemand von euch nehmen.

Sehet mich an: ich habe eine kleine Zeit Mühe und Arbeit gehabt und habe großen Trost funden.

Ich will euch trösten, wie einen seine Mutter tröstet.

And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you. John 16:22

Behold with your eyes, how that I have but little labour, and have gotten unto me much rest. Ecclesiasticus 51:27

As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you. Isaiah 66:13

This movement was added after the first, otherwise complete, performance and was thus the last part of the Requiem to be written. The conductor of that performance, Karl Rheinthaler, the organist and musical director of Bremen Cathedral, was a student of theology as well as a musician. He was not happy that a requiem performed in church on Good Friday should lack any reference to the redeeming role of Jesus Christ and wrote to the composer at some length identifying a point at which an appropriate text might be introduced: his recommendation was John 3:16 ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life’. Brahms’s reply is tactful but firm: he ‘knowingly and intentionally dispensed with such passages’ but no doubt included many others ‘because I am a musician, because I needed them’ – in other words, because artistic considerations were paramount. But his answer has wider implications than that – he eschewed some texts because he was writing for humanity as a whole, not for a particular constituency. In fact, he was wrestling with the fact of death and the mystery of existence as a secular, sceptical, modern man. Indeed, despite the Requiem being rooted in German Protestant tradition, Brahms also wrote to Rheinthaler that ‘as regards the title I should gladly have left out German and substituted Human’.

In the 1868 première he nevertheless compromised and sanctioned the inclusion of the aria ‘I know that my Redeemer liveth’ from Handel’s Messiah halfway through the Requiem. This seems to have inspired the idea that the addition of a high solo voice might have some merit, and he eventually inserted this movement in a position, and to a text, of his own choosing. Again the emphasis is on bringing comfort to the sorrowful, and indeed the choral ‘response’ which intermittently underpins the solo line contains the most explicit acknowledgement of the likely immediate impetus for writing the Requiem: ‘As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you’. Most tellingly perhaps, this text is intertwined with the soloist’s repeated phrase ‘I will see you again…’ in, as Malcolm MacDonald says, ‘the Requiem’s supreme gesture of intimate tenderness’.

This is another ternary structure, though less obvious in its divisions and developments, and more immediately appreciable for the high tessitura of its vocal line and its exquisite harmonic shifts.

6. Denn wir haben hie keine bleibende StattDenn wir haben hier keine bleibende Statt, sondern die zukünftige suchen wir.

Siehe, ich sage euch ein Geheimnis: Wir werden nicht alle entschlafen, wir werden aber alle verwandelt werden;und dasselbige plötzlich in einem Augenblick zu der Zeit der letzen Posaune. Denn es wird die Posaune schallen und die Toten werden auferstehen unverweslich, und wir werden verwandelt werden.

Dann wird erfüllet werden das Wort, das geschrieben steht: Der Tod ist verschlungen in den Sieg.Tod, wo ist dein Stachel? Hölle, wo ist dein Sieg?

Herr, du bist würdig zu nehmen Preis und Ehre und Kraft, denn du hast alle Dinge geschaffen, und durch deinen Willen haben sie das Wesen und sind geschaffen.

For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come. Hebrews 13:14

Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.

In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 1 Corinthians 15:51–52

Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written,Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? 1 Corinthians 15:54–55

Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. Revelation 4:11

Whereas the soprano soloist’s role is maternal and her style lyrical, the baritone’s role is prophetic and his style declamatory. At the beginning of this movement the chorus is wandering about, harmonically at least, without a settled resting place. The prophet foresees a solution which will change everything. In a setting of a text already immortalised in music by Handel, Brahms generates the dramatic climax of his work. It is at this point, ‘Death, where is thy victory?’ that Rheinthaler proposed to intervene: it is easy to see why, at a musical level at least, Brahms refused to play ball ‘because I am a musician’.

This leads in turn to a huge song of praise which is the musical climax of the movement and the dramatic climax of the whole work. It is also a superbly worked out fugue which demonstrates Brahms’s mastery of the ancient art of counterpoint in which he was so lovingly steeped.

Brahms soon provides this subject with a rising scalic countersubject, then splits off the second half as an independent theme, before introducing a completely different contrasting lyrical theme and subjecting his original one to ever-closer series of entries (stretti) – mostly false ones in that they are truncated, but to great dramatic effect. His fellow-composer Max Bruch was not wholeheartedly impressed, writing after the Bremen première that ‘a powerful

ravishing melody’ is preferable to a ‘contrapuntal tight-rope walk’. This fugue, however, also has a broader structural function in the Requiem as a whole, since the opening notes of its theme directly reflect the characteristic first entry of the chorus in the opening movement:

7. Selig sind die TotenSelig sind die Toten, die in dem Herren sterben von nun an. Ja, der Geist spricht, daß sie ruhen von ihrer Arbeit, denn ihre Werke folgen ihnen nach.

