The
Singers
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Welcome
to the web site of The
Singers, a
chamber choir based in Newcastle upon Tyne. We hope you enjoy
your visit and we look forward to welcoming you to one of our
concerts - or even as a Singer - in the near future. 2019 Season The Singers at Home - 11 May 2019 Our next concert will be our annual 'The Singers at Home' concert which will be in our rehearsal base in St Mary Magdalene in Longbenton. It's very near Longbenton metro station and there is lots of easy parking nearby. The informal concert will start at 1 pm and will last about 45 minutes. It will be followed by afternoon tea and cakes. Please come along and hear us sing in our rehearsal venue. St Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh - 14 July 2019 We're heading up to Edinburgh to sing in the
iconic St Giles in the Royal Mile. We'll be contributing the choral
music for the two Sunday morning services on 14 July standing in for
The St Giles Singers who will be on tour in Guernsey and Normandy. This
is the third time we've done 'holiday cover' in St Giles and it has always been a special experience. We'll be
staying on to sing a 'St Giles at 6 concert' - more details later. The services will be at 10 am and 11.30 am and the evening concert (about 45 minutes or so) will be a 6 pm. We'll be having what will, in effect, be an open rehearsal in the afternoon. Come in and say hello. Coventry - 19 and 20 October 2019 We're all looking forward to our first visit to Coventry. We'll be presenting a concert in Holy Trinity Church a lovely, spacious church near the cathedral, to help raise funds to restore the organ. The concert will be at 4 pm on Saturday 19 October and will last about an hour. Holy Trinity church is a medieval church which survived the 1940 blitz. We'll move across the road to the cathedral. Coventry Cathedral is regarded by many as one of the finest and most iconic twentieth century buildings in England. It was consecrated in 1962 and I remember as a boy listening to the first performance of Benjamin Britten's War Requiem from Coventry Cathedral on an old valve radio. We'll be singing the services in Coventry Cathedral on 20 October 10.30 am and 4.30 pm. Christmas 2019 Our Christmas with The Singers
concert is scheduled for 7 pm Saturday 14 December 2019 in St George's,
Jesmond here in Newcastle and we hope to be singing for Epiphany in Durham Cathedral on Monday 6 January 2020. Recent past events - Christmas 2018 and Epiphany 2019 We are now enjoying a break in our activities after a very busy Christmas season. Our Christmas with The Singers in St George's Church, Jesmond, here in Newcastle upon Tyne, was a great success. We performed the premiere of Edmund Hunt's Vita Hominum, the culmination of a year's collaboration. This went very well indeed. An innovation this year was to start the concert at the back of the nave singing Bach's harmonisation of O Little One Sweet in candlelight and then processing up the nave led by James Clark playing a beautiful Gaelic melody on the Northumbrian pipes. Very atmospheric! It was a super program, with mulled wine and mince pies served by The Friends of St George's at the interval. A blast of grim weather just before the concert and a railway strike prevented some from being able to travel, but did not spoil the warm atmosphere or the sense of anticipation of Christmas. The concert was expertly recorded by BBC Radio 3 by engineer Sharon Hughes and producer Barnaby Gordon. After Christmas we were off
to Durham Cathedral where we sang all the services for the Epiphany weekend. With a
Friday evening and Saturday morning rehearsal in Newcastle and
rehearsals in Durham before the services plus a nave performance of Edmund's Vita
Hominum it was pretty much a non stop weekend. This really helps us
appreciate how hard cathedral choirs work and how much music they get
through! Both our evensongs were unaccompanied - challenging for the
choir but a wonderful experience with the right music. Our other services (Matins and Eucharist) were beautifully accompanied by
Francesca Massey.
At lunchtime we gave a special performance of Edmund's Vita Hominum in Durham Cathedral. This started at the back of the nave, with us singing as we processed up all three aisles to the front of the nave where the main part of the piece was performed. Towards the end of the performance we processed out down the nave and into the Galilee Chapel where we gathered round the tomb of Bede to finished the piece. It sounded great - a wonderful adventure in sound and a fantastic experience for us all. THE SINGERS ON BBC RADIO 3 A feature about our year long collaboration with composer Edmund Hunt will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on Tuesday 8 January about 9.15 pm after the evening concert (a Proms concert by the Boston Symphony Orchestra). The programme will include a recording of our premiere performance of Edmund's Vita Hominum made in St George's, Jesmond on 15 December. There will also be interviews with Edmund, Donald Halliday (conductor) as well as Christopher Hunwick and Gaby Wright who translated the words by Bede into English and who sing with The Singers.
EPIPHANY IN DURHAM CATHEDRAL Join us in Durham Cathedral over Epiphany weekend where we will be singing for all the services as well as giving a special luch-time performance of Edmund Hunt's Vita Hominum. Our music list is: Durham Cathedral, 5 and 6 January 2019 Holy Communion 11:15 am
Christmas with The Singers 2018 Tickets
are now on sale for our Christmas with The Singers Concert on 15
December 2018. This year's concert is being recorded by BBC 3 and
extracts will be broadcast in January 2019. Tickets are £12 each, but
there is a special early purchase price of £10. We have a new photgraph We have a new photograph which shows us sitting outside All Saints Church in Rothbury on Saturday 20 October after giving a concert in the church
Singer vacancies We currently are looking for additional singers. We have the following vacancies. Sopranos - 2 singers If you would like to explore joining this choir with its high musicality, distinctive sound and amazing repertoire please contact the conductor.
PAST EVENTS Coffee Concert in All Saints, Rothbury 
2018 Annual Concert in St Mary Magdalene
We gave our annual Afternoon Tea Concert in St Mary Magdalene, Longbenton on Saturday 12 May 2018. We always enjoy this concert. It's good to contribute something musical to the church in which we rehearse, and great to meet friends and the local community informally. The weather was beautiful and the church was full. We sang a varied programme of pieces from our repertoire. Five of the pieces we sang were being sung by us for the first time and included works by Kim André Arnesen and Heinrich von Herzogenberg. You may not know the names - but the music is fantastic. We also included a sneak preview of part of the new work being written for us by our adopted composer Edmund Hunt - a stand alone section of the more extended work we will be premiering in December. Edmund was there to introduce his piece and both he and the music were warmly received. We also had some community singing following last year's innovation, and, again, the result was amazing. As
always there were scrumptious cakes, tea and coffee provided by the
congregation! Many thanks to Pat, the vicar, and all the volunteers who made the
afternoon such a success. April rehearsal weekend with our adopted composer This is turning out to be a very enjoyable and rewarding partnership. Edmund is completely dedicated to the project and is writing music of high quality and interest. This is being reciprocated by massive enthusiasm and commitment from The Singers. We'll have more news for everyone in due course, and we're on schedule for a premiere in Newcastle in December with the new work scheduled for broadcast on BBC Radio Three in January 2019. Here's a photo of Edmund enjoying the weekend.  Edmund Hunt Of course, no matter how hard we're rehearsing there's always time for some coffee and cake!
Coffee break on Saturday morning As well as working on Edmund's music we looked at
some pieces by the 18th century Austrian composer Heinrich von
Herzogenberg and the contemporary Norwegian composer Kim André Arnesen.
We'll be including some of this in our May 'at home' concert in St Mary
Magdalene at 2 pm. Wedding at Brinkburn Priory We were delighted to be asked to sing at Eve and Ed's wedding in Brinkburn Priory in March. It turned out to be a very beautiful day in all respects. The sun shone and the setting was stunning. Eve and Ed both looked radiant. We sang music by Batten, Tallis, Bach, Durufle and Whitacre as well as songs by Robert Burns and Billy Joel. Many thanks to Marc Bryant who played the organ. Here's a photo we took outside the Priory.
Epiphany at Durham Cathedral - 2018
The Singers sang for the service for the Epiphany at Durham Cathedral on 6 January 2018. We have sung this service for the last 21 years now! We were joined by Kris Thomsett who played the organ beautifully throughout. We sang Darke's Communion Service (Collegium Regale) and Poulenc's Videntes Stellam.
Christmas with The Singers - 2017 We are grateful to The Friends of St George's who organised the mulled wine and mince pies at the interval. We've adopted a composer! We're absolutely thrilled to announce that we have been selected for the 2017/2018 Adopt a Composer scheme run by Making Music. This enables
a pairing between The Singers and Edmund Hunt, a young and up and
coming composer, for a year to produce a new work which will be
premiered on BBC Radio 3. Edmund
has musical connections with Newcastle. He did his MMus at Newcastle
University and has just completed his PhD at the Birmingham
Conservatoire. His composition 'Argatnél' was performed recently by the
London Philharmonic Orchestra in the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, and
was reviewed in the Telegraph as 'the most delicately beautiful piece
of the evening'. Our mentor for the project will be Frazer Trainer, a composer who teaches at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Adopt a Composer is run by Making Music in partnership with Sound and Music, in association with Radio 3, and funded by the PRS foundation and the Philip and Dorothy Green Music Trust. We're really looking forward to working with Edmund and Fraser. The photograph shows (left to right) Edmund Hunt, Donald Halliday (our conductor), and Fraser Trainer at the Announcement Ceremony in London.
