617 Dambusters 80th Anniversary concert at Lincoln Cathedral played by Royal Air Force College band
A special concert will be held to mark the 80th anniversary of one of the second world war's most daring raid.
On Saturday May 13, Lincoln Cathedral will host a concert to commemorate the 80 years since the famous Dambusters Raid by 617 Squadron took place in May 1943.
The concert will be performed by the Band of the Royal Air Force College alongside Lincoln Cathedral Choir and compered by Melvyn Prior from BBC Radio Lincolnshire.
There will also be a special guest appearance from world-renowned Sir Karl Jenkins CBE.
Royal Air Force Music Charitable Trust founder, Malcolm Goodman said “This charity concert is truly a unique musical occasion, as it brings together the renowned conductor Sir Karl Jenkins, whose own uncle served in bomber command, performing with the RAF band and cathedral choir just a few miles from where 617 ‘Dambusters’ Squadron set off from RAF Scampton on the famous raids of 80 years ago.
"Having devised the concert idea in 2022, and then gained the support of my fellow charity trustees and Lincoln Cathedral, it has been amazing to find the concert completely sold out within four weeks of going on sale in January, and then still four months before the concert.”
Sir Karl will conduct the Royal Air Force band and cathedral choir in a performance of his own composition ‘For the Fallen’, which was first performed at the 2010 Royal Albert Hall Festival of Remembrance, and is a setting Laurence Binyon’s famous ode honouring the war dead.
In partnership with Lincoln Cathedral, the Dambusters 80th anniversary concert is being organised by the Royal Air Force Music Charitable Trust, which was established in 2004, following the appointment of Air Chief Marshal Sir Michael Graydon GCB CBE as its President.
Run on a voluntary basis by three former RAF musicians from their homes in Newark and Sleaford, the charity raises welfare funds from the organisation of Royal Air Force concerts around the UK.
The Band of the Royal Air Force College will return to Lincoln Cathedral on Saturday 11 May 2024 for the ‘Festival of Music’ concert to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Royal Air Force Music Charitable Trust.
