Saturday 13th June 2026

 

'In Poetry and Song'​

‘In Poetry and Song’ is a celebration of poetry’s power to be transformed and deepened when set to music. The evening is structured around five themes — the Pastoral, Inner Thought, Conflict, Storytelling, and Dialogue — tracing a broad emotional and musical journey across centuries of composition.

The concert opens with Stanford’s ‘Six Partsongs’ (Op. 119), a set of short compositions setting the poetry of Mary Elizabeth Coleridge, complemented by Judith Bingham’s ‘The Drowned Lovers’, a haunting treatment of love and loss against a backdrop of natural beauty.

After the interval, the programme turns to the theme of Conflict. Ešenvalds’ ‘A Soldier’s Mother’s Lullaby’ and Elgar’s ‘They Are at Rest’ confront the grief and suffering of war with directness and solemnity, placing the listener firmly within the human cost of history.

The concert’s closing section brings a return to quieter reflection, with partsongs by British composer Phillip Cooke — setting texts by Tennyson, Lawrence, and Housman — before culminating in the theme of Dialogue. Judith Weir and Holst’s ‘Evening Watch’ brings the evening to a composed and meditative close.

Saturday 13th June 2026
7:30pm
St Cuthbert’s Catholic Church, Old Elvet, DH1 3HL

Tickets available on the door or via:

https://durhamstudentmusic.org/what.../in-poetry-and-in-song 

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