The Chorus is run by a committee of trustees which is elected by the members at the Annual General Meeting, which is usually held in November.  The Trustees meet approximately five times a year to plan and manage Chorus affairs. Trustees receive a Trustee Pack which includes guidance documents produced by the Charities Commission to help them understand and meet their responsibilities.

Contact details are available in the Members Area.

Shortlisted for the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Inspiration Award in 2024, the Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus is South Yorkshire’s foremost large mixed-voice chorus, performing a range of works to a high level of musical excellence.  We regularly sing with leading orchestras including the Hallé, the BBC Philharmonic, the Royal Northern Sinfonia and the Manchester Camerata, and with internationally renowned conductors such as Gianandrea Noseda, Nicholas Kraemer, David Hill, Gábor Takács-Nagy and Sofi Jeannin. We perform with Orchestra in Residence the Hallé and acclaimed soloists as part of the Sheffield International Concert Season at the City Hall in Sheffield, and at other venues around the UK. We frequently collaborate with other large choirs such as the Halle Chorus, the Leeds Philharmonic Chorus, Leeds Festival Chorus, and the Halifax Choral Society.  In 2023 members of the Chorus sang Mahler’s Symphony Number 2 with the City of Birmingham Symphony and Chorus in Monte Carlo in the presence of Mahler’s grand-daughter and the King of Monaco. In the same year the Chorus launched the Stella Jockel Young Composer Competition to support local composers starting out in their musical careers; this and other outreach work led to the nomination for a Royal philharmonic Society’s Inspiration Award, widely considered to be the BAFTAs of the classical music world..  Find out about our recent exploits in the News section here.

The Chorus was founded in 1935 as the resident choir for the new Philharmonic Society’s series of concerts in Sheffield City Hall.  It was formed from two Sheffield choirs whose origins date back to the 1860s. After the Second World War the Chorus became closely associated with John Barbirolli and the Hallé Orchestra, with whom the Chorus sang in many other cities to great acclaim.  Read more about our history here.

The Chorus is a registered charity which appoints a group of Trustees to plan what the Chorus does. The purpose of the Chorus is ‘to advance the education of the general public in choral music by the regular performance of such music from the widest possible repertoire and such means as the Committee think fit’.

The Chorus is a proud member of Classical Sheffield, a local charity which acts as an umbrella organisation for classical music-making in Sheffield, and Making Music, a national charity which supports music-making individuals and organisations.

Petroc Trelawny

Petroc has presented our Christmas concerts with Black Dyke Band at the City Hall for a number of years, and at the 2022 concert we were were delighted to announce that he had agreed to become our Patron.

Samuel West

In 2008 Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus announced that actor and director Samuel West had agreed to become the society’s Patron.

Speaking on behalf of Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus, Julie Smethurst who was the Chorus Chair at that time, said: “We are absolutely delighted and honoured that Sam has agreed to be our Patron, especially as we have already done some work with him. He has a very positive connection with Sheffield stemming from his job as Artistic Director of Sheffield Theatres, and his Patronage will really help the Chorus as it seeks to raise its profile. We very much hope that there may be future opportunities to work with Sam again, and that he will enjoy sharing this most exciting artistic relationship with us.’

Samuel was Artistic Director of Sheffield Theatres from 2005 to 2007 programming two hugely successful seasons of work which included acting with his father, Timothy West, transferring As You Like It, which he directed, to the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford, and bringing to Sheffield such eminent artists as Harold Pinter, Jonathan Miller and Joanna Lumley.

During his time in Sheffield Samuel forged many links with schools and other organisations in the city. The Chorus is thrilled to have Samuel as their Patron, knowing of his interest in the arts in the widest of senses and his commitment to Sheffield when he lived here for three years.

Since leaving Sheffield Samuel has directed an extremely successful production of Patrick Marber’s play Dealer’s Choice, and performed at the Donmar Warehouse in Pinter’s Betrayal. As well as his acclaimed talents as both actor and director, Samuel is also much sought-after as a narrator of television documentaries, including the highly commended series The Nazis: A Warning from History, A History of Britain and The Private Life of a Masterpiece. On radio he has voiced a range of programmes from one off radio dramas and serials to recitations of poetry. In 2006 he narrated the BBC Radio 4 production of A Passage to India.

