MALVERN Festival Chorus' opening concert for the 2002-3 season will be tinged with sadness, as it marks the end of an association with the town that has lasted more than two decades.

Tony Urbainczyk is to leave his position as head of strings at Malvern College's music department, which he has held since 1981, at the end of the year.

Saturday's event (November 16) will be his final concert with the chorus, with which he has performed under four different conductors.

It will see him interpret a Bach violin concerto with two of his pupils, Emma Halldron and Tom Kirby. He reconstructed the piece himself from the Concerto for Three Harpsichords (BWV 1064).

Also on the programme are two masses with the same words but very different musical settings. Hadyn wrote Missa Brevis St Joannis de Deo in 1775, Schubert's Mass in G (D 167) followed 40 years later.

Singing soprano in both instances will be Malvern College teacher Susan Black, who has performed all over the world with a wide variety of orchestras and ensembles.

She will be joined in the Schubert piece by tenor Stephen Davis, another with a string of international credits on his CV.

He is also a soloist with prestigious Midlands-based chamber choir Ex Cathedra. Fellow member Nicholas Perfect, who teaches at its Academy for Vocal Music and at Wolverhampton Grammar School, will sing bass.

The concert will begin with an early German piece by Schutz, a Magnificat sung in German by two four-part choirs.

Following on from that will be a solo performance of Bach's Jauchzet Got in all Landen (BWV 51) by Susan Black with Gavin Wells on solo trumpet.

"This is a joyous work, which has the soprano voice weaving round a wonderful sparkling trumpet solo played by Gavin Wells," said Sue McLelland, for the chorus. "The pair of them will be making magical music."

The orchestra will be made up of members of the Regency Sinfonia, a freelance ensemble based in Cheltenham.

The concert will take place in Malvern Theatres at 7.30pm. Tickets, priced £8-£12, are available from the box office on 01684 892277.