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 rehearsal and the concert.  This performance will be repeated on the 6th May at St Bartholomew’s Armley.  Then we had a bit of a break until the 11 March when around 20 singers helped out the Grammar School at Leeds (GSAL) with a performance of Messiah in the very different location of an almost derelict mill shed at Sunny Bank Mills – there was a last minute scramble to arrange some electric lights for the choir and orchestra, or we would have been singing in the dark, but everybody pulled together for quite a unique show.  The highlight of March was our main performance on the 25th March at Leeds Town Hall where we sang Elgar’s Music Makers to much audience acclaim.  We had last sung this on our tour of Dortmund in 2011.

And so on to May – now 3 concerts in just one month for some.  As noted, some of us will reprise the Fauré and Jenkins on the 6th May, and shortly afterward on the 20th we will round off the LICS 2017 season with a full performance of the Verdi Requiem.  Then most of the choir will travel to Hull on the 25th to reprise our Beethoven’s 9th choral so rehearsals have been a bit busy.

A break in June and then in July we travel to Chester to perform the Sea Symphony and then on tour to Durham and Beamish.  We can then have a rest.