South London Singers

About the show

The South London Singers join with the South London Sinfonia! We will perform together for our main work: the much-loved German Requiem by Brahms. He chose the words himself with a focus on consolation, comfort and reassurance for those left behind when someone dies. It has many varied musical highlights in orchestration and in features such as the three fugues.
In addition, each ensemble will perform a piece on its own. The SLSingers will reprise 'Salt Water Songs', written by local composer, the late Geoffrey Lawrence. Geoff was both a member of the SLSingers, for whom he wrote this group of songs setting the words of ‘Cargoes’ by John Masefield and ‘A Sea Song’ by Allan Cunningham, and of the congregation at St. John’s.
The SLSinfonia will give us a piece by another local composer: Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. He lived a large proportion of his short life in Croydon and wrote a large amount of varied music including the Ballade in A minor which we will hear.
Coleridge-Taylor, the son of a British mother and a creole father, was highly admired during his lifetime by many eminent musicians. In the U.S.A. he was nicknamed ‘the American Mahler’. The anniversaries of his death in 2012 and birth in 2025 have encouraged recordings of other pieces. He wrote in most genres of classical music from a Symphony to an Opera (recently rediscovered) and many pieces of chamber music for different ensembles including this Ballade.