CUMBRIA Choral Initiative performs Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem as part of a series of events in November put together to commemorate the beginning of the First World War. Britten’s major choral and orchestral work was written to mark the rebuilding of Coventry Cathedral which was destroyed in an air raid during the war. War Requiem combines the poems of the First World War poet Wilfred Owen with the liturgical text of the Requiem Mass and is a huge statement about the futility of war and the need for reconciliation.

Performing Britten’s dramatic piece on Saturday, November 8, at Kendal Parish Church will be a 130-strong choir, Amabile Girls’ Choir, 80-strong orchestra and 12-piece chamber orchestra plus three soloists.

Ian Jones and the CCI team have worked alongside other organisations to stage events over Remembrance Weekend, which opens on the Friday, November 7, when Brewery Poets host a literary gathering.

Also tied in with CCI’s parish church centrepiece will be a special exhibition put together by Cumbria Federation of WIs.

Ian said that since CCI started it had built up a considerable list of singers from all over the north west of England and it was from that pool of singers that the chorus had been drawn.

He added: “Similarly many of the orchestra members have played for us in previous concerts and are both supportive of our efforts and also keen to play in such pieces as the War Requiem because opportunities are few and far between. Our three wonderful soloists, Elizabeth Traill, Nicholas Hurndall Smith and John Lofthouse, have all sung with us before, including in the 2005 sell-out performance of the War Requiem. Amabile, of course, is one of the country’s leading youth choirs and it is wonderful to have these singers on our doorstep.”

Elsewhere, on the following Tuesday, November 11, Levens Choir stage an evening of Words and Music related to the First World War at St Anne’s Church, Ings, and the day after (Wednesday)Kendal Midday Concert Club bring the Dante Quartet and baritone Stephen Varcoe to Kendal Town Hall, to perform the music of English composers Butterworth, Bridge, Holst and Gurney.

Meanwhile, the Thursday sees conductor Ian Jones and Eversley Choral in fine voice at Yealand Church performing Faure’s Requiem and Vaughan Williams’ cantata Dona Nobis Pacem (Grant Us Peace).

For further information visit www.cumbriachoralinitiative.org.uk.