THE DURHAM Singers will mark their 40th anniversary with a programme that celebrates the voice. The choir will perform a wide-ranging programme of English music from the renaissance to the present day, including works by Byrd, Parry, and Howells.

The choice of music also reflects the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee: the choir will perform two of Handel’s Coronation Anthems, for which they will be joined by trumpeters, and Behold O God Our Defender, written by Herbert Howells for Elizabeth II’s coronation. The concert concludes with Blest Pair of Sirens by Hubert Parry, a stirring setting for double choir and organ of a poem by John Milton about the forces of earth and heaven making music together, and which was one of the pieces sung at last year’s royal wedding.

The Durham Singers were founded in 1972 by the late Dick Addison, with 16 singers, with a mission to perform a wide range of unaccompanied music to as high a standard as possible.

Forty years later, this is still the choir’s guiding principle, and the 40th anniversary concert programme includes two of the choir’s favourite unaccompanied works from recent seasons: Parry’s At The Round Earth’s Imagined Corners and Christus est Stella, written for the choir by local composer Will Todd.

Over its 40 years, the choir has had just three musical directors, and several of its earliest members still sing with the group.

All three directors have contributed their own song arrangements to the choir’s repertoire, and a selection of these will be performed at the concert.

Current musical director Dr Julian Wright said: "This special concert is a way of highlighting our core aim, which is to put on concerts that are special and moving occasions for all.

"This involves us performing the best new music as well as music from across the centuries, but always with a sense of how we can bring new light and new inspiration to musicians and audience alike.

"We have exciting plans coming up, involving schools and young soloists as we hope to bring musical inspiration to new audiences in the North-East."

Members of the audience are invited to join the choir for a celebratory reception after the concert.

The Durham Singers 40th Anniversary concert will be held at the Elvet Methodist Church, in Durham City, at 7.30pm on Saturday June 23.

Tickets £12 (£10 concessions) available from Gala Theatre Box Office on 0191-332 4041 or www.galadurham.co.uk, from the choir or on the door.

For more information contact the choir on 0779 0148062 or email info@durham-singers.org