Christmas 2019: Festive Performances Ahead

Prescot Parish Church Choir will sing Robert Howard’s compositions on four occasions over Advent and Christmas.

His 2002 carol ‘A Babe Is Born,’ arranged for SATB choir and organ/piano in 2016, will be heard at the Mayor of Prescot’s Charity Christmas Concert on Thursday 12 December. Stephen Mannings will accompany the choir on the piano. A host of other school choirs, as well as guest ensemble Brassworks Quartet, will perform at the event, which runs from 7pm to 8.15pm at Prescot Parish Church. Tickets are £5 on the door (including refreshments), and under-16s are free with a paying adult.

The choir will repeat the performance at the church’s own Festival of Lessons & Carols (6.30pm, Sunday 22 December) and at Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve (11.30pm, Tuesday 24 December). Also on Christmas Eve, at the family-oriented Crib Service (3pm), the trebles of the choir (pictured) will sing Robert’s unison arrangement of the same work.

Rob also has an important conducting engagement in the pipeline this Christmas.

On Sunday 8 December, he conducts the Liverpool Mozart Orchestra in ‘A Seasonal Selection’ (2.30pm, Capstone Theatre, Liverpool, L6 1HP). He is joined by BBC Radio Merseyside presenter Roger Phillips, who narrates Prokofiev’s timeless children’s tale Peter and the Wolf.

The programme – inspired in part by the world-famous Vienna Philharmonic New Year concert – also promises music by Johann Strauss II, Arcangelo Corelli, Gustav Holst and Leroy Anderson, among other much-loved composers. Tickets are on sale at www.ticketsource.co.uk.