THE Priory will ring to the glorious sounds of the Baroque on Saturday, June 6, when Piers Maxim conducts his second concert as Director of Music of the Elgar Chorale, having succeeded Dr Donald Hunt in January.

The programme is entitled Gloria, taking its name from Vivaldi’s famous work which forms the central part of the evening. The programme starts and finishes with pieces by Handel - As Pants the Hart and Dixit Dominus - both early works with clear influences of Purcell and Vivaldi.

Piers has become very familiar in the Malvern area as a conductor, teacher, pianist and organist. Less well known to many is his national and international reputation, as composer, chorus master and conductor, having worked extensively with orchestras and choruses in opera houses across Europe - including Berlin, Brussels and Paris - as well as in the USA and South Africa. He appears as chorus master on recent the Deutsche Grammophon recording of Giordano’s Fedora with Plácido Domingo and Angela Gheorghiu, and in 2010 conducted the first Baroque opera ever staged in Beijing. His composition And I said to the Man was written for the Millennium Eve Service in the presence of HM Queen Elizabeth II, and his latest oratorio The Musket Ball is to be premiered in Greenwich, London in March 2016.

The Chorale will be accompanied on the evening by the Pavillion Ensemble, a period instrument group which Piers has conducted a number of times, including at the 2013 Innsbruck Festival.

The concert will start at 7.30pm. Tickets are £15 & £12 (children under 16 free if accompanied by an adult) are on sale from 01684 594570, administrator@elgarchorale.com, Malvern Priory Bookshop and on the door.

This promises to be an exceptional event, not to be missed by music lovers.

PETER BROOK