The Academy of St Mary-le-Bow performs Vaughan Williams’ epic Sea Symphony with a chorus of over one hundred massed voices from the Cantus Ensemble, Covent Garden Chorus and Constanza Chorus, under the baton of its Musical Director, Alex Fryer. The concert opens with Ravel’s seascape, Une barque sur l'océan, before the orchestra is joined by the chorus and soloists to embark on Vaughan Williams’ nautical masterwork. A Sea Symphony is Vaughan Williams’ first symphony and was completed in 1910, two years after the composer had returned from studying orchestration with Ravel. The work sets text from Walt Whitman’s poem Leaves of Grass.

Internationally acclaimed soprano and 2020 First Prize winner of the Kathleen Ferrier Awards, Jessica Cale, joins fellow Royal College of Music International Opera School graduate baritone Harry Thatcher, whose recent engagements have included Opera Holland Park and Scottish Opera, to bring Whitman’s vivid text to life.

Formed in 2016, the Academy of St Mary-le-Bow is delighted to be collaborating once again with the Cantus Ensemble and Covent Garden Chorus in St John’s Smith Square marking the third in a series of collaborations, previously featuring Bach’s St. Mathew Passion and Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms.