The South Berkshire Singers performed Mozart’s Requiem and Faure’s Cantique de Jean Racine in St Paul’s Church, Wokingham on Saturday 20^th April.

As a choir we are privileged to be under the inspirational direction of Karen Phillips and benefit from the wonderful talent of Simon Dinsdale our accompanist on piano and organ.

The Requiem is a dramatic and brilliant work by the genius that was Mozart. The choir worked very hard to learn the 8 pieces for choruses: Introitus, Kyrie, Sequenz, Offertorium, Sanctus, Benedictus, Agnus Dei and Communio sung in Latin. For the performance we were joined by three professional soloists: Chloe Riordan (soprano), David Walder (tenor) and Alex Pratley (bass). The alto solo was sung by Lynne Smith who is a member of our choir.

The Cantique de Jean Racine, Op. 11, is a composition for mixed choir and piano or organ by Gabriel Fauré. The text, "Verbe égal au Très-Haut", is a French paraphrase by the French dramatist Jean Racine of a Latin hymn from the breviary for matins, Consors paterni luminis.

As we looked forward to the performance of both works, we were all nervous, but the experience was wonderful as the acoustics in the church, the soloists, the organ and the audience combined to motivate us and raise our singing to heights we had not reached before – it was an uplifting evening in which we were all proud to play our part.

At the end of the performance there was a retiring collection in aid of St Paul’s Church Restation Fund and other church charities. This collection raised in excess of £1000. Members of St Paul’s Church Committee served refreshments. All of our performances raise funds for local charities as nominated and voted for by the choir members. We raised more than £3000 at Christmas in Corpus Christi Church for the Africa Fund and £2600 last summer at All Saints church, Wokingham, in aid of the church’s community project “spaceforall”.

If you would like to join our friendly choir which meets at All Saints School in Wokingham every Tuesday evening at 19.30 for 19.45 you would be made most welcome.

For more information, please contact our Membership Secretary, Una, on 0118 979 3574, visit our website or contact any member of the choir.

Our website is www.southberkshiresingers.org.uk and our Facebook page is at www.facebook.com/SouthBerkshireSingers/

Dave Donaldson.