Alvin M. Keeling 
Westminster Cathedral’s world-renowned choir heads to Devon for a concert of choral and organ music for Eastertide. The highly anticipated performance, titled Surrexit Christus!, follows the choir’s successful appearance at the 2018 Festival of Sacred Music at Buckfast Abbey, which was a sold-out event.
The Saturday 23rd April event will see the choir which is acclaimed as one of the greatest in the world is the only Catholic cathedral choir in the world to sing Mass and Vespers daily, Westminster Cathedral Choir. They will perform a program of ancient Gregorian chants and Renaissance polyphony of the richest liturgical seasons.
Tickets for the concert are priced at £20 and can be purchased now at www.buckfast.org.uk/boxoffice or at Abbey Bookshop. It is advisable to book in advance, as places are not reserved and on a first-come, first-served basis. The doors will open around 7:00 p.m., after the conclusion of monastic vespers.
Philip Arkwright, Organist and Master of Music at Buckfast Abbey, said: “This month we welcome the award-winning Westminster Cathedral Choir to the Abbey to celebrate the centenary of the translation of the Statue of Our – Lady of Buckfast. One hundred years ago, the choir joined us when the statue of Our Lady of Buckfast was installed in its present place in the Chapel of the Lady of the Abbey during a unique Inauguration Ceremony. With great solemnity they led the litanies and hymns for our monastic community and a large number of lay people, and we are truly delighted to welcome some of the best choristers and musicians in the world to the Abbey Church to commemorate this special moment. Of the history. ”
Guests will also have the opportunity to enjoy a gourmet two-course meal before the concert in the newly renovated dining room of the Abbey Conference Center. The meal will start at 6.00pm at a cost of £23.95. Pre-concert meals can be booked online when purchasing a concert ticket, or by contacting the conference center directly on 01364 645530 or conferences@buckfast.org.uk.
The latest recording by the Westminster Cathedral Choir, on the Abbey’s own label advertising fonts , will be available for purchase at the concert at a reduced price. For more information visit www.adfontes.org.uk.
the Surrexit Christus! is part of the Abbey’s new concert series taking place this year. Other concerts to come this spring include a bank holiday recital given by Ian Tracey from Liverpool Cathedral on Monday May 2; a performance of Mozart’s iconic Requiem on Saturday May 21 given by the Abbaye Choir and Orchestra; and a launch event for the new Buckfast Abbey advertising fonts CD – celebrating the complete organ works of Dom Sebastian Wolff – on Sunday 15 May. For more information on other ongoing concerts and events, check out the new musical brochure 2022.
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