Exciting Announcement: Charity Christmas Concert

Xmas holly and berryWe are excited to announce that The Holst Singers (one of Britain’s foremost choirs) will be giving a Charity Christmas Concert in aid of Breathing Matters.

The Charity Christmas Concert will take place on Friday, 5th December 2014 at 7pm in the new Pavilion in the grounds of University College London, Gower Street. The concert will raise money to help fund research being undertaken at University College London Respiratory by Professor Jeremy Brown and his colleagues into the causes and treatment of bronchiectasis.

Bronchiectasis is a lung disease that most people have never heard of, yet it is not rare and affects an estimated 100,000 people in the UK of all ages, including children. Bronchiectasis results from damage to the tubes taking air into the lungs (the bronchi). The damage makes the bronchi unable to clear bacteria from the lungs. As a result, patients with bronchiectasis have almost continuous lung infections. Almost all of us has had the occasional chest infection, when for a few days we have felt grotty and had a severe cough, sometimes producing mucky looking phlegm – but patients with bronchiectasis feel like this the whole time, causing them general ill-health and making their lives miserable. Severe bronchiectasis also impairs the patient’s ability to breathe normally, so that eventually they can only walk a few yards without resting, and may die due to respiratory failure. Unfortunately, there is no cure for bronchiectasis, and there has been little research into the best ways to treat patients with bronchiectasis. For about half of patients, we don’t even know why they have developed the bronchiectasis. Despite this, research into bronchiectasis is very under-funded, which makes improving the care of patients with bronchiectasis very difficult.

Holst SingersThe Holst Singers Charity Christmas Concert will include unaccompanied seasonal music by Britten, Warlock, Whitacre and “The Lamb” by Tavener and “The Hymn of Jesus” by Britten and there will also be some arrangements for unaccompanied voices of popular carols and Christmas songs so there will be something in the programme for everyone to enjoy.

The BBC describes the Holst Singers as a “leading chorus on the international stage”. In concert, the choir is renowned for dramatic and engaging performances, described by The Times as “interactive concert going at its most revelatory”. Holst Singers’ performances in 2014 have included a celebration of the music of John Tavener at Christ Church, Spitalfields, and Handel’s Israel in Egypt at St. John’s, Smith Square. With the City of London Sinfonia and the choir of Trinity College, Cambridge, the Holst Singers released a CD in 2012 which included “A Ceremony of Carols” and “St Nicolas”. The choir has toured extensively both in the UK and abroad, with visits to Estonia in March 2009, Santiago de Compostela, Spain, in 2012 (with the Hilliard Ensemble), and Northern Ireland in October 2013. 

Tickets cost £35, which includes light refreshments served at 7pm and a substantial donation to Breathing Matters to fund research into bronchiectasis. Seating is unreserved. Tickets and further information available from Donna Basire at breathingmatters@ucl.ac.uk

If you are unable to attend the Charity Christmas Concert at UCL on Friday, 5th December 2014, but would like to make a donation in aid of Professor Brown’s research into bronchiectasis, then please contact Breathing Matters at the above email address or donate directly via the Justgiving Page https://www.justgiving.com/breathingmatters/

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