Despite the weather
The wind howled, and the rain was biblical - perhaps appropriate, but we all got to the Town Hall and performed a truly epic rendition of DVOŘÁK’s STABAT MATER on Saturday (16th March). Despite the tremendous sadness that inspired the work, it is a truly glorious piece to sing. The audience was a bit reduced due to the appalling weather but those that came certainly enjoyed the music. David Hill’s pacing and dynamic shading allowed this epic work to unfold
David Hill MBE
The Phil is delighted to announce that their Music Director has been awarded an MBE in this years New Years Honours for services to music. Congratulations 2019 looks set to be a good year.
Joe’s Debut
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 first where we were prepared by our new chorus master Joseph Judge. Joe took the baton to lead us through Whitacre’s Sleep with precision and
Congratulations David
We are delighted to announce the recent appointment of our music director David Hill as International Chair in Choral Conducting by the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) David is our Musical Director of the Leeds Philharmonic Society, Musical Director of the Bach Choir, Principal Conductor of the Yale Schola Cantorum, and Associate Guest Conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. He was Chief Conductor of the BBC Singers from September 2007 to September 2017 and is a former Music Director of Southern Sinfonia.
End of an era – RIP Donald Hunt
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 as Cathedral Organist and where he went on to direct eight highly successful Three Choirs’ Festivals. His programming was always visionary, enterprising and forward-looking; Leeds
Farewell Richard
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 we could see ours scores this time and sang with only a couple of wobbly bits. But the audience did not notice and seemed very