Current Season

Tuesday 9 December 2025, 7.30pm, City Hall.    Home Alone with live orchestra and chorus

Unfortunately it is no longer possible for the Chorus to take part in this concert due to technical restrictions at the venue outside the choir’s control. We are very disappointed and apologise for any inconvenience.

Saturday 13 December 2025, 2.30, City Hall

Brass and voice annual Christmas Carol Concert

Another Christmas treat – our annual carol concert with the world famous Black Dyke Band, with presenter Josie D’Arby from the BBC Proms.

Take some time out from the hustle and bustle of all the Christmas preparations – from shopping and wrapping, to decorating and card writing – with this sparkling seasonal celebration. Join us for an afternoon filled with carols for choir, audience singalongs and musical gems for the band.  The programme includes time-honoured pieces such as O Holy Night, Carol of the Bells and The Lamb as well as the popular songs White Christmas and Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas.

Audience members who’d like to join in the ‘singalong’ carols may need the words – they’re in the programme, just £3, available in the foyer (cash only) or at the bars (card or cash).

Tickets are available online or in person from the City Hall box office.

Friday 6 February 2026, City Hall

ARVO PÄRT Adam’s Lament

Manchester Camerata and conductor Tom Fetherstonhaugh, described by BBC Radio 3 as “a spark to watch”, guide us on an immersive journey through various sonic landscapes. Hannah Roberts, acclaimed Principal Cellist, will open the programme with the breathtaking Prelude from Bach’s spell-binding Cello Suite.

From one solitary performer, the sound world shifts as the combined forces of orchestra and chorus come together for a rare opportunity to hear Arvo Pärt’s Adam’s Lament, a work of deep contemplation.

Profoundly affected by the death of Benjamin Britten in 1976, the respect and admiration Pärt felt towards the composer can be heard in the ethereal beauty of his elegiac orchestral piece, Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten. Mozart’s timeless Symphony No.40, with its passion and urgency, will ignite the orchestra for an electrifying and energetic conclusion.

• Manchester Camerata
• Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus
• Tom Fetherstonhaugh – conductor
• Hannah Roberts – cello

J. S. BACH Cello Suite No.5: Prelude
ARVO PÄRT Adam’s Lament

ARVO PÄRT Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten
MOZART Symphony No.40

Tickets are available online and in person from the City Hall box office.

Saturday 21st March 2026, Upper Chapel, Norfolk Street, Sheffield

Come and Sing Vivaldi’s Gloria

Following the success of our first two Come and Sing events in Upper Chapel, we return to this wonderful venue to host another. Visitors are invited to join us in a day’s workshop featuring Vivaldi’s marvellous Gloria.

The  workshop will be led by our fantastic Musical Director Darius Battiwalla. Darius has conducted choral performances with leading orchestras including the Halle, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Manchester Camerata, and he has prepared the Chorus for appearances at the Proms and for recordings with the BBC Philharmonic for Chandos. He has worked regularly as guest chorusmaster or conductor with many other choirs including the Northern Sinfonia Chorus, Leeds Philharmonic Chorus, Huddersfield Choral Society, CBSO chorus and Netherlands Radio Choir.  Darius is Leeds City Organist and has appeared as organ soloist with the Halle, London Philharmonic Orchestras and the BBC Philharmonic, and he gives regular chamber concerts with members of the Manchester orchestras on piano and harpsichord. Despite this impressive record he is a very friendly conductor, encouragingly supportive and challenging in equal measure – qualities that were much in evidence both last year and this.

The day will begin at 10.30 with registration from 10am, with the morning session running to 12.30 including a break for tea or coffee and cake (included in the admission price).

We re-commence at 2pm, giving time for participants to have lunch in one of the many varied eateries  in the city centre. The afternoon session will run until 4.30pm, with another generous break for tea in town, until the FREE performance for family and friends at 6pm. Scores will be provided for those who don’t have their own. NB. There won’t much note-bashing, so prior knowledge of the pieces or a reasonable ability to read music will help participants make the most of the day.

Information about joining the Chorus will be available on the day; see https://sheffieldphil.org/membership-join/new-members/

Tickets for visiting singers will be available online costing £25 including score hire and refreshments. 

Sunday 7 June 2026, 4pm, City Hall

MENDELSSOHN Elijah

• The Hallé
• Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus
• Matthew Hamilton conductor
• A star-studded cast of soloists

Hallé Choral Director, Matthew Hamilton, takes the helm for this spectacular season finale. A true showstopper, Mendelssohn’s Elijah captures the full spectrum of humanity’s struggles and triumphs, bringing the powerful story of the prophet Elijah to life through music. For this masterpiece, Sheffield’s resident orchestra and chorus will be joined by a star-studded cast of soloists who will weave this rich tapestry of sound, blending rousing choruses, lyrical arias, complex choral fugues and vivid orchestrations, ending with a triumphant “Amen”.

Commissioned by the Birmingham Triennial Music Festival in 1846, Mendelssohn returned to the city to conduct the premiere of Elijah to find crowds had flooded the streets and the large audience frequently interrupted the performance to applaud! “Never was there a more complete
triumph” wrote a reviewer in The Times.

Tickets are available online and in person from the City Hall box office.

Saturday 1 November 2025, St Marie’s Cathedral

Pipes and Voices – a choral and organ celebration

A concert to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the cathedral’s magnificent and newly-restored TC Lewis organ. The programme included a number of organ solos and duets, and the following wonderful choral works sung by the region’s foremost symphonic choir:

• Jonathan Dove Seek Him that maketh the Seven Stars
• Cassie White for music like the sea
• Stanford Blue Bird
• Coleridge Taylor Lee Shore & Summer is Gone
• Balfour Gardiner Evening Hymn
• Lili Boulanger Hymne au Soleil
• Duruflé motets
• Jean Langlais Messe Solonnelle

The programme included the world premiere of  for music like the sea by Sheffield-based Cassie White, whose composition for unaccompanied voices won second place in the Stella Jockel Young Composer Competition organised by the Chorus. It featured Lili Boulanger’s wonderful choral work Hymne au Soleil and culminated in a performance of the rarely-performed Messe Solennelle by Jean Langlais, a marvellous work specially written for a large choir and two organs – a real treat for lovers of organ music and majestic choral works alike!

Superb Chorus Music Director Darius Battiwalla conducted his magnificently accomplished choir and, as befits a concert celebrating this wonderful instrument, there were be two super organists – Neil Taylor and James Mitchell.

Feedback comments from those who were there included:

• “I enjoyed all the pieces (and all were new to me)… It wasn’t really the individual pieces, for me, though. It was the all-encompassing sounds of dozens of voices in rhythm and harmony, plus that magnificent organ, filling such an acoustic space.” audience member
• “The choir was on top form.” audience member
• “I loved the unusual sounds [the] voices made in the Seven Stars piece – really compelling.” audience member
• “The lovely Duruflé motets based on Gregorian chants were so well-suited to that acoustic.”
• “My highlight was the superbly dramatic Hymne au Soleil. Brilliantly varied programming.” audience member
• “I’m not sure I’d have listened properly to that extraordinary Langlais mass if it’d come on the radio, but hearing it live, sung with such commitment and energy, made for a great all-encompassing encounter which reminds you why the live experience is so essential.” audience member
• “Really interesting choice of repertoire, done well.” James Mitchell, organist
• “You made a fantastic sound. All credit to Darius for choosing such fantastic rarely-performed repertoire, perfect for the space and to show off our Lewis organ. You made the most of the opportunity to sing in the best acoustic in Sheffield.” Robert Webb, Music Director of St Marie’s Cathedral