CUMBRIA Choral Initiative (CCI) is commemorating the centenary of the First World War in South Lakeland with a series of events over the next week.

The centrepiece of the ‘Lest We Forget’ project will take place on Saturday night, when around 250 performers and a capacity audience will gather in Kendal Parish Church for a performance of Benjamin Britten’s ‘War Requiem’.

The iconic work was written in 1962 to celebrate the consecration of the new cathedral in Coventry, after the old one had been destroyed in a bombing raid in 1940.

Ian Jones, Musical Director of CCI, who will conduct the performance, said: “‘War Requiem’ is one of the boldest anti-war statements in music. It combines the Latin Requiem Mass with the poems of Wilfred Owen in a work of immense emotional power.”

The Kendal performance will feature a soprano soloist and an adult choir of 140 singers, accompanied by an orchestra of 80 players.

A chamber ensemble will accompany the two male soloists who sing the Owen poems and represent the soldiers on the battlefield, while the Amabile Girls’ Choir, accompanied by the organ, will represent the angelic voices of the innocent.

The soloists are all familiar faces in Kendal and sang in the 2005 performance of ‘War Requiem’ - Elizabeth Traill, Nicholas Hurndall Smith and John Lofthouse.

The large chorus, drawn from a wide area of the North West, has been rehearsing since July and Mr Jones said it “is thoroughly enjoying getting to grips with this challenging but hugely rewarding masterpiece.”

Other commemorative events taking place throughout the week as part of ‘Lest We Forget’ include poetry readings by members of the Brewery Poets (Friday), the laying of wreaths at the War Memorial (Sunday), Levens Choir in Ings Church (Tuesday), and Eversley Choir in St John’s Church Yealand (November 13).