Come and Sing Elgar's 'The Dream of Gerontius' with the Burford Singers

One Day, One of English Choral Music's Toughest Climbs

The Burford Singers have run come-and-sing days before, Carmina Burana among them, but Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius is a different order of difficulty. It's the piece whose 1900 Birmingham premiere was so under-rehearsed the chorus nearly fell apart, before Richard Strauss called it a masterpiece and the choral world reconsidered. Cardinal Newman's poem on death and judgement gave Elgar the canvas for his most demanding choral writing: dense chromatic harmony, a chorus of demons, a chorus of angels, and lines that ask real things of singers meeting the score for the first time.

Will Dawes, the choir's director of music since 2024, leads the day from registration through to a full run-through with three professional soloists that evening. Novello scores are used throughout, with hire copies available for anyone who doesn't own one, and Robin Baggs accompanies on piano. Rehearsal runs across the day with a lunch break (bring your own), and the performance for friends and family follows in the late afternoon, followed by cake and a music sale.

No audition, no experience required, just a willingness to work through one of the hardest scores in the English choral repertoire in a single sitting.

Ticketed for singers, audience entry is free.

Saturday 12 September 2026 · Burford School, Cheltenham Road, Burford, Oxfordshire OX18 4PL · Starts 9:30am