On Thursday 21 October, as the half term holiday approaches, Hereford Cathedral Choir, along with director of music Geraint Bowen, organist Peter Dyke, and a team of chaperones, will head off to Cape Town for their ten-day tour of the Cape region of South Africa. This is an exciting new destination for the choir, which has previously toured four times in the USA in recent years.
Links have been formed with churches affiliated to the Royal School of Church Music (RSCM) which will take the choir to venues like St George’s Cathedral Cape Town, where Desmond Tutu, whom some of the boys had the pleasure to meet at last year’s Hay Festival, was the archbishop. Other venues include George, Port Elizabeth and Grahamstown, where the congregations are enthusiastically anticipating the visit.
‘As well as singing concerts and services, the choir will have the opportunity to visit Robben Island and Table Mountain and also to see some of South Africa’s wildlife,’ said Geraint Bowen. ‘The tour will include a journey along the famous Garden Route through some of the most beautiful scenery of the Cape as well as including a visit to the Cape of Good Hope.’
‘This is an exciting venture, musically, educationally and culturally for everyone involved,’ said Geraint. ‘It has also required a huge fund-raising effort, which is not over yet!”
One of the choir’s major fund-raising events will be a gala concert, featuring music to be sung on the tour, in Hereford Cathedral on Tuesday 19 October at 7 pm. Admission is free with a retiring collection in support of the tour fund.
No comments:
Post a Comment