To Autumn - World Premiere

Eclectic Voices, London's most ambitious choir, are giving the first performance of an exciting new work at Keats House in Hampstead on 18 October.

The choir's director, composer Scott Stroman, has written a song-cycle on Keats poems, which will be performed in the Nightingale Room by the acclaimed tenor Adrian Thompson, with choir, clarinet and cello.

Stroman explains: 'This project has grown out of my desire to write a new song-cycle for Adrian, a wonderful artist with whom Eclectic Voices have often collaborated in the past. Adrian suggested Keats, and I decided to write it for tenor soloist, choir and an intimate accompaniment of cello and clarinet. This small ensemble means that we can perform it at Keats House, where several of the poems were written. Bringing these elements together has been a challenge and a great pleasure.'

The new work includes settings of Ode to a Nightingale, Oh! How I Love, On a Fair Summer's Eve and Ode to Autumn. There will be two performances of the song-cycle, together with songs by Benjamin Britten, at 1pm and 3pm on Sunday 18 October.