Sun 22nd April 2012 4.00pm
Sat 26th May 2012 7.30pm
ST AIDAN’S PARISH CHURCH
DEWSBURY MINSTER
Roundhay Road, Leeds LS8 5QD
Music for Eastertide Solemn Evensong, sung to Sir Charles Villiers Stanford’s stirring setting in A major and Benediction of the Blessèd Sacrament is followed by a short recital of music for Eastertide taking in Vaughan Williams’ fabulous settings for baritone and choir of texts by George Herbert, the Five Mystical Songs first heard at the Worcester Three Choirs’ Festival just over a century ago.
St Peter’s Singers
Quentin Brown baritone David Houlder organist Dr Simon Lindley director
The Glories of Venice
St Peter’s Chamber Players David Houlder organ Dr Simon Lindley director Alberti O Jesu, Salvator Gabrieli In ecclesiis Grandi O porta coeli Donati Alleluia! Haec dies Monteverdi Beatus vir Laudate Dominum O beatae viae Scarlatti Miserere
New Church Street, Pateley Bridge HG3 5LQ
St Peter's Brochure 99x210 8pp.indd 1-4
A Chamber Choir founded in 1977 by Harry Fearnley
St Peter’s Singers
PATELEY BRIDGE ST CUTHBERT’S PARISH CHURCH
Both are regularly updated with more details of these and the Singers’ other 2011/2012 concerts, recitals and services.
OF LEEDS
A recital of some of the finest music from the great Venetian choral tradition, in support of Dewsbury Minster and its ministry.
Sat 16th June 2012 7.30pm
and the Choir’s Facebook Group page: St Peter’s Singers of Leeds
ST PETER’S SINGERS
Vicarage Road, Dewsbury WF12 8DD
Tickets from Dewsbury Minster available from 1st April
Please also visit the St Peter’s Singers website: www.stpeters-singers.org.uk
About St Peter’s Singers
A Panorama of Sacred Choral Classics and Organ Solos St Peter’s Singers
David Houlder organist Dr Simon Lindley director Further details available in early 2012.
Chairman: Tim Burleigh timburleigh@btinternet.com Secretary: Patricia Rose rosep01@leedslearning.net Concerts Secretary: Quentin Brown quentin.brown@ndl.co.uk
Librarian: James Carter Public Relations & Publicity Officer: David Hawkin david_hawkin@hotmail.com Music Director: Dr Simon Lindley 07860 293 591 sps@simonlindley.org.uk
Treasurer: Jonathan Morrish Founded by Harry Fearnley in the Spring of 1977, St Peter’s Singers is one of England’s leading Chamber Choirs. Based at Leeds Parish Church, the Singers strive to combine excellence and enterprise. The Choir comprises adult singers, mostly amateur musicians, but including a number of professional singers in its ranks. Students and young people are always welcome and St Peter’s Singers takes pride in its role as a cultural bridge between ‘town’ and ‘gown’. The Singers sustain an enviable reputation for performances of Bach and Handel, with Continental polyphony and English music also at the heart of the Choir’s repertoire. Music by Elgar, Vaughan Williams, Mendelssohn, Purcell and S S Wesley has featured in recent commemoration concerts. In the 2010/2011 season the Singers took part in the award-winning live BBC TV production of Frankenstein’s Wedding at Kirkstall Abbey as well as recording Dominic Haslam’s music for the acclaimed West Yorkshire Playhouse production of John Ford’s ‘Tis pity she’s a whore. Critics’ assessment of each production paid warm tribute to the Singers’ involvement. SPS member Jessi Pywell served as choral director for Frankenstein’s Wedding. In addition to regular commitments in and around Leeds, St Peter’s Singers have in recent years performed at the Minsters of York, Doncaster and Dewsbury, and the Cathedrals of Derby, Ely, Guildford, Leicester, London’s St Paul’s, Ripon and Worcester. Overseas tours to Romania, Mallorca and Brittany attracted large audiences and considerable acclaim. The Singers also appear at the special Harvey Nichols seasonal events held within Leeds’ spectacular Victoria Quarter.
Dr Simon Lindley
David Houlder
The Leeds organist and conductor, Dr Simon Lindley (Master of the Music at Leeds Parish Church and Leeds City Organist) is Music Director of St Peter’s Singers – a position he has held since the Choir’s foundation over thirty years ago. Before moving to Leeds in 1975, Dr Lindley held posts at Westminster and St Albans Cathedrals and at St Albans School as well as organistships in the City of London. He was the first full-time assistant to Dr Peter Hurford at St Albans. Simon retains strong links with the City of London, where his career began over forty years ago. He is a long-serving Churchwarden of the National Musicians’ Church, St Sepulchre-without-Newgate and has also served since 2003 as Chairman of the Friends of the Musicians’ Chapel at St Sepulchre’s in succession to Dr Lionel Dakers.
