KENDAL South Choir team up with Ian Thompson and his Lonsdale Baroque Ensemble led by Julian Cann, in a refreshing interpretation of Handel’s well-loved Messiah oratorio, on Saturday, December 10 (7.30pm) at Kendal Parish Church.

Ian has taken the podium for the choir since Mark Swinton left for pastures anew.

A distinguished singer, Ian’s solo operatic career took him to many leading theatres, including the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, both the Châtelet and Bastille in Paris and La Scala, Milan.

KSC chairman Dorothy Davies said that at rehearsals, Ian entertained the choir with anecdotes about working with such famous musicians as Bryn Terfel, Sir George Solti and Sir John Eliot Gardiner.

She added: “We have the benefit of Ian’s professional operatic training. The improvement in our voices is tangible and we are buzzing with excitement.

“The approach Ian is taking with the Messiah will bring out the full meaning of the work, and he is pushing the tempo and texture to create authentic atmosphere and energy. It is going to be a real Christmas treat.”

Soloists are some the finest in the region: soprano and Amabile Girls’ Choir founder, Charlotte Jackson; mezzo-soprano, Emma Stannard; tenor, Adam Smith; and Paul im Thurn, bass-baritone, and founder member of early music group, the Herdwyck Consort.

Charlotte began her singing career as a member of the world renowned girls’ choir Cantamus under the tutelage of Pamela Cook and went on to study voice at Manchester’s Royal Northern College of Music and at the Guildhall School of Music.

Down the years Charlotte has taught young people for local, national and international institutions, including the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain and the Musical Society of Nigeria.

She established Amabile Girls’ Choir in 1996. The choir enjoyed national and international success, the pinnacle of which was winning BBC Radio 3 Youth Choir of the Year in 2006.

Emma began her career as a member of Charlotte’s award-winning Amabile as well as the National Youth Choir of Great Britain.

She is in the fourth year of her BMus(Hons) degree at the Royal Northern College of Music studying with Peter Wilson. Since joining the RNCM, Emma has won the Onken Song Prize and has been awarded the the Freckleton Prize and the Doherty Cup for Singing. Emma has also appeared in the operas Die Fledermaus, Katya Kabanava, La Belle Hélène, La Clemenza di Tito and Carmen and has taken the role of Mrs Jaffett in a production of Noye’s Fludde (Britten) for Opera Outreach. Emma has also appeared in scenes from Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, Rossini’s La Cenerentola and Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte in the RNCM Opera Scenes series.

Adam is a former Windermere St Anne’s School student and graduated from the Royal Northern College of Music with a first class honours degree in music. He studies on the opera course at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Hee concert experience includes perorming at the 65th anniversary of Victory in Europe day for the Royal British Legion in Liverpool Cathedral.

Paul im Thurn was head chorister of the Schola Cantorum of Ampleforth Abbey and later a choral scholar at Worcester College, Oxford, where he read Law. During his time in London, he ran a chamber choir, Holst Singers. He now lives and works in Carlisle and enjoys a rich mix of legal career as Senior Solicitor at Cumbria Law Centre, family, and music, singing occasionally in the Cathedral choir, local opera productions, and as a founder member of Cumbria’s the Herdwyck Consort.

Ian will conduct from the harpsichord in true Baroque style, with Ian Pattinson on organ continuo and Stella Fitzgerald, solo trumpet.

Tickets available from Inglewood Cards, next to Kendal Town Hall.