THINGS TO COME - ANNELIES

Remembering Anne Frank in words and music

In a concert to commemorate the ending of World War II seventy years ago, (Chelmsford Cathedral, Saturday 28 March 7.30 pm), Chelmsford Singers will perform the rarely heard oratorio Annelies, by James Whitbourn – a versatile composer with an international reputation for choral music.

Anne (Annelies) Frank died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in March 1945, shortly before it was liberated. Her father, the only survivor of the family, later published her diary as The Diary of a Young Girl - since translated into many languages.

Taking words from Anne’s diary – by turns dramatic, mundane, optimistic, fearful - the composer paints a moving musical picture of the family’s life in hiding in an Amsterdam annexe up to the point of their betrayal and capture.

The concert will also feature excerpts from Quartet for the End of Time, by Olivier Messiaen, written while Messiaen was a prisoner of war in Germany, and first performed in January 1941 by the composer and fellow prisoners to an audience of prisoners and guards.

James Whitbourn will talk about Annelies in Chelmsford Cathedral at 6.45 pm on Saturday 28 March. On Friday 27 March at 2.00 pm Mala Tribich, a survivor of the Holocaust, will speak and answer questions about her experiences during World War II. Admission is free to both these events. Tickets for the concert are available from

info@chelmsfordsingers.co.uk , choir members or James Dace and Son, 22 Broomfield Road, Chelmsford CM1 1SW Tel: 01245 352133.