First World War Commemoration
Howard has contributed two choral items for the August 4th commemoration of the beginning of the First World War at St Symphorien Military Cemetery near Mons, Belgium, broadcast live in BBC2. He has arranged British and German soldiers’ songs into a suite with band accompaniment (The Band of the Coldstream Guards) and composed an entirely new work in English and German, Sure of the Sky, Sure of the Sun – Des Himmels sicher, der Sonne sicher, to be performed jointly by the London Symphony Chorus and the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Choir, conducted by Simon Halsey, based on the poems May, 1915 by Charlotte Mew (1869-1928) and An einem Vermißten Freund! by a German soldier killed in action on the Western Front, Goldfeld (discovered by Peter Appelbaum). Present at the event, alongside members of the UK Government, the Presidents of Germany and Eire, the King and Queen of the Belgians and Prince William and Catherine and Prince Harry.