LUMINOSA Voices will celebrate its 12th anniversary – two years later than scheduled – with a concert that features music from composers who all drew on inspirations from the past, at All Saints Church in Odiham on April 2 at 7.30pm.

The choir will perform the large-scale Da Vinci Requiem composed by Cecilia McDowall for the 500th anniversary of the artist’s death in 2019.

It has been performed only once before in the UK, in the same year at its premiere in May at the Royal Festival Hall in London, by Wimbledon Choral Society under the baton of Neil Ferris.

Composed from Leonardo’s notebooks and his reflective and penetrating insights into the nature of mortality, this work sheds new light on familiar requiem texts through its palette of light and shade and textural detail.

The composer’s fusion of fluent, melodic lines with occasional dissonant harmonies and rhythmic exuberance speaks directly to listeners, instrumentalists and singers alike.

The piece is powerfully communicative and will be conducted by Rebekah Abbott, artistic director of Luminosa, and accompanied by Michael Higgins at the wonderful Odiham organ, and a beautiful grand piano hired especially for the concert.

Cecilia will give a talk about the links to Leonardo Da Vinci within this work, the composition process and herself.

Also in the programme is Vaughan Williams’ Five Mystical Songs, based on the devotional poetry of 17th-century Welsh poet and Anglican priest George Herbert. The work is a musical prelude to Easter, opening with spirituality and finishing with the antiphon Let all the World in Every Corner Sing. Baritone soloist Stuart Orme will join Luminosa for this performance.

Luminosa has commissioned a new work, Salve Deus, Rex Judaeorum, an impassioned portrayal of the Easter cantata by composer Alison Willis.

Alison has breathed musical life into the work of Aemilia Lanyer (1569-1645), one of the first English women to publish a volume of original verse at a time when there was suspicion of women’s work in print.

The poem is a daring version of the story of Christ, told from a female perspective. The cantata takes as its focus Pilate’s wife who, according to Matthew 27.19, tried to dissuade her husband from ordering Christ’s death. This moving and compelling piece is a synthesis of choral clarity, striking chords and harmony.

Doors open at 6.30pm. For tickets priced £15 (under-12s £5) visit Ticket Source at www.luminosamusic.com For more details visit www.luminosamusic.com