Leeds Festival Chorus
Encyclopedia
The Leeds Festival Chorus is based in Leeds
, West Yorkshire
, England
. It has 170 singing members in soprano
, alto
, tenor
and bass
sections. Presenting classical choral music of a professional standard in Yorkshire
and elsewhere in Britain
, including at the BBC Proms
and Manchester Arena
, the Chorus is broadcast regularly on BBC Radio 3
.
The Chorus works with several orchestras, including the Hallé Orchestra
, the BBC Symphony Orchestra
, BBC Philharmonic
, the Northern Sinfonia
, St. John's Smith Square
, the Orchestra of Opera North
and the English Chamber Orchestra
.
opened the Leeds Town Hall
) to sing at the first Leeds Musical Festival
, and was reformed for each succeeding one. The Chorus became independent in 1985. It celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2008 with a performance of a specially-commissioned work by Judith Bingham
- a world premiere. It has been conducted by many distinguished maestri in its long history, including Arthur Sullivan
, Thomas Beecham
, John Barbirolli
, Carlo Maria Giulini
, Jascha Horenstein
, Hans Richter
, Pierre Boulez
, Charles Mackerras
, Colin Davis
, John Eliot Gardiner
, Yan Pascal Tortelier
, Mark Elder
, Roger Norrington
, John Lubbock
and Andrew Davis
.
Simon Wright is the Conductor and Artistic Adviser. He was born in Sunderland and educated at Chetham's School
and the Royal Manchester College of Music
. As a teenager he often worked with Sir John Barbirolli as an accompanist of the Hallé Choir. He has conducted many orchestral and choral premières and worked with most of the major orchestras in the UK.
New music has often been commissioned or championed by the Chorus: works written for the chorus and conducted in Leeds by the composer include Antonín Dvořák
's St. Ludmilla and Edward Elgar
's Caractacus; perhaps the most famous commission was Walton's Belshazzar's Feast, first conducted by Sir Malcolm Sargent.
In addition to its regular concerts in Leeds Town Hall, many of them part of the Leeds International Concert Season, in recent years the Chorus has performed in the Bridgewater Hall
in Manchester
, York Minster
and the Royal Albert Hall
in London as part of the BBC
's Promenade Concerts series. The Chorus sings a varied repertoire; performances have included works by Mozart, Beethoven, J.S. Bach, Berlioz, Thomas Tallis
, Mahler, Verdi, Rossini, Elgar, Schönberg
, Poulenc
, Hindemith, Schubert, Richard Strauss
, Shostakovitch, Peter Maxwell Davies
and many other composers.
Recordings on CD for Chandos Records
and Naxos Records
include Berlioz' Symphonie Funèbre et Triomphale, Constant Lambert
Summer's Last Will and Testament, Hindemith Sancta Susanna and George Enescu
Third Symphony.
The Chorus supports Leeds Youth Choir in association with Leeds Artforms. Leeds Youth Choir welcomes young singers, male and female, aged 13+, to a friendly group of about 30 singers. The choir sings a wide range of music, from popular songs and musicals to classical works, and takes part in three or more concerts each year in Leeds and Yorkshire. The musical director is Alison Pryce-Jones. Support for Leeds Youth Choir is part of the Chorus's policy of encouraging young people to take more interest in classical music.
The Chorus provided the choral accompaniment (from the Mozart Requiem) to the British première of the ballet Requiem!! by Birgit Scherzer at the Grand Theatre Leeds
in February 2003, for the Northern Ballet Theatre
. The Chorus has sung a series of highly successful concerts in Ripon Cathedral
, for example French Choral Glories in July 2008, which included Fauré
's Requiem and Poulenc
's Gloria. Recent performances have included Berlioz L’Enfance du Christ with the Northern Sinfonia, Michael Tippet's A Child of Our Time
with the BBC Philharmonic, Mahler Symphony no. 2
with the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra, the British premieres of Markus Stockhausen
's Christus and Maxwell Davies' Canticum Canticorum, "Classical Spectaculars" in the Manchester Arena with the Hallé, John Adams
' Harmonium
with the BBC Philharmonic, Elgar's The Music Makers and Prokofiev's Alexander Nevsky.
In December 2007, the Chorus performed Handel
's Messiah
in Leeds Town Hall for the first time for many years. This was a major event with Northern Sinfonia, organised entirely by the Chorus, independently from the Leeds International Concert Season. The soloists were William Dutton (treble), Joanne Lunn
(soprano), Michael Chance
(counter-tenor), Mark Wilde (tenor) and Michael George (bass-baritone). Handel's Messiah was performed by the first Festival Chorus in 1858, soon after the opening of the Town Hall by Queen Victoria. A notice for this historic performance, from the Leeds Intelligencer
, appears below.
