A powerful and moving evening

Oakham School’s chapel was the venue for a stunning choral tour de force – the Rutland Choral Society’s spring concert.

The event saw the group perform Annelies – a full-length choral work based on the Diary of Anne Frank – in front of a large and receptive audience.

Written by renowned British composer James Whitbourn, the work highlights Anne’s thoughts as written in her diary during the period of her life when she was hiding from the Germans in the back of an Amsterdam warehouse.

But what made this performance so powerful was that the group’s performance saw eight girls taking on the role of Anne, all of whom are of a similar age to Anne when she wrote her diary.

Choir committee member Claire Symington said: “It was a really super evening, one which was enjoyed by the large number of people in the audience. At the end I felt very emotional – almost tearful – which just goes to show how very powerfully the words and music came across.

“The soloists, musicians and choir were superb in bringing off this very difficult score with such confidence.

“The chapel itself is a marvellous concert venue with wonderful acoustics – it was a night which will live with us all for a long time to come.”

After the moving performance, the audience and choir retired to the Bowes Room for wine and refreshments.

Aside from the performance, the group also held a bring and buy produce table at a Saturday morning raising £200. This amount has already been donated to the Anne Frank Trust UK in recognition and appreciation of the help received with the project.