The seventh series of Oxford Lent concerts has been launched, and explores baroque music by European composers, spanning three centuries and encompassing three different languages and religious traditions. Dr Owen Rees, Music Fellow and Organist at The Queen’s College, explains: “Our aim is to provide an occasion for a self-constituted community of concert-goers to ‘live Lent together’, however briefly and whatever our beliefs.”

Concerts last about 45 minutes, with proceeds from a collection going to The Gatehouse, a local homeless charity, and The Saakshar School in Delhi, an education programme for slum children.

The series launched on March 13, and continues on March 27 with Luigi Rossi’s Passion-inspired Oratorio per la Settimana Santa, and Tomás Luis de Victoria’s motet Vadam et circuibo civitatem, a setting of a poem drawing inspiration from the Old Testament’s The Song of Songs.

The final concert, on Tuesday, April 3, ends the series as it began — with J.S. Bach. The cantata Herr Jesu Christ, wahr’ Mensch und Gott draws on Lenten themes, but the concert — and the series — ends in joyous mood with Herr Jesu Christ, wahr, which celebrates Christ rising from the dead.

Many of the soloists have Oxford links, and the concerts are produced in collaboration with local artists, whose work is used to illuminate the music. The next two feature works by Alison Berrett and Nicholas Mynheer.

Owen says: “We hope that this sharing of music, art and silence in the baroque serenity of The Queen’s College Chapel will inspire each of us to reflect more deeply on the salvation story retold each year in the season of Lent.”

The Oxford Lent Concerts are at The Queen’s College Chapel on Tuesdays March 27 and April 3 at 6.15pm. For more information about The Gatehouse, visit www.oxfordgatehouse.org. To find out more about the Saakshar School, visit http://saakshar.chch.ox.ac.uk.