Coro Stellante, the Norfolk based ladies choir, return to Thaxted Parish Church on Sunday, 26 November (7pm), with a host of special guests to present a sumptuous programme of European music from the 15th to the 17th century - The Glories of the Renaissance, music for choir, cornetti & trombones.

Music Director Michael Kibblewhite has focused particularly on the musical glories of Venice and Elizabethan England with the sumptuous polychoral motets of Giovanni Gabrieli, excerpts from Monteverdi's pioneering opera Orfeo, and the poignantly chromatic music of Heinrich Schütz, all set against the music of the great English composers of the same time - William Byrd, Orlando Gibbons and Thomas Weelkes.

Alongside accompanist John Byron, playing Organ Continuo, the choir is delighted to be performing with other celebrated singers and musicians, including…

Ravenscroft Consort: one of the UK's leading amateur early music groups, which at Thaxted will consist of 5 baroque trombones and 2 cornetti; Nemano Mens Choir: an ensemble of 14 invited tenors and basses from prestigious English choirs; and the French baroque cellist Eugenie Degan, who studied at the Paris Conservatoire and the Paris Schola Cantorum.

Also performing will be the Thaxted Primary School Choir: a 40-strong choir with a growing reputation for high quality choral training, who appear each year in the famous Thaxted Festival.

Although not a traditional Christmas carol concert, much of the music is joyful and celebratory in nature, and several pieces have specifically Christmas texts.

All in all, Thaxted is promised an evening of dramatic and uplifting Renaissance music, performed by singers and instrumentalists from over a wide area of England in a church so compatible with the beauty and grandeur created by the composers of this special period!

Tickets cost just £15 and are available by calling 01553 810116 or 01371 830104, by emailing tickets@corostellante.org.uk or on the door on the night.