Just before the performance of Shakespeare Requiem by Judith Bingham on 29 November 2008, free copies of a CD and a booklet, both entitled Celebration 2008, were distributed free to the audience to mark the 150th anniversary of the first formation of Leeds Festival Chorus. The CD contains 13 excerpts from recent live recordings with the BBC Philharmonic
in Leeds Town Hall, and was produced by kind permission of the BBC. The tracks include a March 2000 recording of The God of quake and thunder, from The Fall of Jerusalem by Dominic Muldowney
, which was a Leeds Festival Chorus commission, and In Cubiculo Nuptiali, which is Part 3 of Canticum Canticorum by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies. This was a British premiere. The illustrated booklet, subtitled A Brief History of Leeds Festival Chorus, was written by Richard Wilcocks. It includes many details of the first Leeds Musical Festival in 1858, the contributions of many composers and conductors, including Sir Michael Costa, Sir Arthur Sullivan, Antonín Dvořák
, William Walton
, Sir Thomas Beecham, Alexander Goehr
and Sir Peter Maxwell Davies. Free copies of the CD and the booklet may be obtained by contacting the Secretary of Leeds Festival Chorus through the website at www.leedsfestivalchorus.co.uk
directed by David Hill. On 27 November, the Chorus took part once again in Raymond Gubbay's Classical Spectacular in the MEN Arena, Manchester. On 29 January 2011, the Chorus was joined by Northern Sinfonia
for Mozart's C Minor Mass in Leeds Town Hall. On 9 April 2011 Bach's St Matthew Passion was performed by the Chorus in Leeds Town Hall along with choristers from Cardinal Heenan Catholic High School and Leeds Parish Church. On 21 May 2011, Mahler's Symphony No 8 (Symphony of a Thousand) was performed in York Minster along with the Hallé Choir and the Minster's choristers, accompanied by the York Guildhall Orchestra. On 2 July 2011, the annual Summer Concert in Ripon Cathedral included Puccini's Messa di Gloria in the programme. The Chorus was chosen to sing at Opera in the Park (organised by Leeds City Council) which took place at Temple Newsam on Saturday 30 July.
On 8 October 2010, in a new venture, the Chorus contributed to Leeds Light Night
with Vespers. Performances took place in the Victoria Quarter, on the steps of the Leeds Art Gallery and on the steps of the Leeds City Museum in Millennium Square. On 7 October 2011, the Chorus followed this up with performances of a selection of Bruckner's Motets. Performances took place in the Victoria Quarter, on the steps of the Leeds City Museum in Millennium Square and on the steps of Leeds Town Hall. This year, these outdoor performances were conducted by Tony Kraus from Opera North.
directed by David Hill. On 26 November, the Chorus will be part of Raymond Gubbay's Classical Spectacular in the MEN Arena, Manchester. On 10 December 2011, the Chorus will be joined by English Chamber Orchestra
for Handel's Messiah
in Leeds Town Hall, conducted by Simon Wright. On 10 March 2012 Dvorák's Stabat Mater will be performed by the Chorus in Leeds Town Hall with the BBC Philharmonic
. On 19 May 2012 at Leeds Town Hall, Simon Wright will conduct Mendelssohn's Die erste Walpurgisnacht and Beethoven's Symphony No 9 (Choral) with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
. On 7 July 2012 there will be another Summer Concert in Ripon Cathedral.
Full details can be found in the current brochure on the Chorus's website. For concerts promoted by the Chorus, there are ticket discounts for under-18s, unwaged, full-time students, over 60s and wheelchair users, and standby tickets for under 26s.
Opera Britannia (Geoffrey Mogridge 25 May 2010)
'Under the eye of the universally respected and immensely likeable conductor Simon Wright, Leeds Festival Chorus continues to be an inspirational emblem of appeal for choral lovers in the county and on the strength of this performance alone, long may it be so.'
Guardian (Martin Hickes 31 January 2011)
'If you don't walk away from the Town Hall at the end of a night like that feeling moved, then there's probably no hope for you.'
Leeds Guide (Tom Goodhand 31 January 2011)
'This performance (of Bach's St Matthew Passion) was itself a stupendous miracle.
Yorkshire Post (Chris Robins 15 April 2011)
) printed the following notice:
Leeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...
