The Midlands-based, leading UK choir Ex Cathedra has announced a series of socially-distanced Summer Music by Candlelight concerts in Birmingham, Hereford, London and Wolverhampton which get underway this weekend.

Live audiences will enjoy glorious choral music from across the centuries inspired by birdsong, holidays, sea and sunshine, following the arc of dawn to dusk.

The concerts will include music from the 13th-century round Sumer is icumen in to the world première performances of Liz
Johnson’s The Windhover – a setting of Gerard Manley Hopkin’s poem inspired by the kestrel.

As concerts return after a covid-enforced break, it seems fitting that the programme includes Britten’s Hymn to St Cecilia – the patron saint of music – and there will be some fun with an arrangement of Summer Holiday and an evocative trip to the south of France with Trenet’s La mer.

Concerts will take place at St Peter’s Collegiate Church in Wolverhampton (5th June), Hereford Cathedral (9th June), St John’s Smith Square in London (10th June) and Symphony Hall in Ex Cathedra’s home city of Birmingham (13th June). During July, Ex Cathedra will also perform the concert at Buxton International Festival.

Audiences worldwide will also be able to watch a recording of the Symphony Hall concert via the Idagio Global Concert Hall until the end of July, with live audiences at all venues getting free access to watch again online.

COVID safety precautions will remain in place in line with government guidelines, including distancing between booker groups, staggered arrival times, and enhanced cleaning and ventilation.