SALISBURY Musical Society’s summer concert will be both a celebration of local music-making and in memory of a much-loved Salisbury musician, Rory Waters, who died in January, and was to have sung bass in the concert.

The choir will be performing The Creation by Franz Joseph Haydn.

David Halls, who will be conducting both the choir and Salisbury Symphony Orchestra at next Saturday’s concert, says: “Rory was a great friend to many musicians in Salisbury. He was a lay vicar in Salisbury Cathedral Choir for 16 years, and was my first choice to sing bass in this concert.”

Rory Waters had sung the role of bass together with the other two soloists for next week’s concert, Ian Wicks (tenor) and Katharine Hawnt (soprano), for Christchurch based Grange Choral Society’s production of The Creation last July, and so it was natural for David Halls to book the same three.

“We felt it was appropriate to dedicate this concert to the memory of Rory Waters. Haydn’s Creation is a piece which is wonderfully fresh, and which personally I have grown to love more and more the older I get. It is a very sunny piece and I am really looking forward to performing it as a tribute to Rory,” he added.

Robert Evans, fellow lay vicar of the cathedral choir, will be stepping into the role of bass.

For soprano Katharine Hawnt, pictured, it will be the first time she has performed as a soloist in Salisbury Cathedral.

Although Katharine has made her home in Salisbury, much of her work is based in Europe. She is the co-founder of the medieval music group, Le Basile.

Katharine’s European base has evolved from her time at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, a specialist early music college in Basel, Switzerland where she studied with Evelyn Tubb.

It was hearing Evelyn Tubb’s voice that pointed Katharine towards singing early music: “She has such a natural singing voice. I could hear the character in her voice and I found that style of singing more attractive.”

Following her performance in The Creation, Katharine is performing work by Hildegard von Bingen in Finland and at Dartington and will be playing La Musica and Euridice in Chilmark Opera’s production of Monteverdi’s Orfeo in August.