Salisbury Cathedral is hosting a summer of music kicking off with The Southern Cathedrals Festival which runs from this Friday, 15 to 17 July.

On the Friday, Vaughan Williams’ rarely heard song cycle The House of Life will be performed during a concert of chamber music taking place at 11.30am in the Cathedral’s North Transept. Also on the programme are Wolf’s Italian Serenade and Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet Op57.

At the 4.30pm Evensong, the boys and men of Salisbury and Chichester cathedral choirs join together to sing the Vaughan Williams’ anthem, Valiant for Truth, inspired by John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress.

For those seeking some quiet reflection at the end of the working day, at 9pm there’s Late Night Bach: a selection of piano solos played on the cathedral’s very fine Blüthner grand piano by director of music David Halls and award-winning pianist Alistair Watson, also a member of the cathedral choir.

The girls and adult singers from Salisbury, Chichester and Winchester step into the limelight on Saturday 16 July, when they perform Vaughan Williams’ Mass in G Minor during the 10.30am Festival Eucharist. The Rt Rev Stephen Lake Bishop of Salisbury will preach at the service.

There will be a performance of Haydn’s Creation on Saturday 16 July, sung by the combined choirs of Salisbury, Winchester and Chichester cathedrals, accompanied by the Hanover Band.

Other concerts include a performance by one of Europe’s leading lute players, Salisbury based Elizabeth Kenny at 2.30pm in St Thomas’ Church, Salisbury on Saturday 16 July.

The Southern Cathedrals Festival ends on Sunday 17 July with services sung by the full cathedral choir (adults, boys and girls) in Salisbury:
10.30am Eucharist in which Mozart’s Coronation Mass will be sung, a nod to the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee and Ave verum corpus

Choral Evensong at 3pm featuring Stanford in C, Parry’s Blest pair of Sirens and Howells’ Te Deum (Collegium Regale)

At 7.30pm on Saturday 13 August there will be an Organ Prom featuring Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, Gershwin’s classic Summertime, a Star Wars medley by John Williams and Sherwin’s A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square.

Tickets for Southern Cathedrals Festival can be purchased via https://www.salisburycathedral.org.uk/southern-cathedrals-festival-2022/.

Tickets for the Organ Prom from https://www.salisburycathedral.org.uk/arrangements/organ-festival-organ-prom/