Fantastic review for our Blackburn Cathedral concert We are most grateful to John Bertalot for his great review of our concert in Blackburn Cathedral 22 July 2017. This was published in Music and More. The Singers were Astounding The Singers, from Newcastle upon Tyne, gave a fabulous concert in our Cathedral in July - we were all blown away by their impeccable unanimity, exquisite tone, blend, balance, sheer professionalism and whole-hearted dedication to the demanding music they sang. Their conductor, Donald Halliday, is a distinguished Scottish musician who knows how to create musical magic. They recently sang in St Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh, Durham Cathedral, Southwark Cathedral, and made a return visit to Cologne Cathedral! They rehearse once a month in Newcastle - 2 hours on a Friday evening and 3 hours on a Saturday morning. They are very special. The Singers (who include two former Blackburn musicians) were introduced by Samuel Hudson and then they sang a most demanding programme - a feature of which was being able to sing in many vocal parts with mellifluous tone clusters, very high notes for the sopranos (who all 'came in' absolutely together with apparent ease) - singing forte and also being able to sing so quietly that the very air of our cathedral was blest. It was a privilege to be there that evening. They also sang two choral services for us the next day - our congregations were similarly blown away by their amazing singing. Please put us on your touring list, blessed Singers, with Cologne Cathedral! 
The music we sang was: Music for a
Summer Evening The Singers visit St Giles
Cathedral in Edinburgh
The music sung is available in the Service Booklets which can be downloaded using the following links: 10:00 Communion Service 11:30 Morning Service Epiphany in Durham Cathedral
The Singers celebrated the end of the Christmas season by singing for the Annual Epiphany Service in Durham Cathedral, held on Friday 6 January 2017. This was a beautiful service which was warm and intimate despite the vast building that is Durham Cathedral. The service was very well attended and it was a real privilege to be able to play a part in it. The music sung was: Ugis Praulinš: Missa
Rigensis - Gloria, Sanctus, Benedictus and Agnus Dei
The Singers launch their 2016 Christmas video The Singers have launched their 2016 Christmas video - A Newcastle Christmas. We hope you enjoy our singing and the local scenes as Newcastle gears itself up for the Christmas season, and the choir prepares for its Christmas with The Singers concert in St George's Jesmond on Saturday 17 December. See the post below for more information. Enjoy! Christmas with The Singers 2016 One of the highlights of our Christmas Season was Christmas with the Singers on 17 December 2016 at 7 pm in St George's in Jesmond. There were festive carols, guest instrumental soloists, a free prize draw and the mulled wine  The Singers visit Cologne The Singers visited Cologne in Germany for the weekend of 9 and 10 April 2016. A highlight of the visit was singing Choral Vespers in Cologne Cathedral. The choir also progressed its project of singing in as many of Cologne's twelve Romanesque churches as it can - now up to seven!. This was the choir's third visit to Cologne.  Photo: Eckhard Henkel / Wikimedia Commons/ CC BY-SA 3.0 DE The
Singers at Liverpool Anglican Cathedral
The
Singers at Southwark Cathedral
The Singers, under conductor Donald Halliday, finished their 2013/2014 season with a visit to London to sing the choral services in Southwark Cathedral over the 2014 August Bank Holiday weekend. Jemima Stephenson, joined the choir as organist for the weekend. Jemima is Assistant Director of Music and Sir George Thalben-Ball Memorial Organ Scholar at St Michael’s Cornhill and a postgraduate student at the Royal Academy of Music. The weekend was a great success both musically and socially. The choir has visited Southwark Cathedral several times in the past - but this was the choir's first visit since 2009.
The Singers at St Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh  The
Singers photographed after their concert in St Giles Cathedral,
Edinburgh
The Singers gave a very successful concert in Edinburgh's historic St Giles Cathedral on Sunday 23 March 2014 at 6 pm. The concert was very well attended and the audience was most appreciative. The themes of the programme included Lent as a journey of preparation, the Annunciation (25 March), and Sunset (the sun set halfway through the concert!). The programme is available online and can be viewed or downloaded as a pdf. The programme explored recent choral music from Norway and the USA, and included standard choral favourites as well. James Tradgett, cello, joined the choir in a performance of Ola Gjeilo's Serenity, and the cathedral's Director of Music, Michael Harris,played the fine Rieger organ to accompany Wood's View me Lord and Mozart's Laudate Dominum sung by Lindsey Nicholls. Stephen Paulus's The Road Home was performed as a special tribute to the composer who suffered a stroke on 4 July 2013 and has been in a critical condition since*. *UPDATE: Sadly, Stephen Paulus died on 19 October 2014.  Why not join us? The Singers currently has vacancies for experienced singers. We recruit quite widely and it may be possible to provide lifts and/or accommodation if you live outside the North of England. Please contact the conductor if you are interested in joining the choir. A photo of Donald Halliday rehearsing Ola Gjeilo's Serenity with The Singers and Donald Robinson, cello, 21 December 2013.
Here is a video of us singing
at a
rehearsal the hymn By Cool Siloam's Shady
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