The event was last held at the church in 2022. It coincides with the final day of Proms, the world’s greatest classical music festival which runs from July 19 to September 14 in the United Kingdom.
The night in Timaru will feature the traditional "Last Night of the Proms" sing-a-long and performances from some of the district’s top musicians.
Performing are the St Mary’s adult and children’s choirs, the Youth Orchestra of South Canterbury, the Alpine Energy Timaru Brass Band, the Craighead Diocesan School Choir and a special guest solo performance from Dunedin tenor Benjamin Madden.
St Mary’s Church director of music and Youth Orchestra of South Canterbury and Alpine Energy Timaru Brass Band conductor Catherine Anderson said although the night would be classically-themed, it would be on the lighter side and feature easy-to-listen-to music.
"The orchestra will also be performing a piece that was commissioned for them in the year 2000 by Dunedin-based composer Anthony Ritchie.
"It’s a really nice piece to perform for the locals to hear."
She said the event had really "packed the pews" in previous years.
"It’s great to get people inside the building. People who have lived here years have never been inside and they just love coming and seeing what it looks like.
"It’s a really nice place to play as well for the band and the orchestra and particularly at the end in our audience numbers we have the organ joining in and it just really lifts the sound."
She said it was nice to have an event that brought the community together.
"It’s great to have a large variety of musicians from around the region work together. We are doing a massed choir item so we’ve got the youngest in the children choir being 7 and some of the older members in the adult choir are in their seventies.
"Having them all combined and for the younger ones to see what they can aspire to be is really nice."
The event will begin at 7pm on Saturday and tickets are almost all sold.
Tickets can be bought from the Newman’s Music Works website and there is no guarantee door sales will be available.
Adults cost $35 and seniors and under-18s are $25.
