ENJOY a performance of one of the most popular choral works of all time at a forthcoming local concert.

Basingstoke Choral Society will perform Handel’s Messiah at The Anvil on Sunday, November 15 at 7pm.

The piece is full of familiar arias and wonderful choruses, including ‘For unto us a child is born’, the ‘Amen Chorus’ and of course the most famous of all, the ‘Hallelujah Chorus’.

Joining the chorus of around 150 voices are a number of acclaimed professional soloists.

Returning due to popular demand after her amazing performance at BCS’s last concert of Mass in Blue is British soprano Robyn Allegra Parton.

Robyn made her Royal Opera debut in 2015 as Peg (The Virtues of Things, world premiere) in the Linbury Studio Theatre. In the 2015/16 Season she returns to sing Barbarina (Le nozze di Figaro).

Parton read music at Oxford University and studied singing on English National Opera’s Opera Works course and at the Royal College of Music and the Wales International Academy of Voice.

Her operatic appearances include Mercédès (Carmen) for the Opéra-Comique, Paris, L’Orfeo for Bavarian State Opera and Belinda (Dido and Aeneas) for the Britten-Pears Young Artists programme.

Parton has sung in concert with orchestras including the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and the Leipzig Gwandhaus Orchester, and appears regularly throughout the UK in recital.

She’ll be joined by contralto Diana Moore, who last sang with BCS when they performed Elijah in November 2014.

British mezzo-soprano Diana was born in Lowestoft and pursued her musical studies at the University of Birmingham and the Royal Academy of Music, where she was awarded a Distinction, won major prizes and was made an Honorary Associate in 2002.

She is an imaginative and lauded artist, particularly recognised for the intellectual integrity of her characterisation, the emotional depth she brings to performances and for her rich sonority.

Regular BCS guest Ashley Riches will also perform.

Ashley was a member of the Jette Parker Young Artists programme at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden from 2012 to 2014.

Previously he studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and read English at Cambridge University, where he was a member of the King’s College Chapel Choir under Stephen Cleobury.

Already well established on the concert platform, his UK appearances include the UK premiere of Shostakovich Orango with Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Messiah in Symphony Hall, Birmingham with Stephen Cleobury, Beethoven Missa Solemnis with Sir Roger Norrington, Verdi Requiem at the Royal Albert Hall and Winchester Cathedral and Handel’s Israel in Egypt at Dartington with Jonathan Cohen.

The featured orchestra on the night will be Ars Eloquentiae, with whom BCS last performed in June 2014 at Douai Abbey.

This particular group is fast establishing a reputation as a versatile and vibrant ensemble specialising in period performance.

David Gibson will conduct.

Tickets: £26, £20, £15, £11; under 16s and F/T students £6 (includes £1 booking fee)

Box office: 01256 844244, anvilarts.org.uk