A rich vein of choral music is on the menu

IF you're into choral music, then you're in luck over the next week or so! This Saturday, June 6, there's a chance to top-up on Messiah, when amateur singers from South East Cornwall come together under the baton of Roy Wilton for a performance of Handel's ever-popular oratorio at Liskeard Methodist Church at 7.00pm.

Soloists are Rosemary Turner, Philip Conway, Colin Arthur and Peter Bawden, with Jonathan Delbridge at the organ. Tickets (£5) are available at the door, and all proceeds go to Cornwall Air Ambulance and Children's Hospice South West.

Flemish composer Josquin des Pres was described as the Michelangelo of Music in his time, although this fifteenth-century composer is hardly a household name today. Early-music choir Voces, directed by Martyn Warren, was formed in 1987 with the aim of singing Renaissance choral music in the liturgical context for which it was written, and intends to redress this imbalance by including a number of the composer's most appealing works in a concert in the sublime setting of Buckfast Abbey on Saturday June 13.

Also on the menu are works by Morales, Taverner, Tye, Lassus and Cypriano de Rore. In true Voces tradition, the evening is entirely free, but there will be a retiring collection. It starts at 7.30pm, but there will be no admission to the Abbey before the end of Vespers at 7.00pm. For further information, please visit the website (www.voces.org.uk).

Also on Saturday June 13, Landulph Parish Church welcomes the South West Chamber Choir, directed by Stephen Trahair, in Music for a Summer's Evening.

The wide-ranging programme includes everything from a 500-year-old troubadour song to works by Gibbons, Dowland, Purcell, Parry, Elgar and Quilter, with some barbershop and folk tune arrangements thrown in! Additional musical refreshment comes in the form of Peppermint Tea, a foursome comprising recorders, violin and cello, whose programme features works from the Baroque, as well as some more contemporary pieces, especially with an American flavour.

The concert begins at 7.30pm, and tickets (£5) will be available at the door. For further information and advance booking, please phone 01752 845021.

On the other hand, if you'd prefer to get involved yourself, then Carnglaze Caverns, St Neot, Liskeard is the place to be, again on Saturday June 13, when musician, sound-healer and shamanic practitioner Danu Fox holds the second in her series of four workshops, Sing the Seasons 2009, from 10.30am to 3.00pm. No experience is necessary, and everyone is welcome. The workshops build towards a celebratory performance at Carnglaze in December.

To book, please call 01736 364434 – the cost for the day is £30.

If you do go to Carnglaze, there's still time to get back to Plymouth's Stoke Damerel Church later in the evening, when Douglas Clarkson (clarinet), Clive Jenkins (piano), Terry Hewitt (organ), and the Plymouth Mayflower Ladies Choir join forces for a concert of classical and light music in aid of Archie's Story at 7.30pm. Tickets (£7.50) are available at the door, with refreshments included. For further information please call 01752 564847, or visit the website (www.archiesstory.co.uk).

Callington Singers, directed by Graham Williams, with Simon Brett (organ), have recently returned from a fundraising tour to Menorca, where they gave three concerts to packed audiences and raised almost £900 in aid of LifeStraw. The choir now intends to adopt this charity, which provides small devices to filter and purify water from any source, and will donate the proceeds from its singing workshop in September to the cause. For further information, please visit the website (www.callingtonsingers.org.uk).