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27 September 2023

The Chorus was excited to hear that the Stella Jockel Young Composer Competition has been shortlisted for a Making Music UK award in the ‘Best Project with a Focus on New Music’ category. . The competition was organised by the Chorus as part of the 10th anniversary Classical Sheffield Festival Weekend 2023, and culminated in a world premiere performance of the two winning compositions to a sell-out audience at the festival finale at Sheffield City Hall.

The competition, in its inaugural year, attracted fourteen high-quality pieces of music to be judged by a panel of experts which included conductor and composer George Nicholson, Emeritus Professor of Composition at the University of Sheffield, and Chorus Music director Darius Battiwalla. It was set up in memory of former Chorus member Stella Jockel, who supported young musicians throughout her life, using part of a generous legacy left to the Chorus when she died in 2020.

“We wanted to use Stella’s legacy to continue her work by supporting local young composers, who struggle to find outlets for their compositions” explained Chorus President Rachel Copley, “We worked hard to make sure there were as few barriers as possible, so we didn’t charge an entry fee for example, or require recordings of the works. It was a real privilege  to be able to make the two winning works come to life in the festival finale”

The text for the competition was set by award-winning Sheffield poet Katherine Towers, and it encouraged the young composers to think outside the box when writing their pieces. Joint winners Mason Birch and James Thomas wowed the judges and the 1,400-strong audience at Sheffield City Hall with their talent and fine ear for composition. All the winners received their prizes from the Lord Mayor of Sheffield, Sioned-Mair Richards.

Making Music is the UK’s membership organisation for leisure-time music, with around 3,850 groups representing around 228,000 music makers across the UK. They are dedicated to empowering everyone, whatever their background or experience, to come together in their community to make or present music.

Read more about the Making Music Awards

Read about the winners of the Making Music Awards

Read the article on the Classical Sheffield website

Posted by Sam Pegg 31 October 2022

RMCMEDIA Website, Movers and Makers

GENEROUS PRIZES ARE ON OFFER IN AN EXCITING NEW COMPETITION LAUNCHED BY SHEFFIELD PHILHARMONIC CHORUS.

Budding composers aged 18 to 35 are invited to submit a short choral work for a mixed choir to sing unaccompanied in at least four parts.

The competition is open to people who were born, lived or studied in Sheffield and is organised by Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus as part of the Classical Sheffield Weekend Festival 2023.

‘Stella Jockel was a Sheffield teacher and vicar’s wife who sang alto with the Chorus for many years.’ explained Chorus Chair Paul Henstridge. ‘She bequeathed a generous legacy to the Chorus following her death in 2020, and we are delighted to be using part of it to fund this new competition. It’s especially exciting that we’ll be singing the prize-winning work at the City Hall as part of Classical Sheffield’s three-day classical music festival’.

The text has been commissioned from award-winning poet Katharine Towers, who sings in the alto section of Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus. Kathy won the Seamus Heaney Centre Prize for The Floating Man and was shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize for The Remedies. ‘I’m utterly thrilled to have been given this opportunity’ she said. ‘I’ve greatly enjoyed the challenge, and it’s been such an interesting experience to write something in the knowledge that music would be coming its way.’

The winning composer will receive £1,500 and their work will be premiered at the Classical Sheffield Weekend Festival finale on Sunday 19 March 2023 in the City Hall. It will be followed by a performance of Mahler’s magnificent 2^nd symphony by the combined forces of Sheffield Philharmonic Orchestra, Hallam Sinfonia, Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus and Hallam Choral Society, conducted by George Morton and bringing the 10^th anniversary festival to a spectacular close.

George Nicholson, Emeritus Professor of Composition at the University of Sheffield, will head a panel of judges that includes the Music Directors of the finale performers. The deadline for entries is 31 December 2022 and the shortlist will be announced early in the new year. For details see www.sheffieldphil.org/youngcomposer

Read the article on the rmcmedia website

Saturday 11 June 2022

Covid and the absence of Russian musicians after the invasion of Ukraine made this another difficult year for the Sheffield International Concert season, yet it ended not with a whimper but a magnificent bang.

In fact, it was more of a tremendous wall of sound created by an orchestra nearly a hundred strong, augmented by trumpeters in the wings, and the combined forces of two of Yorkshires’ finest choirs, totalling 150 singers.

The occasion was a performance of William Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast, set to words from the Bible chosen by Osbert Sitwell of Renishaw Hall, just outside Sheffield and, to steal a line from this dramatic cantata, when it was weighed in the balance it was not found wanting.

The young conductor Finnegan Downie Dear extracted supercharged performances of the powerful and sometimes jazz-inflected score from both the band and the combined choirs, the Sheffield Philharmonic and Leeds Festival choruses.

The choir was particularly impressive after having sat patiently through the first half of the evening waiting for their moment, and the Sheffield Phil’s choirmaster Darius Battiwalla rightly appeared to share in the enthusiastic applause.

That was the highlight of an all-British evening which began with the atmospheric Sea Interludes, from Benjamin Britten’s opera Peter Grimes, with the Halle sensitively catching the changing moods of the four sections, from still dawn to noisy storm.

The evening’s other offering was another piece of programme music, the young British composer Thomas Ades’ Inferno, written for a ballet version of Dante’s Divine Comedy.

Being able to see dancers interpreting this piece would have helped the audience follow the musical storyline here, but overall this concert was an impressive climax to a problematic season.

Philip Andrews, Sheffield Telegraph

Saturday 02 April 2022 4BARSREST

Black Dyke Band will join forces with the Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus and choirs from France and Germany for a special performance of Handel’s ‘Messiah’ later this month. The band will be joined by three choirs for the special performance. Yorkshire Champions Black Dyke and the Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus will welcome choirs from France and Germany on their mini-tour in April, culminating in a joint performance of Handel’s ‘Messiah’ on St George’s Day.

“This long-awaited trip was planned two years ago, but we had to postpone it when the pandemic struck” explained Matthew Morgan, who sings with both French and Sheffield choirs and organised the visit. “Fingers crossed that nothing stands in the way of it happening this time!”

The three choirs will join Black Dyke at Sheffield City Hall on Saturday 23rd April for the performance of Handel’s famous oratorio. “We are thrilled to be working with Black Dyke on this multi-national project’ said Chorus Chair Paul Henstridge. “This version isn’t performed very often, and it’s such a privilege to be able to sing it with one of the best bands in the world with our friends from France and Germany.”

The concert will feature some of its arias being performed for the first time in this realisation, including ‘How Beautiful are the Feet’ arranged by Chorus Music Director Darius Battiwalla. “Darius created this brass arrangement during the coronavirus lock down and recorded it with Black Dyke and soprano Catrin Pryce-Jones’ explained Chorus president Rachel Copley,

The joint concert echoes a visit made by the Sheffield choir a few years ago, when they joined the Philharmonischer Chor Bochum in a performance of ‘Messiah’ to celebrate the opening of Bochum’s brand new concert hall. The visit includes a tour of Sheffield Town Hall, hosted by the Lord Mayor, as well as trips to York and Haddon Hall.

Tickets for the event on Saturday 23rd April (7.00pm), are available from the City Hall.

For details see www.sheffieldphil.org or www.sheffieldcityhall.co.uk

and https://ensemblevocalperigueux.fr/tduk2022

Read the article in online brass publication 4BARSREST