Birmingham Festival Choral Society will be joining Coventry Philharmonic Choir and Atherstone Choral Society to perform Elgar’s magnificent choral setting of John Henry Newman’s poem, the Dream of Gerontius. We will be accompanied by the Leamington Chamber Orchestra. 

The concert will take place at All Saints’ Church, Leamington Spa, on Saturday 12th April 2025, 7.30pm, and will be preceded at 7pm by a talk by David McLoughlin, Emeritus Fellow, Birmingham Newman University.

Birmingham Festival Choral Society (celebrating its 180th Anniversary)
Atherstone Choral Society
Coventry Philharmonic Choir
Leamington Chamber Orchestra
David Wynne – conductor

Louise Crane – Mezzo soprano
Tom Raskin – Tenor
Matthew Nuttall – Baritone

This 2025 performance of Dream of Gerontius will, of course, be very well prepared and performed to a high standard. The premiere in 1900 was the complete opposite! An interesting history of the background to the composition of the poem by John Henry Newman, the commissioning of Elgar to write the work for the Birmingham Festival and the first performance can be found here on the Birmingham City Council website.

We recommend that you buy your tickets soon, as this is proving to be a very popular concert and the large number of performers means that seating is limited.