David Houlder (Sub Organist and Director of the Girl Choristers at Leeds Parish Church) is strongly committed to the regular activity of St Peter’s Singers and is our esteemed organist for concerts. David moved to Leeds in 2003 after twenty years of musicmaking on Merseyside as Director of Music to Liverpool’s historic Bluecoat School and Sub-Organist of Liverpool Cathedral. This season Mr Houlder is our guest conductor for the first of the year’s choral concerts at the Parish Church.
St Peter’s Chamber Orchestra St Peter’s Chamber Orchestra accompanies many St Peter’s Singers events and is now led by Mary Huby. The Orchestra was involved in the earliest concerts arranged by the Singers in 1977 and 1978.
Cover photo: St Peter’s Singers at York Minster, October 2008. By kind permission of the Dean & Chapter of York
St Peter’s Singers is a Registered Charity No 507174
www.stpeters-singers.org.uk
Concert Season 2011/2012
British music and spectacular Baroque masterpieces – including Bach’s incomparable Mass in B minor – are featured in the Singers’ 35th season, which also includes seldom-heard music from the great Venetian tradition and a very rare liturgical performance of Tomas Luis de Victoria’s beautiful Requiem, the Officium Defunctorum. David Houlder organist
Dr Simon Lindley director
www.stpeters-singers.org.uk 08/08/2011 12:16
Mon 29th August 2011 3.00pm THE MORAVIAN CHURCH, FULNECK Pudsey, Leeds LS28 8NT by kind invitation
Bach: Mass in B minor Arguably the greatest musical work of all, Bach’s masterpiece was compiled by its creator at pretty much the same time as the earliest brethren and sisters of the Moravian settlement at Fulneck were establishing themselves just South of Pudsey.
6.30pm
Dedication Festival Evensong Greene Magnificat & Nunc dimittis in C Reading Responses Purcell O God, Thou art my God
St Peter’s Singers
Dr Simon Lindley director David Houlder organist
Good Friday 2nd April 2012 7.00pm
LEEDS PARISH CHURCH
THE VENUE, LEEDS COLLEGE OF MUSIC
LEEDS PARISH CHURCH
LEEDS TOWN HALL
HALIFAX MINSTER
LEEDS PARISH CHURCH
Carols for a Choral Future
British Music in honour of HM The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Year
Bach: Mass in B minor
Handel: Messiah
St Peter’s Singers
The centenary of the birth in Bradford in 1911 of the great British musical scholar Watkins Shaw reminded us of the debt owed by so many to this intensely practical musicologist, whose trailblazing work on a new edition of Messiah over sixty years ago re-kindled in many a desire to perform the work in accordance with the composer’s own practice.
Kirkgate, Leeds LS2 7DJ
Victoria Missa pro defunctis A complete liturgical performance of Tomas Luis de Victoria’s stunning 6-voice setting of the Requiem provides a fitting conclusion to the Singers’ commemoration of the 400th anniversary year of this great composer’s death.
Kirkgate, Leeds LS2 7DJ
British Music for Remembrancetide
Kirkgate, Leeds LS2 7DJ
Sun 2nd October 2011 3.00pm
10.30am
LEEDS PARISH CHURCH
St Peter's Brochure 99x210 8pp.indd 5-8
Sat 3rd March 2012 7.00pm
LEEDS PARISH CHURCH
Sun 4th September 2011 10.30am & 6.30pm
Vaughan Williams Mass in G minor Victoria O quam metuendus est
Mon 13th February 2012 1.05pm
Sun 6th November 2011 8.15pm
Free admission (Retiring Collection)
This year’s Dedication Festival Eucharist music celebrates the 90th anniversary of Vaughan Williams’ haunting Mass in G minor, with Evensong featuring some of the finest liturgical music from the Restoration, including a rare outing for Maurice Greene’s monumental Evensong canticles.
Wed 14th December 2011 7.00pm
Dr Simon Lindley director
St Peter’s Chamber Orchestra Mary Huby leader Kristina James soprano Anita Wiencelewski soprano Lucy Appleyard alto Toby Ward tenor Quentin Brown bass Alan Horsey continuo Dr Simon Lindley director
Dedication Festival Eucharist
Sat 3rd December 2011 7.30pm
St Peter’s Singers
St Peter’s Singers
LEEDS PARISH CHURCH
Wed 2nd November 2011 7.30pm
Kirkgate, Leeds LS2 7DJ
Friends of the Music Festival Evensong The Choir of Leeds Parish Church St Peter’s Singers Blair Magnificat & Nunc dimittis in B minor Rose Responses Stanford For lo! I raise up Tippett Steal away to Jesus (Introit)
David Houlder and the Singers explore some of the finest British music appropriate to Remembrancetide and looking forward to Advent. Holst’s impactladen miniature Festival Te Deum is a real gem, and the concert concludes with the wonderful prose of Walt Whitman set memorably by Vaughan Williams in his Dona nobis pacem.
