‘Our biggest Come and Sing challenge so far.” That’s what conductor Robert Dean (right) feels about Mendelssohn’s monumental and majestic oratorio Elijah, which has been selected for this year’s Art Room Come and Sing concert. He added: “Elijah is one of the greatest and certainly most enduring of 19th-century masterpieces. It is in reality an opera manqué, and to succeed should be delivered to the audience as a piece of riveting Old Testament drama. The challenge for the conductor is to maintain a strong theatrical thread through its reflective moments.”

This will be the fifth Come and Sing concert. As before, singers will come from far and wide to join Robert Dean plus soloists Garry Magee, Wilma MacDougall, Maria Jagusz, and Nicky Spence to create a performance from scratch in a single day. “I look forward to the unbounded enthusiasm which all the singers, and the Oxford Sinfonia orchestra, bring to this day of music making,” Dean said. “Because rehearsal time is necessarily limited, it can result in some electrifying performances, when everyone involved is so concentrated. Personally, a highpoint was Verdi's Requiem, which we performed two years ago, and I am hoping we can achieve something similar this time.”

“At the same time as having fun,” organiser Leonora Pitt added, “we raise funds for The Art Room.” This locally-based charity works with children aged five to 15 who are experiencing difficulties at school, by helping them to raise their self-esteem, self-confidence, and independence through art. So far, the Come and Sing concerts have raised some £25,000 for The Art Room.

This year’s concert is in the Sheldonian on Saturday, February 13. Tenors and basses are still required. For more details – or to book tickets for the concert itself – contact tarcas09@googlemail.com or phone 0780 075 5870. For both singers and audience members, conductor Robert Dean promises “an exciting evening of thrills and spills”.