Roskilde Choir at St Peter’s Church, St Albans

A Danish choir is giving a lunchtime recital at a St Albans church next Saturday, May 10, as part of a weekend tour.

The Roskilde Choir from Denmark will be performing at St Peter’s Church at 1pm.

The choir is also giving concerts at the British Museum on the previous day (9) and in the Danish Church in London on the following day (11).

Based in the historical city of Roskilde – the home of the Viking ship museum – the choir’s tour has been arranged to coincide with the interest in the British Museum’s exhibition, Vikings – Life and Legend, to which the Roskilde museum has loaned an enormous Viking ship relic as a central exhibit.

The choir will perform a varied programme in St Peter’s Church, featuring Scandinavian music from the early middle ages as well as more recent compositions relating to the Viking era.

The concert will also include pieces by the characteristic 19th-Century Danish composers Gade and Weyse as well as the British composers, Elgar and Rutter.

The Roskilde Choir is led by Roger Munck-Fairwood, formally Roger Fairey, a former pupil of Bushey Grammar school (now Queens’ School) from 1966-1972.

The recital is open to all and there will be a retiring collection to cover expenses.