, West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire is a metropolitan county within the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England with a population of 2.2 million. West Yorkshire came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972....
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. It has 170 singing members in soprano
Soprano
A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
, alto
Alto
Alto is a musical term, derived from the Latin word altus, meaning "high" in Italian, that has several possible interpretations.When designating instruments, "alto" frequently refers to a member of an instrumental family that has the second highest range, below that of the treble or soprano. Hence,...
, tenor
Tenor
The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
and bass
Bass (voice type)
A bass is a type of male singing voice and possesses the lowest vocal range of all voice types. According to The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, a bass is typically classified as having a range extending from around the second E below middle C to the E above middle C...
sections. Presenting classical choral music of a professional standard in Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
and elsewhere in Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, including at the BBC Proms
The Proms
The Proms, more formally known as The BBC Proms, or The Henry Wood Promenade Concerts presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hall in London...
and Manchester Arena
Manchester Evening News Arena
The Manchester Evening News Arena is an indoor arena situated in Manchester, England. It is adjacent to Manchester Victoria station near Corporation Street...
, the Chorus is broadcast regularly on BBC Radio 3
BBC Radio 3
BBC Radio 3 is a national radio station operated by the BBC within the United Kingdom. Its output centres on classical music and opera, but jazz, world music, drama, culture and the arts also feature. The station is the world’s most significant commissioner of new music, and its New Generation...
.
The Chorus works with several orchestras, including the Hallé Orchestra
The Hallé
The Hallé is a symphony orchestra based in Manchester, England. It is the UK's oldest extant symphony orchestra , supports a choir, youth choir and a youth orchestra, and releases its recordings on its own record label, though it has occasionally released recordings on Angel Records and EMI...
, the BBC Symphony Orchestra
BBC Symphony Orchestra
The BBC Symphony Orchestra is the principal broadcast orchestra of the British Broadcasting Corporation and one of the leading orchestras in Britain.-History:...
, BBC Philharmonic
BBC Philharmonic
The BBC Philharmonic is a British broadcasting symphony orchestra based at Media City UK, Salford, England. It is one of five radio orchestras maintained by the British Broadcasting Corporation. The orchestra's primary concert venue is the Bridgewater Hall....
, the Northern Sinfonia
Northern Sinfonia
The Northern Sinfonia is a British chamber orchestra, based initially in Newcastle upon Tyne, and currently in Gateshead. For the first 46 years of its history, the orchestra gave the bulk of its concerts at the City Hall, Newcastle upon Tyne. Since 2004, the orchestra has been resident at The...
, St. John's Smith Square
London Chamber Orchestra
The London Chamber Orchestra ' is the longest established professional chamber orchestra in the UK. Based in London, LCO has a residency at St John's Smith Square in Westminster.-History:...
, the Orchestra of Opera North
Orchestra of Opera North
The Orchestra of Opera North is the orchestra that plays for the English opera company, Opera North....
and the English Chamber Orchestra
English Chamber Orchestra
The English Chamber Orchestra is a British chamber orchestra based in London. The full orchestra regularly plays concerts at Cadogan Hall, and the ECO Ensemble performs at Wigmore Hall...
.
History
The Leeds Festival Chorus was first formed in 1858 (the year Queen VictoriaVictoria of the United Kingdom
Victoria was the monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she used the additional title of Empress of India....
opened the Leeds Town Hall
Leeds Town Hall
Leeds Town Hall was built between 1853 and 1858 on Park Lane , Leeds, West Yorkshire, England to a design by architect Cuthbert Brodrick.-Background:...
) to sing at the first Leeds Musical Festival
Leeds Festival (classical music)
The Leeds Festival was a classical music festival which took place between 1858 and 1985 in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England.The first festival celebrated the opening of Leeds Town Hall by Queen Victoria on 7 September 1858...
, and was reformed for each succeeding one. The Chorus became independent in 1985. It celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2008 with a performance of a specially-commissioned work by Judith Bingham
Judith Bingham
Judith Bingham is a British composer and mezzo-soprano singer.Born in Nottingham in 1952 and educated at High Storrs Grammar School for Girls in Sheffield, she attended the Royal Academy of Music , where her teachers were Malcolm MacDonald, Eric Fenby, Alan Bush and John Hall , and Jean...
- a world premiere. It has been conducted by many distinguished maestri in its long history, including Arthur Sullivan
Arthur Sullivan
Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan MVO was an English composer of Irish and Italian ancestry. He is best known for his series of 14 operatic collaborations with the dramatist W. S. Gilbert, including such enduring works as H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado...
