A NEW music director is picking up the baton at Sarum Consort.

Richard Wilberforce, pictured, is taking over from Andrew Mackay on February 16.

As director of the Exon Singers and the Hallé Youth Choir, Wilberforce is no stranger to Salisbury audiences.

Making the transition from singer to choir trainer, he has become one of the busiest choral directors of his generation, and has worked with such leading figures as David Hill, Sir Mark Elder, James O’Donnell and Timothy Brown, and in centres such as Paris, London and Manchester.

Mackay leaves behind him a legacy that includes several internationally well-received CDs, numerous supporters, and more than 60 imaginatively programmed and beautifully sung concerts that have thrilled his audiences.

His final concert takes place at Wilton’s Italianate parish church on Saturday, February 16 at 7.30pm, in a programme that will set his distinctive signature on some masterpieces of 16th-century choral music, for which he is best known.

Tickets are available online at thesarumconsort.co.uk, from the Cross Keys Bookshop in Salisbury or on the door.