Sam has made a speciality of appearing in concert recitals: he performed the spoken lines from Walton’s Henry V at the Last Night of the Proms in 2002, a performance repeated later that year at Sheffield City Hall with the Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus. He has also recorded this work with Leonard Slatkin and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Other recitations include Walton’s Façade, Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale, Prokofiev’s Eugene Oneginand Schoenberg’s Ode to Napoleon.

Unknown to many, Sam himself is a choral singer. He participated in the May 2006 Choir of London tour to Jerusalem and the West Bank, where he also gave poetry readings as part of the concert programme. In April 2007 he again joined the Choir of London in their tour of Palestine, also directing The Magic Flute.

Commenting on his role of Patron of the Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus, Sam said “Sheffield is a place with a proud history of choral singing. As a fan of the city, as a past collaborator with the choir who hopes to work with them again, and as a human being who believes that singing great music together makes life better, I’m delighted to become Patron of the Philharmonic Chorus.”

Chorus Master, Darius Battiwalla, said, “As a Chorus we are continuingly striving for artistic excellence, a quality that Sam is well-known for in the arts world. To be associated with him as our Patron (is) a great privilege.”

Shortlisted for the 2024 Royal Philharmonic Society Inspiration Award, the Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus is South Yorkshire’s foremost large mixed-voice chorus, performing a range of works to a high level of musical excellence. We regularly sing with leading orchestras including the Hallé, the BBC Philharmonic, the Northern Sinfonia and the Manchester Camerata, and with internationally renowned conductors such as Gianandrea Noseda, Nicholas Kraemer, David Hill, Gábor Takács-Nagy and Sofi Jeannin. We perform with Orchestra in Residence the Hallé and acclaimed soloists as part of the Sheffield International Concert Season at the City Hall in Sheffield, and at other venues around the UK. We frequently collaborate with other large choirs such as the Halle Chorus, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Chorus, Leeds Philharmonic Chorus and the Halifax Choral Society.

There have been a number of really high points in the Chorus’s history. The recording of The Dream of Gerontius made with the Hallé and Barbirolli nearly 50 years ago is highly acclaimed and is still available; amazingly a few existing Chorus members took part in the recording. The Chorus performed the Berlioz Te Deum in the Royal Albert Hall under Sir Thomas Beecham, Handel’s Messiah with Sir Malcolm Sargent, and Vaughan Williams’s A Sea Symphony, with the composer himself conducting. More recently the Chorus has worked with a wide range of conductors and orchestras – and some outstanding soloists – performing some ‘traditional’ repertoire (Messiah, Mozart Requiem, Britten’s War Requiem, etc.) as well as that of contemporary composers, including Wilby and Mealor. The Chorus has commissioned several new pieces in recent years, and has made recordings for Chandos and for BBC Radio 3. The Chorus also has its lighter moments, in particular our very popular annual Christmas Concerts with the Black Dyke Band. Carols from the ‘Awake Arise’ Christmas CD with Black Dyke Band have been Classic FM Drive winners no fewer than four times.

Prestigious performance venues 

Although we usually perform in Sheffield, we have participated in The Proms on a number of occasions, including the Proms in the Park event for the Last Night of the Proms in Heaton Park, Manchester in 2005 and in a performance of Beethoven‘s ninth symphony (sung from memory) with the City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus and BBC Philharmonic Orchestra for Prom 75. As well as London’s Royal Albert Hall we have performed in Leeds, Halifax, Middlesbrough, York and Edinburgh, but also in France, Germany and Monaco. We enjoy touring and performance links with French choir Ensemble Vocale Perigueux based in Perigueux France, and with the Philharmonischer Chor Bochum, who are regular performers with the Bochumer Symphoniker based in Bochum, one of Sheffield’s twin towns in Germany. In September 2023 members of the Chorus sang Mahler’s 2nd Symphony in Monte Carlo with the CBSO and CBSO Chorus.

