Gavin Carr on Radio 3

Conductor Gavin Carr was featured on BBC Radio 3's "In Tune" programme last night about his special performance of Benjamin Britten's "War Requiem" in Hiroshima, Japan. You can listen to the interview here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002hlvz

This September, members of the acclaimed Bournemouth Symphony Chorus, together with singers from many other UK choirs, will perform Britten’s legendary War Requiem in Hiroshima with the Hiroshima Symphony Orchestra and a boys choir from the city.

The War Requiem was written for the opening of the new Coventry Cathedral in 1962, following the destruction during the Second World War of the original cathedral - a victim of the blitzing of Coventry.

The University of Hertfordshire's Oral History is collaborating with the choir, a number of whose members will be keeping diaries of the trip, whether in written, audio, photographic or video form. Collectively these will feature all aspects of the experience, including visits to memorial sites in Hiroshima. The singers are receiving advice on how to compile these diaries from UH senior research fellow, Andrew Green.

The material gathered by the singers will be archived and used to present a multi-faceted account of the Hiroshima visit, available online.