MIDLANDS CHORALE Conductor Oliver Walker

MIDLANDS CHORALE Conductor Oliver Walker with The Concert for Clara Orchestra Leader Julia Johnson present Some Messiah! Some Enchanted Evening! (A Concert for Clara) Sunday 6th November 7.45pm at Shrewsbury RC Cathedral, Town Walls ***************************** Messiah Merrie England The Pirates of Penzance South Pacific Chess ***************************** Tickets £10 (Children and Students £5) from Theatre Severn Box Office 01743-281281 Thank you to our Sponsors Midlands Chorale, founded in 1978, draws its singers from all corners of the West Midlands. The choir has performed with distinction a wide repertoire across the country, and made several recordings. The choir has given acclaimed performances of many major works in Birmingham, Leicester, Shrewsbury, and across the West Midlands. In association with the Leicester Bach Choir in recent years, they have performed Brahms German Requiem, Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem, and Elgar’s The Music Makers, accompanied by full orchestra. The choir’s concerts generate several thousand pounds a year for different charities. Midlands Chorale is Registered Charity No. 1108506. Visit www.midlandschorale.co.uk for more information. The Concert for Clara Orchestra, led by Julia Johnson, includes professional and experienced amateur players from across Shropshire, who have all given their time and talent to make this a special musical event. Oliver Walker is the Organist and Choirmaster at Solihull School, where he oversees the busy programme of choral and organ music within the School Chapel, and is the Musical Director of the Midlands Chorale and Warwickshire Singers. He held the Organ Scholarship at Keble College, Oxford, where he also directed College Choral Society and Orchestra. Before arriving in the West Midlands, Oliver spent two years as Senior Organ Scholar at Wells Cathedral, regularly accompanying and conducting the internationally renowned Wells Cathedral Choir for many of their nine weekly services. As an organist and conductor, Oliver has toured Japan, Korea, Israel, Germany, France, as well as many venues around the UK. He has worked with the Southbank Symphonia, the Parliamentary Choir in the Palace of Westminster, the Rodolfus Choir and has worked for five years on the acclaimed Eton Choral Courses. Rett Syndrome Research Imagine the symptoms of autism, cerebral palsy, Parkinson's, epilepsy, and anxiety disorders…all in one little girl. Rett Syndrome is a neurological condition that affects 1 in 15,000 female births across the world, leaving them unable to walk or talk. Clara is the only little girl who suffers with it in Shropshire. We know that it’s caused by a fault on a single gene. For many years it was thought to be incurable. Then, in 2007, Prof. Adrian Bird in Edinburgh astonished the scientific world by reversing Rett Syndrome in mice. Since then, researchers around the world have been focused on delivering a cure for Rett Syndrome in the girls. Several labs will be trialling a gene therapy cure for mice later this year, with the prospect of moving to a clinical trial with some of the girls in the next 2 to 3 years. Rett Syndrome could be the first genetic neurological condition to be defeated by science. That would be a great human triumph, and hopefully would blaze the trail for the cure of more conditions. All proceeds from this concert will go to the Rett Syndrome Research Trust, which is trying to accelerate the race to a cure by funding research across the world. (visit www.reverserett.org.uk) Some Messiah! Some Enchanted Evening! The original concept for this concert was to perform a selection of popular choruses from late 20th Century Musicals. When further investigation revealed an amazing dearth of part choruses in those Shows, we cast our net much farther back. We first sing some of the great choruses from Handel’s 18th century Messiah. This is an oratorio, which we might say these days is the “concert” (as opposed to “stage”) version of a show. From 19th century, we proceed to extracts from G & S’s The Pirates of Penzance via Offenbach’s Can Can (from his operetta Orpheus in the Underworld). Next, a selection from Edward German’s Edwardian musical Merrie England lead us to some magical numbers from South Pacific (staged 1949), and we conclude with a choral selection from the 1985 musical Chess (by Tim Rice and Abba), which produced major hits I know him so well and One Night in Bangkok. This should be a unique, fun, and unforgettable evening’s entertainment. Our Sponsors We are extremely grateful to PCB Solicitors, and Gee 7 Wealth Management Ltd, Financial Planners for their generous support of this concert. .

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