About

Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus (SPC) is committed to protecting your personal data and will use any personal or sensitive data we collect from you in line with the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) May 2018.

WHAT DATA DO WE COLLECT AND WHAT DO WE USE IT FOR?

Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus collects data from individuals to help us plan, organise and run our day-to-day operations and to keep them informed about Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus activities.

Members

When you join Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus as a member, or during your membership with us, we may need to collect some of the following information from you:

• Name
• Email address
• Phone number
• Address
• Emergency contact details
• Gift Aid Declarations
• Bank details

We will use this information to manage your membership, to organise and run our activities (e.g. co-ordinating events or collecting fees) and to inform you about Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus activities.

Each communication will include a clear option to withdraw your consent (e.g. to ‘unsubscribe’ or ‘opt out’ of future emails) and you can also withdraw consent at any time by contacting the Data Protection Officer at

If another member of Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus asks for your contact details we will only ever share them if you consent.

We also hold information about your auditions, eg, voice colour, date of first audition, audition outcome, re-audition dates etc. This information is used by the Music Director to arrange re-auditions, sessions with our Voice Coach, etc.

Freelancers, contractors and volunteers

When you join us as a freelancer, contractor or volunteer we may need to collect similar information as for members so that we can manage your relationship with Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus and the work you do with us. This might include things like arranging work schedules or paying expenses and invoices. We may also need to collect personal or sensitive data (eg relevant medical information, age or gender) for administration or for legal/regulatory reasons; where this is the case, we will explain what this is for at the point of collection.

Mailing list subscribers

We do not currently operate a mailing list.

However, we do sometimes contact people who have shown an interest in our activities, in relation to events and activities we organise. In these circumstances will use your name and email to send you information about our events and activities, e.g. forthcoming concerts, social events or the Annual General Meeting.

We will only send you information that is related to Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus; we will not use your data to send you messages from 3rd parties.

We also contact individuals as part of the process of arranging concerts and other events, eg, venue managers, concert programmers, orchestra and band administrators, musicians and their agents. In these circumstances we will use your contact details to progress the activity in hand. We will only send you information about our events and activities if you have given us permission to do so.

Anything we send you will include a clear option to withdraw your consent (e.g. to ‘unsubscribe’ or ‘opt out’ of future emails) and you can also do so at any time by contacting the Data Protection Officer at

Website visitors: for running and improving our website

We use cookie technology when a person visits our website to collect and analyse anonymised data on how many people have visited, what pages they have looked at and other statistical information. We also use cookies to allow members to log in and find out about rehearsals etc. 

You can find out more about cookies at the end of this document.

DO WE SHARE YOUR DATA WITH ANYONE ELSE?

We will never pass your details on to third parties for those third parties to use, eg for their own marketing purposes. 

We sometimes use third party services, eg to provide ticketing services (eg. Sheffield International Venues). We will always make sure any third parties we use are reputable, secure, and process your data in accordance with your rights under GDPR. We will never allow them to use your data for their own purposes.

DO WE EVER COLLECT MORE SENSITIVE PERSONAL DATA?

We may sometimes need to collect personal or sensitive data (eg relevant medical or DBS information, age or gender) for administration or for legal/regulatory reasons, for example when taking on volunteers. Where this is the case, we will explain what this is for at the point of collection. We do not knowingly collect or store any personal data about children under the age of 16.

HOW CAN YOU UPDATE YOUR DATA?

You can contact us at any time at to update or correct the data we hold.

HOW LONG WILL WE HOLD YOUR DATA?

Our policy is to review all information held on individuals at least every two years and remove it where we no longer have a legitimate reason to keep it.

Where you have withdrawn your consent for us to use your data for a particular purpose, we may retain some of your data for up to two years in order to preserve a record of your consent having been withdrawn.

WHAT RIGHTS DO YOU HAVE?

Under the GDPR, you have the following rights over your data and its use:

• The right to be informed about what data we are collecting and how we will use it
• The right of access – you can ask to see the data we hold on you
• The right to rectification – you can ask that we update or correct your data
• The right to object – you can ask that we stop using your data
• The right to erasure – you can ask us to delete the data we hold on you
• The right to restrict processing – you can ask that we temporarily stop using your data while the reason for its use or its accuracy are investigated 

Though unlikely to apply to the data we hold and process on you, you also have rights related to portability and automated decision making (including profiling)

All requests related to your rights should be made to the Data Protection Officer at .  We will respond within one month.

