Music on the Thames Path: Dorchester Abbey

One of the delights of walking is discovering music on the Thames Path. Dorchester Abbey, which lies about a mile off the Thames Path, has a rich tradition of music. They have an exciting progranne through Lent and into Easter. 

On Saturday March 7, Thames Consort will bring a varied programme of vocal and instrumental music to raise money for Dorchester Abbey

A week later, Benson Choral Society will be performing Vaughan William’s Sea Symphony as well as the ever popular Piano Concerto by Grieg. This will be on Saturday March 14 at 7.30pm.

Then, on March 21, again at 7.30pm, the Berkshire Youth Choir will perform with Berkshire Maestros chamber orchestra, Camerata.  The concert will culminate in a performance of Vivaldi’s Gloria.

The Easter weekend heralds a glorious feast of music:

On Good Friday (April 10) the Orchestra of St Johns will perform Brahms Requiem as well as Faure’s La Mort de Melisande, La Mort d’Ophelie by Berlioz, and Sibelius’s The Death of Melisande.

Finally, advance notice that Dorchester Abbey will host the fourteenth Festival of English Music from Friday 22nd to Monday 25th May 2020. The annual English Music Festival celebrates the brilliance, innovation, beauty and rich musical heritage of Britain with a strong focus on unearthing overlooked or forgotten masterpieces of the late nineteenth to mid-twentieth century.

Further information and tickets are available on the Dorchester Abbey website.

Launching the Festival at Dorchester Abbey, Oxfordshire will be the BBC Concert Orchestra, under conductor Gavin Sutherland, to perform a first modern performance of Frederic Cowen’s Symphony no.4, known as ‘The Welsh’, together with a World Première overture by Elgar, and a rare performance of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Violin Concerto, performed by soloist, Rupert Marshall-Luck.

A full programme is available on the website, www.englishmusicfestival.org.uk.

Dorchester Abbey was founded in 1140, the town having been an important Roman settlement and later the capital of Wessex. The church was rebuilt during the late middle-ages. The Abbey survived largely unscathed during Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries, and so the present church is around 800 years old.  

The Abbey is open every day for visitors. The museum is open from 11am to 5pm on Wednesday and Thursday; then from 11am to 2pm on Friday; and from 2pm to 5pm on Saturday, Sunday and Bank Holiday Mondays.