A CONCERT at St Peter's Church in Hereford will take the audience on a musical journey from Hildegard von Bingen to a modern Cambodian Mohori piece through CPE Bach, Monteverdi, Caccini and Handel. The performance is by internationally renowned musicians David Ponsford (harpsichord), David Hatcher (viola di gamba and recorder) and Catherine Geach (violin and soprano).

Catherine, who has founded a music school for orphaned children in Cambodia, revisited Herefordshire last summer for the first time in 25 years and this uplifting reunion prompted her to put on a fundraising concert for her school with her fellow musicians in Herefordshire.

David Ponsford has been described as producing a ‘kaleidoscope of musical sound which combines virtuoso brilliance with scholarship’,

David Hatcher now lives in Leominster and has appeared with Fretwork, The Royal Shakespeare Theatre, The Globe Theatre, The Consort of

Musicke and Glyndebourne Opera and many other period orchestras among others. Catherine now lives and works in Italy as a violinist and soprano of Early Music and has been made a life-time-associate of the Royal Academy of Music.

The concert is in aid of the Kampot Traditional Music School for Orphaned and Disabled Children. The school was established in 1994 with funds from the Canadian, British and Japanese embassies at the instigation of Catherine, then a young graduate of the Royal Academy of Music. It is dependent on donations to fund the costs of care and schooling for 22 orphaned children and 20 scholarship children in addition to teaching 400 local children traditional Cambodian music, dance and theatre.

The concert is at 7.30 pm on Wednesday, April 20 at St Peters Church. Tickets available from Outback Records in Church Street or email janestraker@phonecoop.coop.