From Pub to Pulpit to raise the roof at cathedral

Hundreds of singers will raise the roof at a concert at Brecon Cathedral in May when they’ll turn folk songs into hymns as part of the diocese’s centenary celebrations.

The From Pub to Pulpit concert features acapella folk group Broomdasher, instrumental trio Coracle – led by Paul Hutchinson of Belshazzar’s Feast– the organ, choir, community choirs and the audience who all sing in tribute to Ralph Vaughan Williams.

The 20-date pilgrimage to cathedrals, minsters and significant churches is the only tour marking Vaughan Williams 150th birthday and has been picked as a 'highlight of the Vaughan Williams Festival Year' by The Times; and The Guardian; as well as Gramophone and The Living Tradition Folk magazines. Tickets are £13 for the concert and pre-show reception or £10 for the concert.

Vaughan Williams was a well-known collector of folk songs, and he borrowed folk song tunes he collected from labourers around the country for the tunes of some of the best hymns in the 1906 English Hymnal he edited.

In the second half of the concert, Broomdasher and Coracle take the audience on a musical journey, starting with the folk song, going through dance tune variations and ending with everyone raising the roof with renditions of the hymns.

They include To Be a Pilgrim, and I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say, transformed from the folk songs Our Captain Calls and The Murder of Maria Marten.

“We’re excited about coming to Brecon in the diocese's centenary year, bearing in mind that our aim in the concert is to raise the roof,” said From Pub to Pulpit’s John Palmer.

The concert will take place on May 20 and you can book your place here.