Sunday 21st October. It was a bright chilly day, we had rehearsed hard in the morning, grabbed lunch and now were in full swing in a wonderful afternoon concert with the Airedale Symphony Orchestra in a joint programme to commemorate the end of WW1. It was our first concert of the 2018/19 season and the…
Dr Donald Hunt OBE, a musician who attained equal distinction as Choirmaster, Conductor, Composer, Organist, Author and Elgar specialist, died peacefully at his home in Worcester on Saturday 4 August 2018 after a short illness. He was with the “Phil” as Chorus Master and Associate Conductor between 1961 and 1975, when he moved to Worcester…
It was a beautiful sunny day at Bolton Abbey, The Priory Church, and we gathered to rehearse and perform our last concert of the season featuring Parry’s – Songs of Farewell. Little did we know at the time of planning it that the title would be particularly poignant. Due to the excellent new lighting system…
May the 12th, the weather improved and we all put out a good rendition of the Damnation of Faust. Despite the difficulty of singing in French after just working in German and Latin for the previous concerts we all cracked it and the men of the choruses were magnificent. All the rehearsal effort was worth…
Well, what a fabulous collaboration with the Bruckner Orchester Linz and our fellow singers in the Sheffield Phil. We have been blessed with some of the nicest weather of the year so far, blue sky and sunshine which always lifts the soul. Then what an orchestra ! It could have turned into a mundane repetition…
Leeds Philharmonic Christmas Carol Competition – Winner Announced We held our first Phil Christmas Carol Competition during the autumn of 2017 as part of our charities aim to promote awareness of the beauty and benefits of choral singing. A cash prize of £750.00 together with publication of the winning carol by the Royal School of Church Music…
The new season is underway and already we have some exciting news. Richard Wilberforce – our current choir master, has been offered an important career opportunity by the Cambridge University. The Cambridge University Music Society (CUMS) Symphony Chorus has invited him to conduct a performance of Handel’s Israel in Egypt on Saturday 25th November. He…
Well this season has certainly been busy, ending with four performances in just one week, but what a week. Saturday the 1st July saw us at Chester Cathedral for a fantastic performance with the Chester Festival Chorus and Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra of Vaughan Williams Sea Symphony. We certainly swayed along to the waves on that seating…
It’s been a busy three months and members of the Phil have performed in three concerts already. We started on 14th January with around 30 singers performing the Fauré Requiem and most of Jenkins Armed Man at St John’s in Cleckheaton. The best bit was the lovely tea they put on for us between the…
Our penultimate concert of the 2015-16 season was a great success despite the attempts by the weather to put a dampner on things. We chose to think the rumbles of thunder during the afternoons rehearsal were good omens and it did remain largely dry at Bolton Abbey for the evening concert and was nice in…
