AN old girls' reunion of the Bar Convent Gallery Choir will gather in the Bar Convent chapel, in Blossom Street, York, to perform a concert at 4.15pm on Saturday.
Up to 22 former choristers will be taking part in an event co-ordinated by Elly Fiorentini, the BBC Radio York presenter and news reporter, who sang in the choir when she attended Bar Convent from 1974 to 1981. The choir is so named because the choristers sing in the chapel gallery.
"Everyone in the choir in their schooldays had to audition and many are still singing now," says Elly. "There were never more than 16 in the choir at any one time, so to have 22 singing this weekend is so exciting, and we're delighted to have former choristers coming from as far away as London and the Midlands,"
Saturday's programme will feature Pergolesi's Stabat Mater – "everyone's favourite at the Bar Convent," says Elly– along with music from Faure's Requiem, a Mendelssohn work and other pieces.
York composer Andrew Carter, who taught Bar Convent choir members, and fellow tutor Iain Robertson, a former organist at Leeds Cathedral, will be participating in the concert too. Admission is free but donations can be made to St Leonard's Hospice, York, in memory of author Tricia Walker, who died in January.
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