High quality professionals 

Our subscriptions pay for a professional Music Director, Darius Battiwalla, and accompanist Rachel Fright, both of whom give tremendous value to every rehearsal. Individual singers are professionally coached in rehearsals by Maggie McDonald (also voice coach to the Hallé Choir) every few weeks.  These superb professionals help the Chorus maintain the high levels of excellence expected of a choir accompanied by orchestras with national and international reputations for excellence. The actor Samuel West and BBC broadcaster Petroc Trelawny are our patrons, and Rachel Copley BEM is our President.

Stella Jockel Young Composer Competition

In 2023 the Chorus launched the Stella Jockel Competition to support local young composers starting out in their musical careers. The winning works were premiered at the finale of the Classicsal Sheffield Festival Weekend in Sheffield City Hall. You can read more about the competition at Stella Jockel Young Comp0ser Competition. This project led to a nomination for a Making Music Award in 2023 and for a Royal Philharmonic Society Inspiration Award in 2024.

Young Conductor Scheme

In 2024 the Chorus launched a support scheme for aspiring young choral conductors. The scheme enables the recipient to conduct the Chorus for part of each rehearsal, coached by Music Director Darius Battiwalla, as well as receiving a stipend of £500 to help fund their musical development.

New singers welcome

The chorus currently numbers about 160 singers, and always welcomes new members in all voice parts.  Rehearsals are on Tuesday evenings from 7pm to 9pm, usually at at the Heeley Hall, Birkdale School, Sheffield, S10 3DH. We are a friendly choir and prospective members are very welcome to try us out before joining, following an audition which doesn’t involve sight singing; re-auditions are every three years.   If you are interested, find out more on our New Members page.

How to support us

The best – and entirely pleasurable – way to support us is to come to our concerts. However, if you’d like to do more then do consider making a donation (easy to do, just click on the donation button below). Alternatively you could become a Friend of the Chorus. Find more details at ‘Support Us‘.

Darius Battiwalla

Darius Battiwalla has been music director for Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus since 1997. In addition to preparing the choir for concerts with visiting orchestras and conductors including Mark Elder, Gianandrea Noseda, Nicholas Kraemer, and Paul Daniel, he has conducted the chorus with the Halle, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Northern Sinfonia, and directed from the harpsichord with the Manchester Camerata. Performances have included Britten’s St Nicholas, Vaughan Williams’ Sea Symphony, Poulenc’s Gloria and Fauré’s Requiem, Handel’s Messiah and Bach’s B minor mass and St.John Passion.

Since he took over as music director, the choir has performed from memory for the first time, and has appeared at the Proms and on recordings for Chandos with the BBC Philharmonic, including the newly reconstructed score of Elgar’s Crown of India with the BBCPO and Sir Andrew Davis for Chandos Records. Darius has led the choir’s collaboration with Black Dyke Band in a series of recordings in the band’s Black Dyke Gold series, and in a CD of Christmas music including a number of his own arrangements.

In 2006 Darius returned to work with the Melbourne Chorale, conducting Verdi’s Requiem in the Hamer Hall. Before taking up his post at Sheffield he was chorus master of Leeds Philharmonic Chorus. He has worked regularly as guest chorus master or conductor with many other choirs including the Northern Sinfonia Chorus, Lucerne Festival Academy, Leeds Philharmonic Chorus Huddersfield Choral Society, CBSO chorus and Netherlands Radio Choir, with whom he has specialised in contemporary music, having prepared them for works by Berio, Boulez, Ligeti, and the premiere of Stockhausen’s EngelProzessionen. In 2014 he worked with the Lucerne Festival Academy in preparation for a performance of Berio’s Coro to be conducted by Simon Rattle, and in 2018 was guest chorusmaster for the Northern Sinfonia for Paul McCreesh. In 2019 he conducted the BBC Philharmonic in a CD of music for the BBC Young Choristers of the Year.

