HEREFORD Sixth Form College's Academia Musica choir performed again at the prestigious London venue, St John's Smith Square for a second time on Easter Saturday. The concert featured music for Passiontide, including the Miserere by Allegri, held secret by the Vatican choir but famously notated by Mozart after a single hearing and Scarlatti's challenging Stabat Mater for ten part choir.

Visiting tourists were amazed to discover the choir comprised sixth form students and asked the inevitable question, 'where is Hereford? The choir will perform these works again in Malvern Priory on June 28 in a concert which also includes music by English composers from Tomkins to Britten.

College Director of Music, Aryan Arji said, "I was extremely proud of the choir. They performed extremely challenging works superbly and it was a privilege to be able to conduct in such a magnificent venue. The choir goes from strength to strength. Future projects include a joint concert in Hereford with the English Symphony Orchestra in the Autumn in addition to regular evensongs at the cathedral and a European tour."

Hereford Sixth Form College's Academia Musica, is a semi-professional ensemble that has an international recording contract with Priory Records, broadcasts on the BBC and has performed with professional ensembles such as the ESO and Oxford and Cambridge university choirs. The choir tours nationally and internationally and has built a reputation for outstanding performances. The choir performs a substantial repertoire of sacred music every week in British cathedrals as well as productions of large-scale works and debut performances of contemporary works.

St John's is a former church in the centre of Smith Square, Westminster, London. Sold to a charitable trust as a ruin following firebombing during the Second World War, it was restored as a concert hall and has presented some of the finest classical talent in a programme featuring choirs, chamber orchestras and period instrument groups.