When: 15 March 2025, 7:30 pm
Where: Ely Cathedral
The world-renowned Philharmonia Orchestra will be visiting Ely Cathedral to perform Vaughan Williams’ A Sea Symphony alongside Cambridge University Symphony Chorus on Saturday 15 March 2025.
The collaboration also involves members of Cambridge college choirs, renowned soprano Sophie Bevan MBE, and rising star baritone Daniel D’Souza, an English National Opera Harewood Artist for 2024-25.
David Young, Director of the Cambridge University Symphony Chorus and the National Symphony Chorus of Ireland, will be conducting the performance.
Founded in the immediate aftermath of World War II, the Philharmonia is widely recognised as one of the world’s great orchestras. From its base at London’s Southbank Centre it tours the world – it is due to give performances as far afield as Japan, Spain, Estonia, Finland and the Canary Islands this year – while its numerous recordings include more than 150 film and videogame soundtracks and a recording of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 which is travelling through interstellar space on board the Voyager spacecraft.
Written between 1903 and 1909, A Sea Symphony was Vaughan Williams’ first large-scale piece of music. It is scored for soprano, baritone, chorus and a large orchestra, and its text is drawn from Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, which were little known in England at the time.
University of Cambridge Centre for Music Performance Director Simon Fairclough says, “We’re thrilled to be bringing Vaughan Williams’ A Sea Symphony to Ely in March. To have one of the UK’s finest orchestras accompanying the choral might of our University Symphony Chorus within the historic setting of Ely Cathedral will make for a truly special evening.”
To purchase your tickets, please contact Ely Cathedral Box office: 01353 667735 www.elycathedral.org/events/a-sea-symphony
