Hoping to hit the right note with shoppers and diners alike, the Wessex Consort is ready to sing for its supper twice in one day.
The super choir of 12 young professional singers is staging an afternoon ‘Flash Mob’ performance at 2pm on Saturday 18 February in Poole High Street before performing a formal after-dinner concert from 8pm at East Holme near Wareham.
“We wanted to have some fun with the people of Poole by way of a warm up before the evening performance by the lake at Holme For Gardens,” says Graham Stansfield, composer and the choir’s founder.
On Saturday members of the Wessex Consort will be sat with customers at Wesley’s community café at The Spire, a converted church on Poole High Street. At 2pm, under their distinguished conductor Andrew King (BBC Singers, King’s College Cambridge, The Sixteen) the singers will spring into action and perform a short programme of music from its repertoire including ‘Le Train’, a gospel number entitled ‘Sing Hallelujah’ and ‘Gastronomic’, a celebration of good food and drink, both composed by Graham and included on their latest CD A Choir For All Seasons on Aeterna Records.
“This is a Dorset choir singing songs about Dorset to the people of Dorset – for free!” adds Graham. “What better way to liven up Poole High Street on a Saturday afternoon?”
After the warm up ‘happening’ at Wesley’s, the choir will give a 3pm matinee concert at The Spire with admission by donation (suggested £5) and that evening from the Wessex Consort, with Andrew King conducting, will perform an after-dinner concert at the lakeside Holme For Gardens restaurant at East Holme, presenting a varied programme of musical portraits of Dorset life.
