Verdi Requiem

The Eastbournian Society were well represented among the 180 players and singers, as well as among the 350-strong audience.

Under the baton of Eastbourne Symphony Orchestra’s Conductor Graham Jones (College Music Department and organist from 1976 and director of music from 1991 to 2012), singers from the ES Chorus and Hailsham Choral Society joined with the ESO for a performance of one of the great icons of Western music with its soaring lyrical melodies, scintillating orchestration and dramatic emotional intensity. Graham, conducting his sixth Verdi Requiem, added: ‘It is a monumental work and possibly Verdi’s greatest opera, and more than an opera, for it speaks for us all and to us all.’

The consensus among all those present was that it had been a glorious and memorable evening, with fine soloists (soprano Helen Bailey, mezzo soprano Rebecca Hughes, tenor Luke Price, bass Jozik Kotz), great choral work, and playing of the highest quality from the ESO led by College violin teacher Lisa Wigmore.

John Thornley (College staff since 1978 and the ESO’s concert manager) was delighted that the large audience went away having experienced a real musical tour de force.