Greenham Common Trust support's concert For The Fallen

The concert, For the Fallen, at the Corn Exchange, Newbury, included music by composers written during the war, illustrating their reactions to the horrific events happening in Europe at the time.
A grant of £8,100 from the Greenham Common Trust enabled the society to engage a professional orchestra – Southern Sinfonia – and soloists for the concert, which also involved standard bearers from The Royal Berkshire Regiment and The Newbury Royal Artillery Association.
The musical programme included Sir Edward Elgar’s The Spirit of England, a musical encapsulation of Laurence Binyon’s poem For the Fallen, and the music of other English composers, Gustav Holst and George Butterworth, who was killed at the Battle of the Somme in 1916.
Keen to also include a European composer, musical director Cathal Garvey suggested a work new to most of the choir, De Profundis by Frenchman Marcel Dupré, written as a requiem to his friends who were killed in the war.
Choir member Jacquie Cooper said: “This work was out of print so we had to get a special licence for the music, plus it demands a large orchestra, which we know would be costly.
“We are extremely grateful to the Trust for this grant, which helped make it possible for us to bring this programme of wonderful and moving music to a new audience in Newbury.”
The society also raised money through events, including coffee mornings and bring-and-buy sales
The choir, which next year celebrates 130 years since its first concert, rehearses on Mondays at the Methodist Church, Northbrook Street, Newbury.
Rehearsals resume on Monday, January 5, and new members are welcome. For further details visit www.newburychoral.org.uk