, Thomas Beecham
Thomas Beecham
Sir Thomas Beecham, 2nd Baronet CH was an English conductor and impresario best known for his association with the London Philharmonic and the Royal Philharmonic orchestras. He was also closely associated with the Liverpool Philharmonic and Hallé orchestras...
, John Barbirolli
John Barbirolli
Sir John Barbirolli, CH was an English conductor and cellist. Born in London, of Italian and French parentage, he grew up in a family of professional musicians. His father and grandfather were violinists...
, Carlo Maria Giulini
Carlo Maria Giulini
Carlo Maria Giulini was an Italian conductor.-Biography:Giulini was born in Barletta, Italy, to a father born in Lombardy and a mother born in Naples; but he was raised in Bolzano, which at the time of his birth was part of Austria...
, Jascha Horenstein
Jascha Horenstein
Jascha Horenstein was an American conductor.Horenstein was born in Kiev, Russian Empire , into a well-to-do Jewish family; his mother came from an Austrian rabbinical family and his father was Russian....
, Hans Richter
Hans Richter (conductor)
Hans Richter was an Austrian orchestral and operatic conductor.-Biography:Richter was born in Raab , Kingdom of Hungary, Austro-Hungarian Empire. His mother was opera-singer Jozsefa Csazenszky. He studied at the Vienna Conservatory...
, Pierre Boulez
Pierre Boulez
Pierre Boulez is a French composer of contemporary classical music, a pianist, and a conductor.-Early years:Boulez was born in Montbrison, Loire, France. As a child he began piano lessons and demonstrated aptitude in both music and mathematics...
, Charles Mackerras
Charles Mackerras
Sir Alan Charles Maclaurin Mackerras, AC, CH, CBE was an Australian conductor. He was an authority on the operas of Janáček and Mozart, and the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan...
, Colin Davis
Colin Davis
Sir Colin Rex Davis, CH, CBE is an English conductor. His repertoire is broad, but among the composers with whom he is particularly associated are Mozart, Berlioz, Elgar, Sibelius, Stravinsky and Tippett....
, John Eliot Gardiner
John Eliot Gardiner
Sir John Eliot Gardiner CBE FKC is an English conductor. He founded the Monteverdi Choir , the English Baroque Soloists and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique...
, Yan Pascal Tortelier
Yan Pascal Tortelier
Yan Pascal Tortelier is an internationally renowned French conductor and violinist and is the son of the late cellist Paul Tortelier.-Biography:...
, Mark Elder
Mark Elder
Sir Mark Philip Elder, CBE is a British conductor. He is the music director of the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester, England.-Biography:Elder was born in Hexham, Northumberland, England, the son of a dentist...
, Roger Norrington
Roger Norrington
Sir Roger Arthur Carver Norrington, CBE is a British conductor. He is the son of Sir Arthur Norrington and his brother is Humphrey Thomas Norrington....
, John Lubbock
John Lubbock (conductor)
John Lubbock is an English conductor and singer, founder of the Orchestra of St John's Smith Square , which he has brought to prominence including performances at the Proms as well as engaging in outreach and charity work....
and Andrew Davis
Andrew Davis (conductor)
Sir Andrew Frank Davis CBE is a British conductor.Born in Ashridge, Hertfordshire to Robert J. Davis and his wife Florence J. née Badminton, Davis grew up in Chesham, Buckinghamshire, and in Watford. Davis attended Watford Boys' Grammar School, where he studied classics in his sixth form years...
.
Simon Wright is the Conductor and Artistic Adviser. He was born in Sunderland and educated at Chetham's School
Chetham's School of Music
Chetham's School of Music , familiarly known as "Chets", is a specialist independent co-educational music school, situated in Manchester city centre, in North West England. It was established in 1969, incorporating Chetham's Hospital School, founded as a charity school by Humphrey Chetham in 1653...
and the Royal Manchester College of Music
Royal Manchester College of Music
The Royal Manchester College of Music was founded in 1893 by Sir Charles Hallé who assumed the role as Principal. For a long period of time Hallé had argued for Manchester's need for a conservatoire to properly train the local talent. The Ducie Street building, just off Oxford Road, was purchased...
. As a teenager he often worked with Sir John Barbirolli as an accompanist of the Hallé Choir. He has conducted many orchestral and choral premières and worked with most of the major orchestras in the UK.