Blessed are the dead, which die in the Lord from henceforth. Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them. Revelation 14:13

This final text is clearly designed to mirror the opening movement but, whereas at the outset it was the bereaved who were comforted, here at last attention is directly addressed to the deceased.

The opening accompanimental gesture also evokes but reinterprets the opening bars of the whole Requiem.

Like the first movement this is a straightforward ternary structure. It has a middle section of great lyric beauty and harmonic delicacy. However, the reprise of the first section is gradually blended into a recollection of the first movement material and ends identically. And so the cycle of comfort and consolation is completed.

But it wouldn’t be Brahms if there wasn’t a clear underlying structural scheme as well. And so it transpires that the tonal cycle, in which each movement has in turn risen to a higher tonal centre, is also neatly closed.

Furthermore, his debt to his great predecessor Heinrich Schütz, who nowadays is recognised as one of the founding fathers of German music, is also acknowledged, for the older composer also set this text in his Musicalische Exequien.

Programme notes by Bill Strang

Programme produced by Gill Smith

BiographiesAngela Caesar was born in Manchester. She studied voice at Trinity College of Music, London and at Peabody Conservatory of Music, Baltimore. She has worked with the Royal Opera House, English National Opera and many regional opera companies, performing roles such as Alice Ford Falstaff, Gianetta L’Elisir d’Amore and Suor Angelica.

Angela has performed in various contemporary music projects, workshops and recording sessions with the Neokitsch Studio and with composers such as Oscar winner, Dario Marianelli, Jonathan Dove, Errollyn Wallen, Dominique Le Gendre, Julian Philips and Shirley Thompson, at venues such as the South Bank and the Linbury Studio.

She has given recitals at musical festivals such as Chichester, Covent Garden and The City of London. Her collaborations with jazz and classical music include a recording with saxophonist Chris Bowden, performances with Michael Garrick, Jessye Norman and the UK tour of ‘All Rise’ featuring Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Centre Jazz Orchestra.

In the U.S.A., Angela made her debut at Carnegie Hall, New York as the first prize winner of the Centre for Contemporary Opera's International Opera Competition.

She has appeared as The Moon in the Olivier Award winning production, Caroline, or Change at the National Theatre and in productions of Mass Carib, An Evening of Soul Food and An African Cargo with the Nitro Theatre Company as part of the Greenwich Festival.

Angela has performed as a Principal and Soloist with English Touring Opera in their productions of Rusalka and J’attendrai, Grace Kumalo in Lost in the Stars for BBC Radio 3 at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Radio 4 production of Adrian Mitchell’s play about the Fisk Jubilee Singers, and as a soloist in Bernstein’s Mass at the Royal Festival Hall.

She has assisted with educational projects for the Tête à Tête Company, Cre8nrg Company, syncopation and The Bold Balladiers.

Angela has been a frequent soloist with the Open University Choir since 1993. For the University’s 40th Anniversary concert she revived the solo part in In the beginning by Jonathan Willcocks which was commissioned by the University to celebrate the Millennium.

David Kirby-Ashmore After studying at the Royal Academy of Music David’s career has taken him all over the world including: Figaro Le Nozze di Figaro in Austria; Schaunard La Bohème and Masetto Don Giovanni for Opéra de Nantes; Johnny Johnson for Opéra de Caen and the title role of Rigoletto in Singapore and Malaysia, as well as concerts and recitals in the UK, Europe and The National Arts Club New York.

UK oratorio and recital appearances include The Queen Elizabeth Hall, The Purcell Room, St. John’s Smith Square, and The Royal Albert Hall; The Bath, Buxton, Nottingham and Kings Lynn festivals; The Queen’s Hall Edinburgh and many performances with the OU Choir including Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at MK Theatre as part of the University’s 40th Anniversary celebrations.

In addition to teaching David adjudicates widely for the British and International Federation of Festivals and gives regular workshops and masterclasses throughout the UK and Ireland as well as in Hong Kong, Jakarta and Sri Lanka.

