# Robert Howard - Something Old & Something New!



## rah (Jun 3, 2014)

The finale of the 12th Annual Prescot Festival of Music & the Arts will feature Robert Howard's four-movement Festival Suite. The regal themed event in Prescot Parish Church on Sunday 26th June at 7.30pm will feature South Liverpool Orchestra (www.south-liverpool-orchestra.co.uk) who are conducted by Robert. The suite can be considered as the composer's own version of works such as Britten's Simple Symphony as it mainly uses material composed as a teenager and later orchestrated or revised. The suite also acknowledges Malcolm Arnold's dance suites as a tribute to his passing in 2006.

Created in 2006/7, the Suite was compiled for and first performed (twice) by the Knowsley Youth Orchestra, conducted by Simon Gay, initially for the Conference of British Youth Orchestras at the then Kirkby Civic Suite in 2007 and then at the 3rd Prescot Festival (also in 2007). The piece features four movements: I - Procession (1995), II - Dance (1994), III - Folksong (1993) and IV - Like Clockwork (a 2003 KYO commission that pays homage to Prescot's clockmaking heritage). Full details of the concert, including how to buy tickets, can be found on the Prescot Festival website (www.prescotfestival.co.uk)

Robert Howard's celebratory anthem, Jubilate Deo, is set in English and has been written specifically for Prescot Parish Church Choir. It is dedicated to Rev. Peter Cowley (Prescot Parish Church) and has been composed for a first performance during Choral Evensong, just prior to the orchestral concert above, on Sunday 26th June 2016 at 6.00pm in Prescot Parish Church, again as part of the 12th Annual Prescot Festival (www.prescotfestival.co.uk). It will be performed by the Parish Choir, organist Tim Hall, and conducted by the composer.


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