New music has often been commissioned or championed by the Chorus: works written for the chorus and conducted in Leeds by the composer include Antonín Dvořák
Antonín Dvorák
Antonín Leopold Dvořák was a Czech composer of late Romantic music, who employed the idioms of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia. Dvořák’s own style is sometimes called "romantic-classicist synthesis". His works include symphonic, choral and chamber music, concerti, operas and many...
's St. Ludmilla and Edward Elgar
Edward Elgar
Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet OM, GCVO was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestral works including the Enigma Variations, the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, concertos...
's Caractacus; perhaps the most famous commission was Walton's Belshazzar's Feast, first conducted by Sir Malcolm Sargent.
In addition to its regular concerts in Leeds Town Hall, many of them part of the Leeds International Concert Season, in recent years the Chorus has performed in the Bridgewater Hall
Bridgewater Hall
The Bridgewater Hall is an international concert venue in Manchester city centre, England. It cost around £42 million to build and currently hosts over 250 performances a year....
in Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
, York Minster
York Minster
York Minster is a Gothic cathedral in York, England and is one of the largest of its kind in Northern Europe alongside Cologne Cathedral. The minster is the seat of the Archbishop of York, the second-highest office of the Church of England, and is the cathedral for the Diocese of York; it is run by...
and the Royal Albert Hall
Royal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall situated on the northern edge of the South Kensington area, in the City of Westminster, London, England, best known for holding the annual summer Proms concerts since 1941....
in London as part of the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
's Promenade Concerts series. The Chorus sings a varied repertoire; performances have included works by Mozart, Beethoven, J.S. Bach, Berlioz, Thomas Tallis
Thomas Tallis
Thomas Tallis was an English composer. Tallis flourished as a church musician in 16th century Tudor England. He occupies a primary place in anthologies of English church music, and is considered among the best of England's early composers. He is honoured for his original voice in English...
, Mahler, Verdi, Rossini, Elgar, Schönberg
Schönberg
- Germany :*Schönberg, Lower Bavaria, a town in the district of Freyung-Grafenau in Bavaria*Schönberg, Upper Bavaria, a town in the district of Mühldorf in Bavaria*Schönberg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, district Nordwestmecklenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern...
, Poulenc
Francis Poulenc
Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc was a French composer and a member of the French group Les six. He composed solo piano music, chamber music, oratorio, choral music, opera, ballet music, and orchestral music...
, Hindemith, Schubert, Richard Strauss
Richard Strauss
Richard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; and his tone poems and orchestral works, such as Death and Transfiguration, Till...
, Shostakovitch, Peter Maxwell Davies
Peter Maxwell Davies
Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, CBE is an English composer and conductor and is currently Master of the Queen's Music.-Biography:...
and many other composers.
Recordings on CD for Chandos Records
Chandos Records
Chandos Records is an independent classical music recording company based in Colchester, Essex, in the United Kingdom, founded in 1979 by Brian Couzens.- Background :...
and Naxos Records
Naxos Records
Naxos Records is a record label specializing in classical music. Through a number of imprints, Naxos also releases genres including Chinese music, jazz, world music, and early rock & roll. The company was founded in 1987 by Klaus Heymann, a German-born resident of Hong Kong.Naxos is the largest...
include Berlioz' Symphonie Funèbre et Triomphale, Constant Lambert
Constant Lambert
Leonard Constant Lambert was a British composer and conductor.-Early life:Lambert, the son of Russian-born Australian painter George Lambert, was educated at Christ's Hospital and the Royal College of Music...
Summer's Last Will and Testament, Hindemith Sancta Susanna and George Enescu
George Enescu
George Enescu was a Romanian composer, violinist, pianist, conductor and teacher.-Biography:Enescu was born in the village of Liveni , Dorohoi County at the time, today Botoşani County. He showed musical talent from early in his childhood. A child prodigy, Enescu created his first musical...
Third Symphony.
The Chorus supports Leeds Youth Choir in association with Leeds Artforms. Leeds Youth Choir welcomes young singers, male and female, aged 13+, to a friendly group of about 30 singers. The choir sings a wide range of music, from popular songs and musicals to classical works, and takes part in three or more concerts each year in Leeds and Yorkshire. The musical director is Alison Pryce-Jones. Support for Leeds Youth Choir is part of the Chorus's policy of encouraging young people to take more interest in classical music.
