A gala concert to celebrate the Radcliffe Infirmary's 237 years of service to Oxford city and the county of Oxfordshire will take place at the Town Hall on Saturday, April 21, at 7.30pm. The Infirmary, in Woodstock Road, closed in January. Its services and staff moved to the John Radcliffe site, in Headington. The concert has been organised jointly by the Headington Singers, the Radcliffe Orchestra and Oxford Collutorium, which draws its musicians from local hospitals. The conductor is cardiologist Will Orr.

As well as two highly popular pieces, Handel's Zadok the Priest and Walton's Crown Imperial, the concert will feature a new work commissioned by the Headington Singers from local composer and philosophy don Roger Teichmann. The Singers have performed one of his earlier short works, The Human Form, with great sucess, so it seemed appropriate to call on his talents again. Roger's work, The Serpent God, tells how the Greek god of healing, who took the form of a serpent, was enticed to Rome to combat an outbreak of the plague. The text of this dramatic and exciting work comes from Ovid's Metamorphoses.

Roger took this theme as he felt that, given the ocassion, it was appropriate to base the music on the theme of healing the sick and changing locations. Besides, the ancient Greek symbol of the single serpent, entwined around a staff, is still the emblem of doctors.

The proceeds from the concert will benefit four local medical charities linked with the Radcliffe Infirmary's specialisms: The Clive Project, which supports relatives of patients with early-onset dementia; the Motor Neurone Disease Association; the Botley Alzheimer's Home; and the Oxfordshire Assciation for the Blind.

Tickets for the gala concert can be booked by ringing the Oxford Playhouse box office on (01865) 305305 or online at www.oxfordplayhouse.com/TicketsOxford/Booking.asp