St Peter’s Singers
Kristina James soprano Philip Wilcox bass Dr Simon Lindley organ David Houlder director Holst Short Festival Te Deum Vaughan Williams Three Hymn Preludes on Welsh Hymn Melodies (organ solo) Mathias Ave Rex Vaughan Williams Dona nobis pacem
Quarry Hill, Leeds LS2 7PD
Music of the Angels This concert brings the festive season to life through some of the best-loved and spiritually uplifting works of the Baroque period. Vivaldi's Gloria sets the tone, with Corelli's glittering Christmas Concerto providing an orchestral showpiece. Charpentier's Midnight Mass, founded on French carol melodies, is followed by Bach's thrilling double-choir motet Singet dem Herrn, and the concert concludes with Handel's spectacular setting of the Vesper Psalm 110, Dixit Dominus.
St Peter’s Singers
St Peter’s Chamber Orchestra Mary Huby leader Kristina James soprano Sarah Potter soprano Lucy Appleyard alto Toby Ward tenor Philip Wilcox bass Alan Horsey harpsichord David Houlder organ Dr Simon Lindley director Vivaldi Gloria Corelli Christmas Concerto Bach Singet dem Herrn, S225 Charpentier Messe de Minuit sur les airs de Noël Handel Dixit Dominus Tickets: £12 (£8 concessions, Leeds school children free) Available from 1st October from The Venue Box Office 0113 222 3434 and at the door.
Kirkgate, Leeds LS2 7DJ
The Parish Church’s annual Carol Concert – in aid of the Church’s Bridging the Gap initiative.
St Peter’s Singers
The Choir of Leeds Parish Church Leeds College of Music Community Choral Society Rothwell Temperance Band David Houlder organist Dr Simon Lindley director Tickets: £5 adults, £2.50 under-16s Available 1st October from City Centre Box Office 0113 224 3801 and at the door.
The Headrow LS1 3AD
The Singers set off Her Majesty’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations with a special concert of glorious romantic music for choir and organ, much of it set to exquisite verbal texts from earlier times.
St Peter’s Singers
Kristina James soprano Paul Dutton tenor David Houlder organ Dr Simon Lindley director Parry Two Songs of Farewell Never weather-beaten sail & My soul, there is a country Oldroyd Spiritual Rhapsody (Text of Richard Rolle of Hampole) Dyson Hierusalem (1956) Parry Coronation Anthem: I was glad (1902) Free admission (Retiring Collection)
Church Street, Halifax HX1 1QL
St Peter’s Chamber Orchestra Mary Huby leader Kristina James soprano Anita Wiencelewski soprano Lucy Appleyard alto Paul Dutton tenor Quentin Brown bass Alan Horsey continuo David Houlder organ Dr Simon Lindley director Tickets: £12 (£8 concessions, Halifax school children free) Available from 1st December by post from The Secretary, St Peter’s Singers, c/o 5 St Peter’s House, Kirkgate, LS2 7DJ, from Halifax Minster and at the door.
Sun 18th March 2012 6.30pm LEEDS PARISH CHURCH Kirkgate, Leeds LS2 7DJ
Maunder: Olivet to Calvary London organist John Henry Maunder’s cantatas once enjoyed more frequent hearings than they receive today. Olivet to Calvary alone survives in regular use. Rich in melody as well as harmony, Maunder’s music sets the scene of the first Palm Sunday and the remaining drama of Holy Week.
Kirkgate, Leeds LS2 7DJ
St Peter’s Singers
National Festival Orchestra Sally Robinson leader Sarah Potter soprano Lucy Appleyard alto Paul Dutton tenor Quentin Brown bass Alan Horsey harpsichord David Houlder organ Dr Simon Lindley director Tickets: £12 (£8 concessions) Available from 1st March from City Centre Box Office, The Carriageworks, Millennium Square, Leeds LS2 3AD, 0113 224 3801 and at the door.
St Peter’s Singers
Paul Dutton tenor Philip Wilcox bass David Houlder organ Dr Simon Lindley director Free admission (Retiring Collection)
Free Admission (Retiring Collection)
08/08/2011 12:16