You can find out more about your rights on the Information Commission’s Office website

WHAT WILL WE DO IF ANYTHING CHANGES?

If we make changes to our privacy statements or processes we will post the changes here. Where the changes are significant, we may also choose to email individuals affected with the new details. Where required by law, will we ask for your consent to continue processing your data after these changes are made.

USE OF COOKIES

‘Cookies’ are small text files that are stored by the browser (for example, Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Safari or Firefox) on your computer or electronic device. They allow websites to ‘remember’ you for a period of time so that they can store things like user preferences and make the website quicker and easier for you to use.

Without cookies, some things on websites would not be able to work: for example, without cookies it might not be possible to know whether or not you are logged in on a website, which would prevent you from being able to see content restricted to logged-in users.

How does the Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus website use cookies?

A visit to a page on our website may create the following types of cookie:

• Registration and preferences cookies
• Anonymous analytics cookies

When you become a member of Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus, you are given log-in access to the Members’ Area of our website so that you can find out about rehearsals, concerts and auditions, and read back issues of our weekly members update.

In order to provide this benefit we generate cookies that let us know whether you are signed in or not. Our website uses these cookies to work out who has signed in and to give you access to the Members’ Area. If you have not selected ‘keep me signed in’, your cookies get deleted when you either close your browser or shut down your computer.

Anonymous analytics cookies

Every time someone visits our website, software provided by other organisations, such as Google Analytics, generates an ‘anonymous analytics cookie’. These cookies can tell us whether or not you have visited the site before and what pages you visit. Your browser will tell us if you have these cookies and, if you don’t, we generate new ones. This allows us to track how many individual users we have, and how often they visit the site. We use them to gather statistics, for example, the number of visits to a page, to help us identify if visitors would benefit from more information on a particular area. Please note that the statistics themselves are completely anonymised, eg, number of visits per day.

How do I turn cookies off?

It is usually possible to stop your browser accepting cookies, or to stop it accepting cookies from a particular website. All modern browsers allow you to change your cookie settings. You can usually find these settings in the ‘options’ or ‘preferences’ menu of your browser. The following links may be helpful, or use the ‘Help’ option in your browser for more details.

Cookie settings in Internet Explorer

Cookie settings in Firefox

Cookie settings in Chrome

Cookie settings in Safari

Please note: switching off cookies may prevent some aspects of our website from working fully (e.g. you may not be able to access our members-only area).

You can find out more about cookies and their use from www.allaboutcookies.org

February 5, 2019

Mayor Erika Stahl welcomed the Philharmonic Choir of Bochum’s twin town Sheffield in the town hall. The English choir has arrived for a joint concert with the Philharmonic Choir Bochum – the occasion is the 100th birthday of the Bochum Symphony Orchestra this year. The two choirs have been in partnership since 2006.

Before visiting the town hall, the 17 visiting singers of the choir explored Bochum City on a city tour and visited the Anneliese Brost Musikforum Ruhr. At the joint concert on Thursday, February 7, in the Music Forum, the singers will sing Messiah under the direction of Bochum choirmaster John Lidfors. The Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus is one of the largest mixed concert choirs in Yorkshire with around 180 members. Their programme includes the great choral works from Baroque, Classic, Romantic and Modern periods. In 2020, a return visit of the Bochum Choir in Sheffield is planned, in which a re-performance of the “Messiah” is on the program.

“When I visit schools, I always tell schoolchildren that the sister city partnership with Sheffield is our oldest, that it was founded just five years after the end of the war and that many friends have been formed thanks to it,” said Mayor Erika Stahl. Paul Henstridge of the Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus also enjoys this strong connection through the music: “Sheffield once built bombs that destroyed Bochum, and Bochum has built bombs that destroyed Sheffield. Today we sing together – that’s progress.” Both sides were unhappy about the weather: it was raining – in Bochum as in Sheffield.

1 February 2019

A group of Chorus members are off to Germany to sing Messiah with the choir of Sheffield’s twin town, Bochum. The group will gather in Bochum on Monday 4 February for a series of rehearsals with the Philharmonischer Chor Bochum, accompanied by the Bochumer Symphoniker conducted by John Lidfors. ‘We know Messiah very well, and it will be sung in English so no problem there’ said Chorus Chair Paul Henstridge, ‘ but the Bochum choir are perfectionists and we need to know exactly how the conductor wants it to sound, so we will have three big rehearsals in the week of the concert’

Many of the Sheffield Chorus members are staying with colleagues from the Bochum choir, and are looking forward to re-kindling friendships made on a previous trip to Bochum. The concert will take place in the brand new Anneliese Brost Music Forum Ruhr, which was completed in 2016 after 15 years of fundraising which attracted over 20,000 donors. The orchestra are determined to develop this into a ‘place of adventure, education and enjoyment’, and the Forum’s three venues will certainly help.

