Arts lecturer and former choral scholar Roger Askew will be a guest speaker at Haslemere Art Society.

The event will held on Tuesday, June 18 at 2pm at Haslemere Hall. Roger will deliver a talk in celebration of the 150th anniversary of the birth of Gustav Holst in 1874. Gustav was a composer who was famous for The Planets, one of the most popular and recorded works in English music.

The lecture will examine Holst’s life and will explore many of his works. Including Beni Mora, which was inspired by hearing a flute-player in Algiers and Choral Symphony. A piece with poetry by John Keats, and the settings of the Rigveda, some of the most important Hindu texts.

The Society said: “Gustav’s orchestral works do not follow convention. For instance, his concerto for oboe and flute suddenly breaks into a nursery rhyme! It will be a surprising and revealing lecture.”