The Symphony Choir of Cape Town to perform ‘The Armed Man: A Mass For Peace’

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First performed in April, 2000, ‘The Armed Man: A Mass For Peace’, by contemporary composer Karl Jenkins', is one of his most popular works and has since been performed regularly by professional and amateur musicians around the world.

By 2023 it had been performed nearly 3000 times. The 3000th concert, in honour of the composer’s 80th birthday took place in March this year at London’s Royal Albert Hall, under the direction of Sir Karl himself.

Heartfelt, moving and hopeful, the Cape Town performance of the multi-denominational work ‘The Armed Man: A Mass For Peace’ will include an Iman’s call to prayer and Psalm 23 in Hebrew, sung by approximately 250 voices and musicians, under the inspired baton of Levi Alexander.

The combination of military and sacred musical genres express the pain, horror and futility of war, culminating in a glorious, prayerful and uplifting acknowledgement of the possibility of peace in our times.

Commissioned for the millennium by Britain’s Royal Armouries Museum and dedicated to the victims of the Kosovo crisis, ‘The Armed Man: A Mass For Peace’ was based on the 15th century French song L’homme armé (The Armed Man) in the Christian Mass tradition, using sacred and secular texts by authors and poets including Rudyard Kipling, Jonathan Swift and Tennyson.

The programme will also include combined instrumental music by Gustav Holz and John Williams’ Hymn to the Fallen, which was featured on the soundtrack of the film Saving Private Ryan, performed by the combined wind ensembles.

Venue: Cape Town City Hall
Dates: Friday 16 August and Saturday 17 August 2024
Time: 7pm
Tickets available at Quicket