The Royal Choral Society’s Miss Criolla – Celebrating Rhythms & Cultures, takes place on Saturday 19th October,  at Holy Trinity Church in Sloane Street SW1X 9BZ.

Argentinian Ariel Ramirez’s evocative Misa Criolla, premiered by the Royal Choral Society in the UK in 1995, is the centrepiece in a concert at Holy Trinity Church, Sloane Square, on Saturday 19th October at 6pm, that celebrates the universal beats, melodies and rhythms of vernacular folk music. Written in 1964, Misa Criolla combines the sacred mass with the deeply-rooted musical rituals and dances of Latin America. Ramirez’s beautifully melodic Navidad Nuestra, an uplifting folk drama of the nativity, is similarly based on the popular traditional music of Hispanic America; both will be performed with a vibrant accompaniment featuring two grand pianos, the Royal College of Music Guitar Quartet and the Percussion Ensemble of London.

From South America the programme moves to New York, where the rhythmic colours of Puerto Rican immigrants jostle against the jazz of American youth in the choruses of Bernstein’s hugely popular West Side Story. Thence to England where the folk song revival of the early twentieth century stimulated an outpouring of music by composers such as Gustav Holst, Benjamin Britten and Percy Grainger, who kept these hallmarks of rural culture alive with their stirring choral arrangements. Holst also turned to India for inspiration: his Choral Hymns from the Rig Veda are based on a traditional Sanskrit text set to western classical music in a unique east/west fusion.

There is something for everyone in this celebration of musical and cultural traditions from around the world.

Please note start time of 6pm Tickets £20 (unreserved seating) Book via www.cadoganhall.com Holy Trinity Church Sloane Street London SW1X 9BZ

For a sneak preview take a look here: