HIGHLIGHT 
Songs of the Sea Community Concert

Ely Arts Festival is delighted to return to Ely Cathedral for a shimmering water-themed concert. Featuring a choir of 350 local school children, a live orchestra, adult community choirs and professional soloists performing a varied and eclectic mix of music inspired by rivers, seas and bodies of water. 

The concert will include a toe-tapping medley of sea shanties (including The Wellerman), Disney songs, music by Coldplay and more! There will also be a boisterous medley from The Pirates of the Caribbean.  A performance of Strauss’ The Blue Danube and some of Handel’s Water Music will add a classical flavour to proceedings. Jon Brigg, Ely Arts Festival’s composer in residence, will have a new piece premiered in the performance.

The concert will begin with a colourful parade down the nave with school children wearing water themed head-dresses, created in free art workshops provided by the festival. 

The setlist includes...

• The Padstow Lifeboat (Malcolm Arnold)

• Drunken Sailor

• Blue Danube (Strauss) 

• Hold Back the River (James Bay)

• Every Teardrop is a Waterfall (Coldplay) 

• The Eel (Jonathan Brigg)

• Under the Sea from The Little Mermaid

• Pirates of the Caribbean Medley 

• Part of your world from The Little Mermaid

• Nelsons Blood and The Wellerman

• Seafaring Folk (New commission by the Ely Arts Festival composer in residence, Jonathan Brigg) 

• The River is Flowing (Native American Folk Song) 

Conductor: Chris Parsons