SINGERS from across Coventry and Warwickshire are being urged to add their voices to hundreds of others during a special concert at 7pm on February 11.
‘From Pub to Pulpit’ at Coventry Cathedral will turn folk songs into hymns as part of the show which will involve the whole audience.
Singers will join acapella folk group Broomdasher, instrumental trio Coracle, the Cathedral Choir and organ for the rousing concert.
A free afternoon workshop will take place beforehand where singers will learn a folk song.
‘From Pub to Pulpit’ is the only official touring event marking the 150th birthday of Vaughan Williams – one of the nation’s favourite composers.
After Coventry it will head back on the road on a 20-date tour until The Three Choirs Festival at Gloucester Cathedral in July.
The tour has been picked as a highlight of the Vaughan Williams Festival Year by The Times, The Guardian, Gramophone and The Living Tradition Folk magazines.
Visit universe.com/events/from-pub-to-pulpit-tickets-H7X613 for From Pub to Pulpit tickets, which are £10 and £15.
Vaughan Williams was a well-known collector of folk songs and he borrowed song tunes he collected from labourers around the country for music of some of the best hymns in the 1906 English Hymnal he edited.
In the final part of the concert, Broomdasher and Coracle take the audience on a musical journey, starting with the folk song, going through dance variations and climaxing with everyone raising the roof with full-blooded renditions of the hymns.
They include ‘To Be a Pilgrim’ and ‘I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say’, transformed from the folk songs ‘Our Captain Calls’ and ‘The Murder of Maria Marten’.
