The Manx Festival Chorus will present an afternoon of richly contrasting choral music this Sunday, January 18, with a concert at St George’s Church beginning at 3pm.

Under the direction of musical director, John Riley, the Chorus will be joined by four of the island’s outstanding soloists and a varied instrumental ensemble including organ, piano, double bass and percussion.

The programme brings together works by Mendelssohn, Vaughan Williams and Bob Chilcott, offering audiences a wide-ranging musical experience.

The concert opens with Hymn of Praise by Felix Mendelssohn, performed with organ accompaniment by Gareth Moore.

Soloists Richard Costain, Ruth Tickle and Jane Corkill will take featured roles in this symphonic cantata, whose extended choral sections reflect Mendelssohn’s admiration for the music of Bach in its structure of recitatives, arias and choruses.

The work was written for the 1840 Gutenberg Festival in Leipzig, celebrating the 400th anniversary of the invention of printing.

After a short interval, the Chorus will be joined by baritone Matthew Quinn for Five Mystical Songs by Ralph Vaughan-Williams, accompanied on the piano by Marilyn Kissack.

Composed in 1911, the work sets poems by the 17th-century poet George Herbert. Although Vaughan-Williams described himself as an atheist, later softening this to what his wife Ursula called ‘a cheerful agnosticism’.

His music was deeply influenced by the Anglican choral tradition, the language of the King James Bible and the spiritual intensity of religious poetry.

The concert concludes with Bob Chilcott’s A Little Jazz Mass, performed with James Davis on percussion, Ed Jeffers on double bass and Marilyn Kissack on keyboard.

Drawing on Chilcott’s love of jazz and his experience working with the BBC Radio Orchestra and the King’s Singers, the work brims with rhythmic energy, from the swinging Gloria to the blues-inspired Agnus Dei.

Tickets will be available to purchase on the door.