The Chorus provided the choral accompaniment (from the Mozart Requiem) to the British première of the ballet Requiem!! by Birgit Scherzer at the Grand Theatre Leeds
Grand Theatre Leeds
The Grand Theatre is a theatre and Opera house in the centre of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was designed by James Robinson Watson, chief assistant in the office of Leeds-based architect George Corson, and opened on 18 November 1878...
in February 2003, for the Northern Ballet Theatre
Northern Ballet Theatre
Northern Ballet, formerly Northern Ballet Theatre, is a dance company based in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, with a strong repertoire in theatrical dance productions where the emphasis is on story telling as well as classical ballet...
. The Chorus has sung a series of highly successful concerts in Ripon Cathedral
Ripon Cathedral
Ripon Cathedral is the seat of the Bishop of Ripon and Leeds and the mother church of the Diocese of Ripon and Leeds, situated in the small North Yorkshire city of Ripon, England.-Background:...
, for example French Choral Glories in July 2008, which included Fauré
Faure
Faure or Fauré is a French family name and may refer to:People:* Edgar Faure, French politician* Élie Faure, French art historian and essayist* Émile Alphonse Faure, lead battery pioneer* Cédric Fauré, French football striker...
's Requiem and Poulenc
Francis Poulenc
Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc was a French composer and a member of the French group Les six. He composed solo piano music, chamber music, oratorio, choral music, opera, ballet music, and orchestral music...
's Gloria. Recent performances have included Berlioz L’Enfance du Christ with the Northern Sinfonia, Michael Tippet's A Child of Our Time
A Child of Our Time
A Child of Our Time is an oratorio written by Michael Tippett between 1939 and 1941."After more than ten years of thoughtful planning, Michael Tippett summed up his musical, political, spiritual and philosophical beliefs in his first oratorio, A Child of Our Time...
with the BBC Philharmonic, Mahler Symphony no. 2
Symphony No. 2 (Mahler)
The Symphony No. 2 by Gustav Mahler, known as the Resurrection, was written between 1888 and 1894, and first performed in 1895. Apart from the Eighth Symphony, this symphony was Mahler's most popular and successful work during his lifetime. It is his first major work that would eventually mark his...
with the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra, the British premieres of Markus Stockhausen
Markus Stockhausen
Markus Pirol Stockhausen is a German trumpeter and composer.-Biography:Born in Cologne, he is the son of composer Karlheinz Stockhausen. At age four he appeared as "child at play" in his father's theatre piece Originals. He received his first piano lessons at age six, and at age twelve he began to...
's Christus and Maxwell Davies' Canticum Canticorum, "Classical Spectaculars" in the Manchester Arena with the Hallé, John Adams
John Coolidge Adams
John Coolidge Adams is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer with strong roots in minimalism. His best-known works include Short Ride in a Fast Machine , On the Transmigration of Souls , a choral piece commemorating the victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks , and Shaker...
' Harmonium
Harmonium (John Adams)
Harmonium is a composition for chorus and orchestra that could be considered a choral symphony in all but name, by the American composer John Adams, written in 1980-1981 for the first season of Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco, California. The work is based on poetry by John Donne and Emily...
with the BBC Philharmonic, Elgar's The Music Makers and Prokofiev's Alexander Nevsky.
HANDEL
HANDEL was the code-name for the UK's National Attack Warning System in the Cold War. It consisted of a small console consisting of two microphones, lights and gauges. The reason behind this was to provide a back-up if anything failed....
's Messiah
Messiah (Handel)
Messiah is an English-language oratorio composed in 1741 by George Frideric Handel, with a scriptural text compiled by Charles Jennens from the King James Bible and the Book of Common Prayer. It was first performed in Dublin on 13 April 1742, and received its London premiere nearly a year later...
in Leeds Town Hall for the first time for many years. This was a major event with Northern Sinfonia, organised entirely by the Chorus, independently from the Leeds International Concert Season. The soloists were William Dutton (treble), Joanne Lunn
Joanne Lunn
- Professional career :Joanne Lunn studied at Royal College of Music, where she graduated and received the Tagore Gold Medal.Lunn performed in Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea, Gluck's operas Orfeo ed Euridice and Alceste, and in Verdi's Falstaff...
(soprano), Michael Chance
Michael Chance
Michael Chance CBE is an English countertenor.Chance was born in Penn, Buckinghamshire, into a musical family. After growing up as a chorister he attended Eton College, Berkshire, and later King's College, Cambridge...
