The singers are delighted to be invited to Otley for what will be the first outing of the year for the choir.
Chordiality can expect a warm welcome from the audience at Our Lady and All Saints Church, which is a new venue for Chordiality.
The singers will take to the stage with a new programme of contemporary works including a few old favourites for good measure. Highlights will be new additions Sogno Di Volare (The Dream Of Flight), by two-time Grammy Award-winning American Christopher Tin, and Exultate Jubilate by famous Welsh composer Karl Jenkins.
Our Lady and All Saints Church is famous for its Irish Famine Memorial. The church was built in 1851 at the expense of local solicitor Thomas Constable and sister Mary Anne for the benefit of the growing Irish population of the town who, at the time, had fled the famine in Ireland.
The Irish families were invited to Otley by Constable to escape the failure of the potato crop in 1845. The families settled in tents in what became known as Irish Fields. Weakened by starvation, many died soon after arriving. As there was no Catholic church at the time, the then vicar of the Otley Parish Church, The Rev’d Joshua Hart, agreed to the burials of Catholics in the church’s graveyard – a remarkable ecumenical gesture at that time.
For further information about this concert, email chordiality.choir@hotmail.com or contact a member of the choir.