John Byron read music at Cambridge University and is active as a pianist, conductor, composer and teacher. He studied piano with John Bigg and Renée Reznek, and has recently continued his studies with Philip Fowke. His concerto repertoire is substantial, and he has performed with orchestras such as the Milton Keynes City Orchestra, the Milton Keynes Sinfonia, the Luton Symphony Orchestra, the Bedford Sinfonia, the Bedfordshire Second County Youth Orchestra and the Open University Orchestra. He is also much in demand as an accompanist, and is harpsichordist with the Baroque ensemble Circa 1685. He teaches piano at Uppingham School.

John was formerly musical director of the Lincoln Chorale, and currently conducts Polymnia, a locally based chamber choir. He is assistant musical director of both the Kings Lynn Festival Chorus, and Coro Stellante, a female voice choir that draws members from throughout the Southeast.

John studied composition as a student with Alexander Goehr, and has received several commissions for large-scale works involving chorus, soloists and orchestra, including Ritual Spells, written for the Open University Choir and Orchestra. Different Worlds, a composition for four hands at two pianos, was first performed by Piano 40 in the Purcell Room in London. John contributed to the BBC Radio 3 series The English Cadence and introduced own choral piece Verba in the programme Choirworks.

John was recently awarded a PhD from the University of Northampton, following research into the work of French composer Tristan Murail.

Anna Le Hair started playing the piano as soon as she could reach the keys. Educated at Edinburgh University and the Royal College of Music, Anna won a scholarship from the Austrian Institute to spend a summer studying piano accompaniment at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. Since then she has enjoyed a busy and varied career as pianist and piano teacher. Engagements have included recitals, both solo and as chamber musician and accompanist, in many London venues and others around Britain and abroad, where Anna has played many of the best-loved concertos. Recently, she was nominated for the title of ‘Performer of the Fringe’ at the Buxton Festival. Anna is a Senior House Pianist at the AIMS International Summer School, and is Neil Jenkins’ accompanist of choice at his masterclasses around Britain. Last year, she worked with the tenor Ian Partridge and will be working with the mezzo Sarah Walker later this year. Anna currently lives in Tring and teaches piano and accompanies at St Albans High School. She is the much appreciated rehearsal accompanist for the Aeolian Singers in Hemel Hempstead and the Chiltern Choir in Chorleywood, and is much in demand as an accompanist for singers and instrumentalists. Anna has many forthcoming concerts, which can be viewed on her website, annalehair.co.uk.

The Choir acknowledges the help and support it has received from Elizabeth Camp as Rehearsal Accompanist.

Forthcoming OU Choir concerts

Thursday 30 June and Friday 1 July 2011 at 1pm in St Michael’s Church, Walton Hall

The programme will include the Three Shakespeare Songs by Vaughan Williams and arrangements of British folk songs by Percy Grainger. Admission free. All welcome

Dates for the 2011-12 season

Thursday 24 November 2011 at 1pm in the Hub TheatreThursday 22 March 2012 at 1pm in the Hub TheatreThursday 28 and Friday 29 June 2012 in St Michael’s Church, Walton Hall

Other music at The Open University

Friday 20 May 2011 at 1pm in the Hub Theatre. OU Orchestra. Wagner’s Mastersingers Overture and Brahms’s Second Symphony. Admission free. All welcome

Wednesday 25 May 2011, 1–2pm in St Michael’s Church. Circa 1685, led by John Byron – a Baroque programme, performed by soprano, recorder, viols and harpsichord, including Bach and Buxtehude. Admission free. All welcome

Wednesday 1 June 2011, 1–2pm in St Michael’s Church. Ben Westlake (clarinet) and David Smith (piano) with pieces by Horovitz, Debussy, Brahms, Verdi, Weiner and Penderecki. Admission free. All welcome

About the choirThe Open University Choir is a work-place choir with approximately 90 members, drawn largely from Open University staff and students, but also including singers from the local community. The choir rehearses and performs at lunchtimes at the Open University campus, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, presenting three main concerts each year. The choir has a reputation for performing a varied repertoire, and includes drawing on research done by members of the Music Department and commissioning and encouraging new work as features of its activities.

New choir membersSingers wishing to take part in the Choir’s activities should contact the director, Bill Strang, on extn 52659 or email: W.Strang@open.ac.uk. Regular rehearsals are held on Thursday at lunchtime on the OU campus.

Open University Choir websiteFurther information about the choir and its activities can be found on the choir’s website: http://www.open.ac.uk/wikis/ouchoir/OU_Choir

Mailing listIf you would like to receive notification about the Choir’s concerts by post or by email please contact Gill Smith on extn 58654 or email G.K.Smith@open.ac.uk.

The Open University Choir is affiliated to the Open University Club and gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the University for this concert.