Festival of Song will ring out from Lancaster Priory next month

This annual event, from September 9-17, celebrates the Priory’s patron saint St Mary, who will be remembered at the Sunday concert by Voces Mariae.

The festival launches with a free coffee morning concert by the Blue Moon band with their Celebration of Burt Bacharach, who died earlier this year.

Three Lancaster secondary schools take over during festival lunchtimes with Lancaster Girls’ Grammar School performing on September 12; Lancaster Royal Grammar School on September 13 and Ripley St Thomas CE Academy on September 4, all between 12.30-1.15pm.

There’s a chance to participate on September 14 when a vocal workshop on the theme of The Last Rose will explore folk and new ballads in a special Encounter Voices event.

This session, led by Loz Kaye, is inspired by the Harkness ballad collection in Preston’s Harris Museum and will be performed at the town’s Encounter Festival on September 16. All participants can join that performance or just enjoy the workshop alone.

The Priory’s historic walls will echo to the sound of gospel music on September 15 when Manchester’s Voices Beyond Gospel Collective perform.

Fresh from Manchester International Festival, the collective will showcase gospel classics, afrobeat tunes and even some neo-soul spice thrown in, as well as a sing-a-long.

The festival’s second coffee morning concert on September 16 will be presented by a recently formed group of singers from several north west choirs who’ll present familiar classics and contemporary pieces.

And the festival finale sees Jeremy Truslove conducting the Priory Choir and Orchestra in Sounds of Lancaster Priory – an evening of festival classics with the opportunity for some audience participation.

The programme, featuring home-grown talent, includes Handel’s Zadok the Priest which was sung at the recent Coronation.

All festival events are free apart from Voices Beyond Gospel Collective and Sounds of Lancaster Priory where there will be reserved seating priced £12, £10 and £8, U18s half price. Wheelchair spaces - with personal assistant seats included free - are £12 and £10, contact [email protected] for details.

The festival is sponsored by Oglethorpe Sturton & Gillibrand Solicitors and CKS Catering Equipment. For more information and to book for ticketed events, visit www.lancasterpriory.org