Paula Gardiner Trio & Fiona Evans’ Hay Festival Chorus

Fauré’s Requiem has rightly become a well-loved standard work in the choral repertoire. The work itself has been described as a lullaby to death and Fauré’s questioning attitude to his own faith is evident in the way he modifies the religious text, giving it more relevance to a wider community. By the time of his death in 1924, jazz was becoming a major form of musical expression. It is with these factors in mind that Paula Gardiner and Fiona Evans are excited to be collaborating on a jazz Fauré Requiem.

Paula is Head of Jazz at Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and is an inspirational and important presence on the Welsh jazz scene. Just as the late Jacques Loussier explored the potential for jazz in JS Bach’s music, Paula has followed a similar path, using Fauré’s beautiful melodies and gentle harmonic structure to produce a crossover performance of this much-loved work. Fiona worked as a professional singer with small consorts including The Sixteen for over a decade. Drawing on her performance experience, she has been running a number of community choirs for over twenty years and is currently MD of the Hay Community Choir.

Jazz trio performers: Josh Heaton: saxophone; Frazer Mcintosh: piano; Paula Gardiner: double bass. Conductor: Fiona Evans.

Chorus Membership: £20

Open to all singers, this event is developing the Hay Festival Chorus idea from its initial performance in December 2018, with Fiona’s rearranged Handel’s Messiah for three part mixed voices. Performers can choose to sing a high, middle or low voice part. There will be three afternoon rehearsals on 29, 30 and 31 May (2pm–5pm) at Hay Primary School, culminating in a performance on 31 May at 7pm. Scores may be purchased from Amazon. Voice part CDs are available from the Festival Office. The Hay Community Choir will be working on this exciting project weekly in the Parish Hall on Thursday evenings from 7.30pm if you wish to join in earlier.

This is a very exciting and innovative look at this choral classic and one that will bring a new dimension to your experience of this beautiful piece. The Hay Festival Chorus idea hopes to join together singers from a wide variety of abilities and traditions, bringing a new slant to standard works, in parallel with the Hay Festival’s approach to exploration and investigation of word and thought.