Conductor's sacred music debut with Newbury chamber choir spans 400 years

Newbury Chamber Choir is excited to be performing its first concert under new musical director Ben de Souza, who joined the choir in January this year.

Ben is a choral conductor, accordionist and singer and is the Founding director of the choir at Clare Hall, Cambridge. He is musical director of Farnham & Bourne Choral Society and Reading Lunchtime Choir and regularly deputises as a conductor and singer for choirs across the south of England.

Ben completed his undergraduate studies at the Royal Academy of Music as a classical accordionist, studying with Owen Murray, and continues to have an active accordion career across England as a recitalist and teacher.

For his first concert with the Chamber Choir Ben has chosen to journey over 400 years from the Italian Renaissance to the present-day contrasting music for Lent and Holy Week by three well-known composers, Palestrina, Lotti and Gabriel Jackson.

Newbury Chamber Choir’s concert Sacred Music for Eastertide, is on Saturday (April 9) at St John’s Church, Newbury at 7.30pm. Go along and listen to this amazing music in the beautiful spiritual atmosphere of St John’s Church. Tickets £15, under 18s free, online from www.newburychamberchoir.org or on the door.