(counter-tenor), Mark Wilde (tenor) and Michael George (bass-baritone). Handel's Messiah was performed by the first Festival Chorus in 1858, soon after the opening of the Town Hall by Queen Victoria. A notice for this historic performance, from the Leeds Intelligencer
Leeds Intelligencer
The Leeds Intelligencer or Leedes Intelligencer was a newspaper in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, founded in 1754. It was a weekly paper until it was renamed and became the daily Yorkshire Post, first published on Monday 2 July 1866....
, appears below.
Just before the performance of Shakespeare Requiem by Judith Bingham on 29 November 2008, free copies of a CD and a booklet, both entitled Celebration 2008, were distributed free to the audience to mark the 150th anniversary of the first formation of Leeds Festival Chorus. The CD contains 13 excerpts from recent live recordings with the BBC Philharmonic
BBC Philharmonic
The BBC Philharmonic is a British broadcasting symphony orchestra based at Media City UK, Salford, England. It is one of five radio orchestras maintained by the British Broadcasting Corporation. The orchestra's primary concert venue is the Bridgewater Hall....
in Leeds Town Hall, and was produced by kind permission of the BBC. The tracks include a March 2000 recording of The God of quake and thunder, from The Fall of Jerusalem by Dominic Muldowney
Dominic Muldowney
Dominic Muldowney is a British composer.-Biography:He studied at the universities of Southampton and York , and took private lessons with Harrison Birtwistle. From 1974 to 1976 he was composer-in-residence to the Southern Arts Association...
, which was a Leeds Festival Chorus commission, and In Cubiculo Nuptiali, which is Part 3 of Canticum Canticorum by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies. This was a British premiere. The illustrated booklet, subtitled A Brief History of Leeds Festival Chorus, was written by Richard Wilcocks. It includes many details of the first Leeds Musical Festival in 1858, the contributions of many composers and conductors, including Sir Michael Costa, Sir Arthur Sullivan, Antonín Dvořák
Antonín Dvorák
Antonín Leopold Dvořák was a Czech composer of late Romantic music, who employed the idioms of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia. Dvořák’s own style is sometimes called "romantic-classicist synthesis". His works include symphonic, choral and chamber music, concerti, operas and many...
, William Walton
William Walton
Sir William Turner Walton OM was an English composer. During a sixty-year career, he wrote music in several classical genres and styles, from film scores to opera...
, Sir Thomas Beecham, Alexander Goehr
Alexander Goehr
Alexander Goehr is an English composer and academic.Goehr was born in Berlin in 1932, the son of the conductor and Schoenberg pupil Walter Goehr. In his early twenties he emerged as a central figure in the Manchester School of post-war British composers. In 1955–56 he joined Oliver Messiaen's...
and Sir Peter Maxwell Davies. Free copies of the CD and the booklet may be obtained by contacting the Secretary of Leeds Festival Chorus through the website at www.leedsfestivalchorus.co.uk
Recent performances
On 20 November 2010, the last season began with Vaughan Williams's Sea Symphony at the Chorus's spiritual home of Leeds Town Hall with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic OrchestraRoyal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Society is a society based in Liverpool, Merseyside, England, that organises concerts and other events mainly in the field of classical music. The society is the second oldest of its type in the United Kingdom and its orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic...
directed by David Hill. On 27 November, the Chorus took part once again in Raymond Gubbay's Classical Spectacular in the MEN Arena, Manchester. On 29 January 2011, the Chorus was joined by Northern Sinfonia
Northern Sinfonia
The Northern Sinfonia is a British chamber orchestra, based initially in Newcastle upon Tyne, and currently in Gateshead. For the first 46 years of its history, the orchestra gave the bulk of its concerts at the City Hall, Newcastle upon Tyne. Since 2004, the orchestra has been resident at The...
for Mozart's C Minor Mass in Leeds Town Hall. On 9 April 2011 Bach's St Matthew Passion was performed by the Chorus in Leeds Town Hall along with choristers from Cardinal Heenan Catholic High School and Leeds Parish Church. On 21 May 2011, Mahler's Symphony No 8 (Symphony of a Thousand) was performed in York Minster along with the Hallé Choir and the Minster's choristers, accompanied by the York Guildhall Orchestra. On 2 July 2011, the annual Summer Concert in Ripon Cathedral included Puccini's Messa di Gloria in the programme. The Chorus was chosen to sing at Opera in the Park (organised by Leeds City Council) which took place at Temple Newsam on Saturday 30 July.
