Ex Cathedra will deliver a full and ambitious 2021-22 season throughout the UK. Three of the concerts with its Baroque Orchestra in Birmingham are possible thanks to support from the Continuo Foundation:

Beethoven’s Funeral - Mozart’s Requiem - Sunday 17th October 2021 at Symphony Hall, Birmingham
That Mozart’s last work was a Requiem for the dead is remarkable: that he should die whilst composing it has made it the stuff of legends. It is powerful music – sometimes full of dread, always humanity. Just 36 years after Mozart was buried in an unmarked grave 20,000 people lined the streets of Vienna for Beethoven’s funeral procession. Ex Cathedra will recreate this event with a rare performance of the music heard that day.


Bach cantatas BWV140, BWV61 & Dilnot Johnson I stand at the door - Sunday 5th December 2021 at Town Hall, Birmingham
Wachet auf - Sleepers Awake - is one of Bach’s greatest cantatas and most memorable tunes. It calls us to rise and prepare, one of two Bach cantatas that explore Advent themes.
‘Once we start to act, hope is everywhere.’ Words by Greta Thunberg, Kurt Masur and David Hart inspire Liz Dilnot Johnson’s love song to the planet, a cantata for choir and Baroque Orchestra.


Monteverdi Vespers (1610) – 12th February at CBSO Centre, Birmingham & 13th February 2022 at Town Hall, Birmingham
To hear Monteverdi’s famous 1610 Vespers live is to experience some of the most magnificent music of any era: a masterpiece of dazzling vocal and instrumental virtuosity, interspersed with sensual, intimate solos and duets. There will be a Singing Workshop open to bookers at the CBSO Centre the day before the concert, plus a pre-concert talk by Professor John Whenham.