PERSHORE Choral Society is to dedicate its forthcoming performance of one of the greatest classical requiems ever written to its former conductor who has died from a brain tumour just three days before his 50th birthday.

Andrew Wilson, was the choir’s musical director from 2000 to 2006, while also holding the post of organist and choirmaster at Great Malvern Priory and working as an examiner, composer, recitalist and adjudicator.

The choir is to mark his passing by dedicating to him its performance of Mozart’s magnificent Requiem in D Minor in Pershore Abbey on Saturday, May 12.

“We were already well into rehearsals of the requiem when we were informed of Andrew’s sad and unexpected death and our current musical director, Carleton Etherington, immediately suggested dedicating our performance to him,” said Ron Haden, chairman of Pershore Choral.

“It was a natural thing to do. What better way could there be to show our gratitude for everything Andrew did for the choir than to sing this hauntingly tragic and dramatic work just for him?

“Andrew played an important part in our development as a leading Worcestershire choir and he took us to new heights before leaving to further his musical career elsewhere.”

Mozart, whose health was failing rapidly, worked feverishly on the Requiem throughout 1791, but died at the age of 35 when he had completed only two-thirds of it and the piece was finally finished by one of his pupils.

His widow, Constanze, claimed that Mozart came to believe that he was writing the work for his own funeral and that it had been commissioned anonymously through a mysterious messenger who kept appearing unannounced as if he were haunting the composer.

The concert also includes Mozart’s Coronation Mass in C Major, first performed in Salzburg on Easter Day 1779, and the anthems Ave Verum Corpus and Tantum Ergo.

Tickets can be obtained in advance from Val Holton on 01386 553391 or val.holton@btinternet.com, and from Blue, 19, Broad Street, Pershore.