On 8 October 2010, in a new venture, the Chorus contributed to Leeds Light Night
Light night
Light Night is a cultural event which first happened in the city of Leeds in October 2005, as part of the launch of the region-wide Illuminate Cultural Festival....
with Vespers. Performances took place in the Victoria Quarter, on the steps of the Leeds Art Gallery and on the steps of the Leeds City Museum in Millennium Square. On 7 October 2011, the Chorus followed this up with performances of a selection of Bruckner's Motets. Performances took place in the Victoria Quarter, on the steps of the Leeds City Museum in Millennium Square and on the steps of Leeds Town Hall. This year, these outdoor performances were conducted by Tony Kraus from Opera North.
Forthcoming performances
The new season (2011/2012) begins on 12 November 2011 with Mahler's Symphony No 2 (Resurrection) and Bruckner Motets (Ave Maria, Afferentur regi, Christus factus est, Os Justi, Ecce sacerdos magnus) at Leeds Town Hall with The HalléThe Hallé
The Hallé is a symphony orchestra based in Manchester, England. It is the UK's oldest extant symphony orchestra , supports a choir, youth choir and a youth orchestra, and releases its recordings on its own record label, though it has occasionally released recordings on Angel Records and EMI...
directed by David Hill. On 26 November, the Chorus will be part of Raymond Gubbay's Classical Spectacular in the MEN Arena, Manchester. On 10 December 2011, the Chorus will be joined by English Chamber Orchestra
English Chamber Orchestra
The English Chamber Orchestra is a British chamber orchestra based in London. The full orchestra regularly plays concerts at Cadogan Hall, and the ECO Ensemble performs at Wigmore Hall...
for Handel's Messiah
Messiah
A messiah is a redeemer figure expected or foretold in one form or another by a religion. Slightly more widely, a messiah is any redeemer figure. Messianic beliefs or theories generally relate to eschatological improvement of the state of humanity or the world, in other words the World to...
in Leeds Town Hall, conducted by Simon Wright. On 10 March 2012 Dvorák's Stabat Mater will be performed by the Chorus in Leeds Town Hall with the BBC Philharmonic
BBC Philharmonic
The BBC Philharmonic is a British broadcasting symphony orchestra based at Media City UK, Salford, England. It is one of five radio orchestras maintained by the British Broadcasting Corporation. The orchestra's primary concert venue is the Bridgewater Hall....
. On 19 May 2012 at Leeds Town Hall, Simon Wright will conduct Mendelssohn's Die erste Walpurgisnacht and Beethoven's Symphony No 9 (Choral) with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Society is a society based in Liverpool, Merseyside, England, that organises concerts and other events mainly in the field of classical music. The society is the second oldest of its type in the United Kingdom and its orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic...
. On 7 July 2012 there will be another Summer Concert in Ripon Cathedral.
Full details can be found in the current brochure on the Chorus's website. For concerts promoted by the Chorus, there are ticket discounts for under-18s, unwaged, full-time students, over 60s and wheelchair users, and standby tickets for under 26s.
A selection from what the critics said recently
'The superbly blended choirs produced an awesome but refined sound; textures were crystal clear, choral lines carefully delineated and the attack was devastatingly crisp and decisive. Elgar's soft and ethereal opening... positively shimmered and glowed.'Opera Britannia (Geoffrey Mogridge 25 May 2010)
'Under the eye of the universally respected and immensely likeable conductor Simon Wright, Leeds Festival Chorus continues to be an inspirational emblem of appeal for choral lovers in the county and on the strength of this performance alone, long may it be so.'
Guardian (Martin Hickes 31 January 2011)
'If you don't walk away from the Town Hall at the end of a night like that feeling moved, then there's probably no hope for you.'
Leeds Guide (Tom Goodhand 31 January 2011)
'This performance (of Bach's St Matthew Passion) was itself a stupendous miracle.
Yorkshire Post (Chris Robins 15 April 2011)
Messiah in 1858
One and a half centuries ago, the Leeds Intelligencer (forerunner of the Yorkshire PostYorkshire Post
The Yorkshire Post is a daily broadsheet newspaper, published in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England by Yorkshire Post Newspapers, a company owned by Johnston Press...
) printed the following notice:
External links
- Leeds Festival Chorus website
- Leeds International Concert Season Website
- Leeds Town Hall celebrates its 150th birthday (Yorkshire Evening Post)
- Virtual Tour of Leeds Town Hall
- Leeds Triennial Musical Festivals
- Leeds Youth Choir
- BBC Masterworks Belshazzar's Feast (1999, with BBC Symphony Chorus)
- Performance of Mozart's Great Mass in C minor (Guardian)