David Luckcock from Enfield Choral Society on a special event coming up this month

Mark Sproson, musical director of Enfield Choral Society

Mark Sproson has led and developed Enfield Choral Society as our musical director for 20 years – with celebrations including a concert on Saturday, 21st June.

Mark’s achievements include successfully steering the choir through the pandemic by masterminding a range of online activities and the introduction of Enfield Choral Society Chamber Choir.

Under Mark’s leadership the choir has performed a very wide range of music, from baroque and classical to popular and jazz. He continues to play a major part in making the choir both musically challenging and supportive.

We will be singing at Bishop Stopford’s School in Brick Lane (EN1 3PU) with a full orchestral accompaniment by Enfield Chamber Orchestra. To attract as wide an audience as possible, tickets will be £10 or less!

The programme features two major works with contrasting musical responses to war, regrettably only too apt given the current turmoil in the world.

Karl Jenkins’ The Armed Man – A Mass for Peace will be instantly recognisable. It was composed in 1999 for the millennium celebrations, having been commissioned by the Royal Armouries Museum, and dedicated to the victims of the Kosovo crisis.

It reflects on war and peace in a multicultural, global society and uses lyrics from classic poets, biblical verses, traditional mass, Hindu, and Japanese sources. It is an anti-war piece concerned with the horrors of war and hopes for peace in the new millennium.

Haydn’s Nelson Mass, Mass for Troubled Times will be well known too – at least by the end of the concert! As it was composed in 1798 when Austria was under severe threat from France, it is possible that news of Nelson’s defeat of the French navy in the Battle of the Nile inspired the title.

Another explanation for the name attributes it to Lord Nelson’s presence at a performance in 1800. Haydn himself never used the title Nelson Mass. He later catalogued the work as a “missa in angustiis” or “mass for troubled times”.

We do hope you’ll join us for an excellent evening of entertainment.

Enfield Choral Society is performing at Bishop Stopford’s School on Saturday, 21^st June from 7.30pm. Tickets are £10, £5 for under-25s in full-time education, and free for under-16s:
Call 07864 061 755
Email [email protected]
Visit enfieldchoralsociety.org.uk

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