It won’t all be singing though – the Sheffield visitors are being treated to trips to Bonn and Essen – as well as a number of hostelries and a big party before they return home. ‘The Bochum choir and orchestra will work us hard but they’ve also planned a lot of fun activities’ said Graham Dawson, who has organised the trip at the Sheffield end, ‘It looks to be an action packed week – we’ll probably need a good rest when we get back!’

Chorus members visited Perigeux in France last year, and members of both the French and German choirs will be coming to Sheffield to sing Messiah with the Black Dyke Band in the City Hall in June 2020.

28 December 2018

Rachel Copley, President of Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus, has been awarded the British Empire Medal in the New Year’s Honours, for services to music charities and the community in South Yorkshire. “We could not be more thrilled and proud,” said Chorus Chairman Paul Henstridge. “We’ve always known she was a wonderful lady but it’s marvellous that she has been recognised by such a prestigious national award”.

Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus has benefitted from Rachel’s musical and leadership skills for
many years. She has sung with the Chorus for 46 years, been part of and led the committee,
and turned her hand to so many ‘smaller’ tasks that simply would not have taken place without her intervention. Current Chorus Administrator Anne Adams could not sing her praises highly enough (excuse the pun!) “Rachel has always been willing to step in to help if we have needed a leader at short notice, or to make someone’s day special – be that a wedding, the Meadowhall lights switch on, the annual Service of Remembrance for St Luke’s Hospice, or leading thousands singing ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ for Cancer Research UK. And of course, that’s only what she does for us! She really is phenomenal and this award could not have been more deserved.”

Rachel said “I’m absolutely thrilled! I feel very honoured to have this acknowledgment of something that is as close to my heart as music, in all its forms.”

Rachel was interviewed on BBC Radio Sheffield on New Year’s Day morning at 10.00 to 10.30.

Link to official notice

Link to article in Doncaster Free Press

Link to article in Rotherham Advertiser

6 December 2018 – Philip Andrews Sheffield Telegraph

On 30 November the Czech National Symphony Orchestra performed to one of the City Hall’s biggest audiences for a long time.

‘Many of them wisely stayed on for another of Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus’ excellent ‘after hours’ concerts – short programmes of unaccompanied pieces which show the choir off to their best advantage.

Under conductor Darius Battiwalla, tight and effective control of balance and dynamics were again to the fore in a fascinating programme of rarely-heard pieces by composers all influenced by Wagner.’

Philip Andrews, Sheffield Telegraph

26 October 2018

In 2018 the Chorus recorded Paul Mealor’s beautiful new work Paradise with the world-famous Black Dyke Band in Sheffield’s own City Hall. The recording has now been published as part of the Black Dyke Gold series – and composer Paul Mealor is thrilled with it. ‘I am VERY impressed.’ said Paul on first hearing the CD. ‘It is a fantastic recording of the work. The second movement is exactly as I imagined it and the choir are simply outstanding in their sections.’

Paradise features two elements sung by the Chorus alongside the band, sandwiching a central section of fiendish difficulty that the band use to showcase their virtuosity. The Chorus first sang Paradise with Black Dyke Band in January 2018 at the annual Brass Band Festival held each year at the Royal Northern School of Music in Manchester.

‘The ending really is incredibly dramatic.’ enthused Paul. ‘Thank you very much indeed for all your hard work on this. Very much appreciated.’

Paul Mealor first sprang to fame in 2011 when his Ubi Caritas was featured at the wedding of His Royal Highness Prince William to Catherine Middleton, now TRH The Duke & Duchess of Cambridge. Born in North Wales in 1975, Paul studied composition privately as a boy and then at the University of York and in Copenhagen. His music has been commissioned and performed at many festivals and by numerous orchestras and choruses and has been broadcast on TV and radio throughout the world.

Other works on this fabulous CD include Gounod’s beautiful Ave Maria and Sousa’s rousing Liberty Belle. Purchase your copy of Black Dyke Gold Volume VII on the Black Dyke Band website.

Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus are planning to sing this fabulous piece again on Sunday 9 June 2019, when they will be joined by the Black Dyke Band, Halifax Choral Society, the Yorkshire Youth Choir and four great soloists for a very special concert at 3pm in the City Hall.

As well as Paradise, the programme will feature Yorkshire composer Philip Wilby’s new oratorio for brass, voices and organ, The Holy Face. This musical retelling of the life of St John was commissioned by Halifax Choral Society and their conductor John Pryce-Jones to celebrate their 200th Anniversary, premiered in Halifax in October 2017 and was subsequently recorded by the artists who will present it at the City Hall in June 2019. Copies of the CD are available from Halifax Choral Society, priced £15.

Paul Mealor is very pleased that his Paradise will be sung again, this time in Sheffield, and is hoping to be able to attend. For further details about this very special concert, see Current Season.

28 July 2018

In 1911 Sheffield Musical Union, the choir that became the Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus, went on a remarkable world tour with a number of other Yorkshire choirs, covering 34,000 miles and giving 134 concerts in Canada, The United States, Fiji, Australia, New Zealand, Tasmania and South Africa.

This unique event is documented in a new book by Dr. Christopher Wiltshire using letters written by young soprano May Midgley to her family back in England.  The book ‘12 Oak Avenue – the letters of  May Midgely 1911‘ is featured in a special three-page article in the Yorkshire Post 28 July 2018

May’s lively, action-packed letters have only recently been discovered, and they throw a new light on this unique and exciting event. Her first letter, written in March 1911 after docking in Canada, gives a flavour of May’s down-to-earth account of this unique event:

“On Saturday morning nearly everybody was ill… Miss Jowett has been the worst in our cabin, she has been awfully bad… Mrs Bell looks just like a corpse… Isabel crawls about just like a little old woman… Hilda and I simply daren’t get up, the boat rocked so – we heard terrible crashes of crockery…”

May was obviously highly valued by the choir’s conductor, Henry Coward, and her letters provide an irreplaceable window on the tour that are as unique as the event itself.

Check out Buy Our Recordings and Books if you would like to buy a copy of this fascinating account of a truly unique event.

Press Release : Yorkshire Post The Forgotten Story of the Yorkshire Choir’s World Tour

Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus are planning to sing this fabulous piece again on Sunday 9 June 2019, when they will be joined by the Black Dyke Band, Halifax Choral Society, the Yorkshire Youth Choir and four great soloists for a very special concert at 3pm in the City Hall.

As well as Paradise, the programme will feature Yorkshire composer Philip Wilby’s new oratorio for brass, voices and organ, The Holy Face. This musical retelling of the life of St John was commissioned by Halifax Choral Society and their conductor John Pryce-Jones to celebrate their 200th Anniversary, premiered in Halifax in October 2017 and was subsequently recorded by the artists who will present it at the City Hall in June 2019. Copies of the CD are available from Halifax Choral Society, priced £15.

Paul Mealor is very pleased that his Paradise will be sung again, this time in Sheffield, and is hoping to be able to attend. For further details about this very special concert, see Current Season.

Miranda Heggie, The Herald Scotland

30 April 2018

Bruckner Orchester Linz, Usher Hall, Edinburgh

14 June 2018 Philip Andrews, Sheffield Telegraph

Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus, Sheffield City Hall

We usually hear the Phil alongside an orchestra in the wide open spaces of the Oval Hall, but they have recently begun performing in the more intimate surroundings of the City Hall ballroom with minimal instrumental accompaniment, and it works very well.

This rousing performance of Rossini’s Petite Messe Solonnelle was their most enjoyable for a long time, for both performers and audience.

The setting of the Latin Mass comes as a pleasant surprise for those who have not heard it before. It is neither small nor solemn, but instead an almost jaunty extension of the opera composer’s day job – dramatic, joyful, strident and tuneful.

And the relatively small ballroom, deep in the bowels of the City Hall, brought the audience up close and personal with the choir, their outstanding quartet of soloists, and the accompanists Nigel Gyte (piano) and acclaimed organist Jonathan Scott, on this occasion playing the harmonium.

As ever, the chorus was admirably clear, sharp, balanced and dynamically controlled under conductor Darius Battiwalla, and the soloists – three of them near the start of their careers – were impressive individually and as a quartet. Charlotte La Thrope (soprano), Richard Rowe (tenor) and Charles Murray (bass) made confident and focused contributions, and the more experienced contralto Margaret McDonald brought the evening to a moving and heartfelt conclusion in the closing Agnus Dei.