This will be an exciting evening of beautiful new settings of poetry by composers from the Marches presented by some of the UK’s leading singers and instrumentalists:

Holly Teague - soprano
William Smith - tenor
Marianne Haynes - violin
Michael Matthews - Guitar
Jean Atkin - Narrator

This evening of song and poetry will showcase the excellence of its performers, together with poetry and music inspired by the Marches and written by folk with an emotional link thereto.

Highlighting just two of the roster of creatives, Patrick Larley has produced a huge range of vocal music and was, for many years, conductor of The Ludlow Choral Society. Patrick is a singer himself and so is very well placed to compose sympathetically and effectively for voice. The work of poet, Jean Atkin (and narrator), has been featured at several national and regional festivals, she has held poet-in-residence roles at a number of venues and events and her work is published widely both in volumes devoted solely to her poetry and anthologies.

The Marches Songbook initiative is a enterprising one using The Marches as its emotional and creative heart, in the same way as regional and national landscapes, traditions and communities have been for so many earlier composers and poets. The evening will offer its audience a fresh opportunity to explore a hinterland on our doorstep but, somehow, just out of one’s reach.