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The world premiere of a composition to celebrate the 150th birthday of Ralph Vaughan Williams takes place at All Saints Church in his home village of Down Ampney as part of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations on Friday 3 June.

In true party spirit, the whole audience will be encouraged to sing along in "From Pub to Pulpit” an imaginative and rousing concert tour which goes on to twenty Cathedrals around the country and ends at the Three Choirs Festival in Gloucester in July 2023.

The final part of the concert brings to life the musical journey of folk songs Vaughan Williams collected and then used their tunes for hymns in The English Hymnal he edited in 1906.  Everyone will be invited to sing I Heard The Voice of Jesus Say; Tis Winter Now the falling Snow; O little Town of Bethlehem and To Be A Pilgrim.

Acapella folk group Broomdasher, who brought their Country Diary in Song show to a sold out All Saints Church in Selsley last year, are joined by the newly formed instrumental trio led by Belshazzar Feast's Paul Hutchinson, Coracle, and the choir and organist of St Marys Church Ross on Wye, to deliver the musical transformations.

The rest of the concert features the choir, Broomdasher and Coracle performing individual sets all based around Ralph Vaughan Williams work

"From Pub to Pulpit has already created an enormous amount of interest and excitement" said John Palmer, the Project Director. "It's a serious but fun way to show the wide range of musical styles that Vaughan Williams wrote in and we hope than many of our audiences will be introduced to a genre of his repertoire they were previously unaware of".

The concert is part of an ongoing festival of events arranged by Down Ampney vicar Canon John Swanton. "We were delighted to be able to perform the world premiere here, in Vaughan Williams back garden," said John. "It's doubly exciting because it's the Jubilee weekend, and Vaughan Williams composed more pieces than any other composer for the Queen's Coronation. Then to be ending the whole tour after a year on the road, at Gloucester, where so many of his works were premiered, is the icing on the cake".

Tickets cost £15 from Ticketsource and all proceeds will go to the church.  https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/whats-on/gloucestershire/all-saints-church-down-ampney