Martines and Mozart

The Open University Choir are performing at the Hub Theatre on Thursday 19 November, with the Cantoribus Ensemble joining them and the choir's musical director Bill Strang conducting. It's part of their 2026/27 season, and the programme pairs the familiar with the unfamiliar: Marianna Martines's Dixit Dominus, Mozart's Regina coeli (K276) and Ave verum corpus (K618), and a Magnificat by Paulo Papini.

Martines is the unfamiliar half of that pairing. She was at the heart of late eighteenth-century Vienna — a pupil of Haydn, a family friend of the poet and librettist Metastasio, and a keyboard duet partner of Mozart. She was also the first woman admitted to the prestigious Accademia Filarmonica of Bologna, where she submitted her setting of Psalm 109 in 1774. Her Dixit Dominus is described as exuberant and charming, and it's the piece that opens the afternoon.

Closing the programme is the Magnificat by Paulo Papini, a contemporary and near neighbour of Palestrina. It was recently transcribed by Dr Naomi Barker, Senior Lecturer and Head of the Music Department at The Open University, and this will only be the second performance of the piece since the sixteenth century — and the first in a non-liturgical context. Between that and the Mozart, you've got a few centuries of choral music in one go.

The concert runs from 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm at the Hub Theatre, The Open University, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA, with doors opening at 12:40 pm. Admission is free and open to all, though you can reserve tickets in advance via Eventbrite; tickets on the door are subject to availability.