Howard Premieres Planned for Advent & Christmas Season

Robert was delighted with the stirring performance of his Magnificat and Nunc dimittis given by Liverpool Cathedral Youth Choir at Evensong on Saturday 24 November. The choristers of St Mary’s Prescot, for whom the setting was originally written, attended and were given a warm welcome by the presiding priest and the cathedral’s Director of Choral Outreach, Stephen Mannings, who recently joined the bass section at Prescot.

On Tuesday 4 December, Robert will accompany his wife, Laura Howard, as she sings two of his Christmas carols. The first will be the premiere of Once in Royal David’s City, in its flexible version; the second is A Babe Is Born. The occasion is the South Liverpool Orchestra Christmas Concert at 8pm in St James’s Methodist & United Reformed Church on Church Road South, Woolton, L25 7RJ. Tickets are £4 on the door, which includes a post-concert buffet and drinks. See www.south-liverpool-orchestra.co.uk.

On Thursday 6 December, the full choral version of Once in Royal David’s City will be sung for the first time by Prescot Parish Church Choir, under the baton of David Kernick and with the composer at the piano. A quintet from Allerton Brass and several community and school choirs complete the programme for the Mayor of Prescot’s Charity Christmas Concert, which takes place from 7pm to 8.15pm in Prescot Parish Church, Church Street, L34 1LA. Tickets are just £5 on the door, including festive refreshments, and children under 16 are free with a paying adult. See www.prescotfestival.co.uk.

Prescot Parish Church Choir will sing Rob’s setting of For Mary, Mother of Our Lord at their Sung Eucharist on Sunday 23 December at 10am (Fourth Sunday of Advent) and will sing Once in Royal David’s City a second time, at Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve, Monday 24 December, at 11.30pm.

Liverpool Mozart Orchestra, Liverpool Cathedral Performances Ahead for Howard Compositions

November 2018 sees several performances of Robert Howard’s music in Merseyside.

On Friday 16 November, the composer will give the premiere of his own piano miniatures, Intrada (1995) and Prelude in C (1992), at a private engagement at Gladstone’s Library in Hawarden, Wales. This follows successful premieres of other earlier works at Prescot Parish Church in September: Piano miniatures Pastoral Intermezzo and Prelude in F (both 1993), and Pierrot (1992), for solo bassoon. The occasion will also feature a first performance of Robert’s setting of the carol Once in Royal David’s City, with Laura Howard (alto) and David Kernick (tenor).

On Saturday 17 November, Liverpool Mozart Orchestra play his 2015 Cortège, in a Remembrance programme also featuring pieces by Butterworth, Ravel, Beethoven and Vaughan Williams. The concert starts at 7.30pm at the Capstone Theatre (Liverpool Hope University, Shaw Street, Liverpool, L6 1HP), and tickets are £15 (senior citizens £13.50, 17+ in full-time education £5, u16s free). See www.livemozart.com for more information and to buy tickets.

And finally, Stephen Mannings will conduct Liverpool Cathedral Youth Choir in Robert Howard’s Magnificat & Nunc dimittis at Evensong on Saturday 24 November at 3pm in Liverpool Cathedral. Although Robert’s choral works have been heard at the neighbouring Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King, this marks the first performance of a Howard composition at the Anglican Cathedral. All are welcome to this service of worship (free entry).