County children come together to perform Mozart Requiem with HCS choirs

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More than 300 pupils from schools across Herefordshire and beyond gathered at Hereford Cathedral last night to perform Mozart Requiem as part of Hereford Cathedral School’s music outreach programme.

The huge event, which featured music by Fauré and Brahms, was HCS Director of Music Mr Evans’s last major concert before he steps down in the summer term.

Hereford Cathedral School choirs and musicians were joined in the cathedral by the local schoolchildren along with a wealth of Old Herefordians, parents and HCS staff.

The guest schools were Bishop Hooper CE Primary School, Gorsley Goffs Primary School, Hereford Academy, St Paul’s CofE Primary School and Hereford Steiner Academy. Also among the massed choir were the HCS Saturday Morning Singers.

The evening’s soloists were HCS vocal studies coach Lucy Bowen (soprano), Director of Hereford Cathedral School’s Cantabile Girls’ Choir Jo Williamson (contralto), Old Herefordian Ruairi Bowen (tenor), and Rob Pritchard (bass).

Alongside the professional musicians in the orchestra were HCS pupils Natalie T (clarinet), Jake B (double bass) and Esme S (cello).

It was wonderful to welcome back organist Michael D’Avanzo OH (pictured below left), who left HCS in 2020 and is now Organ Scholar at Southwell Minster. In October, he will take up his place to read Music at Jesus College, Cambridge, as Organ Scholar.

HCS Director of Music Mr David Evans, who organised the event, said: “I would like to congratulate all of those who performed so professionally and gave their best. There were some extraordinary individual performances in the concerto movements, the orchestra played with aplomb, and the massed choirs of around 300 gave an outstanding performance of the Mozart, which was befitting for all the hours of rehearsal that have gone into this. For all there, this was a breadth of cultural experience for life that many will remember for a long time. My thanks to the four professional soloists in the Requiem who were an inspiration, and to those teachers and parents in the schools involved who had rehearsed endlessly with the children.”

Commenting after the concert, HCS Headmaster Dr Michael Gray tweeted: “What an amazing concert this evening with wonderful performances from @HerefordCS pupils and so many young people from across the county!”

Following the rehearsal earlier yesterday, St Paul’s Primary School tweeted: “What a fabulous experience! We’re really looking forward to this evening’s concert. Thank you so much for including us.”

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