Celestial Art: celebrating Edward Higginbottom’s 80th birthday
On Saturday 21 November 2026 at 7pm, Instruments of Time & Truth and the Oxford Consort of Voices return to the University Church of St Mary the Virgin for Celestial Art, a concert in honour of our Artistic Director, Edward Higginbottom, in his 80th year.
The programme draws together several anniversaries. This year marks 300 years since the death of the great French composer Michel-Richard de Lalande, whose Dies irae was written in 1690 for the funeral of the Dauphine of France, music that resonates with November’s commemorations of All Souls and Armistice. The concert also falls on the eve of St Cecilia’s Day, so we pair Lalande with Henry Purcell’s peerless ode Hail! Bright Cecilia, first heard in 1692. Close in date yet very different in manner, the two works show the French and English Baroque at their height.
The evening ends with the last of Handel’s magnificent coronation anthems, My heart is inditing.
As befits a celebration, the performers are numerous: 14 soloists from the Oxford Consort of Voices, a large ensemble from IT&T with strings, oboes, flutes, bassoon, lute, trumpets and drums, and additional voices in the Handel chorus, all conducted by Edward.
The concert has been made possible through the generosity of friends and donors of IT&T. We would love to see you there.