As part of our collaboration with the Leeds Conservatoire, the chorus worked with two Conservatoire students during the Thursday 10^th April rehearsal session.

Mark Francis offered a new arrangement of ‘The Lord is my Shepherd’ and Melodie Edoria Adessa’s composition was entitled ‘Painted Blue.’

Joe Judge commented ‘I think the composers found it very helpful and Ben Gaunt (Head of Composition there) was very enthusiastic and keen in helping us to create and promote an open ‘Call for Scores’ or Composition Competition next year.’

The chorus thoroughly enjoyed this enriching experience.

After a long search over the summer, we are delighted to be able to announce that Russell Medley is to be our new Accompanist following Alan Horsey’s retirement.

We auditioned 3 very capable candidates and were very impressed by his skills, background and lovely friendly manor.

Russell has an impressive CV, and is currently a Senior Vocal Coach/Repetiteur at the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) in Manchester,where he studied piano, double bass, composition and conducting. After graduating from the RNCM he studied for two years at post-graduate level, obtaining a Performer’s Diploma with distinction in accompaniment.

He has accompanied singers at recitals and master classes throughout the UK. He has performed in the Channel Islands, Finland, Sweden and Denmark and has taken part in recordings for the BBC, ITV and RTE. He is an examiner for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, which has taken him to Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, South Africa, Uganda, Holland, Italy, Austria and many parts of the UK.

As Musical Director of the Northern England Chorale he has conducted in Finland, Cyprus, Prague, Vienna, Bratislava and Delft. He is also Musical Director of the Lindow Singers and Sale Choral Society and has worked with many choral societies as conductor and organist. He was Assistant Chorus Master to the Halle Chorus for eight years.

As Chorus Master of the Chamber Choir and Opera Chorus at the RNCM, he has been involved in many major opera productions. As well as a thriving private teaching practice in singing and piano, he is tutor in piano at Moreton Hall School, Shropshire, and a tutor at the Centre for Young Musicians in The Hague.

Well it has been a rough couple of years for many and choirs have not been exempt. We just managed to run our lovely February 2020 concert with the Airedale Symphony Orchestra before the first big Covid lockdown but were sadly unable to complete the 2019/20 season. I don’t think any of us knew just how long it would be before ‘normal’ returned.

Many in the choir had to quickly get to grips with the dreaded ‘technology’ of smartphones, PCs, Skype, and later Zoom. We started off with four pre-recorded learning sessions with Joe (Joe Judge – chorus master) over Vimeo to just end up the season. Had a summer break and were delighted to be given the go to start live rehearsals again for the 2020/21 season in October 2020 – albeit in very reduced and spaced out numbers. Sadly, we only managed three sessions – just enough to give everyone who wanted, a live sing, then back to lockdown number two. Even worse, we were informed that our rehearsal venue of over 25 years would no longer be available to us post-Covid. This was a major blow as finding anywhere in the city centre that can accommodate over 130 people along with reasonable transport and parking options at a price we could afford was a big ask. Then Christmas was cancelled – well it felt like that too many. We grasped the technology again and were able to produce  a lovely virtual choir video rendition of Sally Beamish’s In the Stillness, ran a live streamed ‘Messiah’ over Facebook to a worldwide audience of over 3000, and also recorded a virtual ‘Hark the Herald’ carol for the Leeds City council Christmas post.

The rest of the 2020/21 season was held on zoom for rehearsals only. We laughed at the antics of Joe’s cats as they tried to disrupt things and wondered at the number of stripy tops he had. Another summer break followed, but the outlook was a bit more hopeful, and we searched for a new home. Amazingly after a lot of searching we were offered rehearsal facilities at the new Leeds City College Quarry Hill Campus. We thankfully grabbed this with both hands and the 2021/22 season was able to start in September with live rehearsals and the real possibility of live concerts again at last.

The Leeds International Concert Season (LICS) offered a first concert in October singing in Mahler 2 to mark the closing of the Town hall for several years refurbishment. It was an epic and glorious concert – see the reviews at Reviews – Leeds Philharmonic Chorus

Oh – and did I mention we have a new refreshed website as well. We have all been busy despite all the tribulations.

We have just run our own concert in St Anne’s with a broad selection of music and will be completing the year with the usual Lord Mayor’s Carols and also our own Christmas concert.

The choir thankfully did not lose anybody to Covid, but we still lost some loved and valuable members to other causes, and in many cases were not allowed to pay our respects due to restrictions at the time. We would like to make special mention of:

• Dame Ingrid Roscoe DCVO – Our president died June 2020
• Dr Rudi Leavor BEM – a member for over 50 years died July 2021

Well we live in strange times at the moment. No rehearsals together and all our end of season concerts sadly cancelled.  The trustees have now held two meetings by Skype, but we were conscious that the AGM was looming and Skype has a 50 people limit on meetings.

Thus we resolved to host the 2020 AGM on Zoom using a members business zoom account (many thanks Andrew). The freebie zoom accounts shut off after 40 minutes and we could not risk that. Despite a lot of the members never having used Zoom, we managed to achieve 62 initial connections which was actually 63 people.  More than enough for a chorum. Documents and resolutions were introduced and motions passed by the poll system. Thank you to David Hill for a lovely intro chat. We were so sorry to hear he has been quite poorly with Covid 19 and wish him a continuing and full recovery.  Thanks also to Joseph Judge for all his help to the choir to date.

As a result of the polls we are very pleased to announce a full complement of trustees are now in post and we have a new chair – A big welcome to Ruth Shann who has bravely decided to take us on.  Moving forward into our 150th season is going to be very unsettled and we do hope some of our planned special concerts are able to go ahead.  Meanwhile we will start our first group zoom rehearsal next week.

An audio recording of the AGM is available to listen to

[thaudio href=’http://www.leedsphil.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/AGM-2020-audio_only.mp3′]AGM 2020[/thaudio]

Leeds Philharmonic 2nd Christmas Carol Competition – Winner Announced

We held our second Phil Christmas Carol Competition during the autumn of 2019 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 (RSCM) meant that the competition attracted 76 high quality entrants from around the world.  While many of the entries came from the UK, we have been blown away again by the fully worldwide response and overall quality of the entries submitted.

The competition was judged by Joseph Judge, Simon Lindley, David Hill MBE (Music Director of the Leeds Phil), and Tim Ruffer (RSCM).

We are pleased to announce that the winning Carol is ‘Cradle Song’, which was submitted by Christopher Artley, from New Zealand.

Even more surprising – despite the blind judging – Chris won the first competion with ‘Christmas Bells’ in 2017.

Although Chris lives in New Zealand, Chris is a Leeds lad, born here in 1963, moving and going to Barrowcliffe School in Scarborough and then moving again and going to Cannon Slade School, Bolton.  As a Bristol University music graduate, he has spent 30 years teaching music in schools in the United Kingdom and New Zealand where he is now resident, and teaches at King’s College, Auckland.   Over the last ten years he has become a multi award-winning composer.

‘Cradle Song’ will be premiered at this year’s Lord Mayor’s Carol Concerts on the 19th December at Leeds Town Hall. Do come along and hear it.