Darius was recently appointed Leeds City Organist, performing regularly in the highly successful recital series in Leeds Town Hall, and has given organ recitals at cathedrals and concert halls throughout the country, as well as recordings and broadcasts on radio 3. He has given the recitals for the Royal College of Organists’ and Incorporated Association of Organists’ annual congress, appeared as soloist and orchestral organist and pianist for the BBC Philharmonic and Halle orchestras. 2019 saw the premiere of a new work for organ and brass band with the Black Dyke Band, a performance of Karl Jenkins’ organ concerto at the Bridgewater Hall, solo recitals in Leeds, York and London, and a live broadcast on radio 3 of Janacek’s Glagolitic Mass.

Darius also improvises for silent films on both organ and piano, including a regular silent film series at the National Media Museum. Over the past ten years he has improvised scores to more than fifty silent films on both organ and piano, not only in cinemas but in churches and cathedrals throughout the country, as well as a regular series for the National Media Museum. His improvised score for Phantom of the Opera at the RNCM in 2017 was described by theartsdesk.com as a ‘magnificent example of musical creativity…..a real multi-media achievement.’

Darius was born in London and started playing the piano at an early age, followed by the cello. He began playing the organ at St Mary’s Islington at the age of 13. He was educated at Leeds University and the Royal Northern College of Music where he won prizes for both organ and piano accompaniment.

Link to Darius Battiwalla’s website

Link to Darius Battiwalla’s concert schedule

Article written by chorus member Patrick Vaughan

Some years ago, while scavenging the ‘Local History’ section of the well-loved second-hand bookshop in Sharrow Vale Road, I came across a brochure celebrating The First Ten Years of the Sheffield Philharmonic Society. It was advertising the concerts for the 1945–46 season, and had a number of articles about various aspects of the first ten years of the Society’s history. At £2 it seemed a snip. Now, as the reopening of the refurbished City Hall approaches, I realise that this document — very few of which can have survived — is of quite wide general interest, and I would like to share what it has to say about choral music with fellow Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus members.

An opening article by the Professor of Music at the University (F.H. Shera) includes a paragraph about the chorus:

In 1937, by a friendly agreement between the two Committees, the Sheffield Musical Union [chorus] merged with the [Sheffield Philharmonic] Society; an arrangement which had the blessing of the Union’s founder, the late Sir Henry Coward. Today the Philharmonic Chorus is a live and enthusiastic body of nearly 350 singers … and it is a matter for congratulation among singers and hearers alike that the Society’s circumstances enable its choral performances to be presented with proper advantages, that is, with the participation of a first-rate orchestra, and after thorough rehearsal of chorus and orchestra together; things which were rare, if not unknown, in bygone days … Good as it is, it will be still better when the somewhat slender ranks of tenors and basses are reinforced by young men returning from the stern tasks of war.

Altogether, in ten years to June 1945, 221 concerts were given — of which 20 (9%) were choral concerts. The rest were either symphony concerts (59%), or chamber music recitals (32%). In the first years either 2 or 3 choral concerts were presented each year. But the war (and the destruction wrought on the city by enemy air raids) meant that only one choral concert took place in 1939–40, and none at all between 1940 and 1943. Then a sudden burst of cultural activity produced 5 choral concerts in 1943–44, and 4 in 1944–45.

The brochure contains a complete listing of all the works performed in the years 1935–1945. Inevitably, Messiahfeatures most frequently (5 performances). But strangely many items which we might consider to be central to the classical choral repertory are absent: Bach is only represented by two cantatas; there is no Beehoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn or Brahms. However, there is a reasonable balance of what would at the time have been ‘new’ works: Elgar’s Spirit of England (first performed in 1917); Holst’s Hymn of Jesus (1917); Lambert’s Rio Grande (1928); and Vaughan Williams’s Five Tudor Portraits (1936). Opera has its place in programmes too: Borodin (Prince Igor), Moussorgsky (Boris Godunov), Verdi (Aida), and Wagner (Tannhäuser, Die Meistersinger, and Parsifal) all feature.

The complete choral list is:

• Bach: Cantatas Ein’ feste Burg and Nun ist das Heil
• Berlioz: Te Deum and L’Enfance du Christ (part ii – the Flight into Egypt)
• Borodin: Prince Igor (Polovstian Dances)
• Debussy: Sirènes (Three Nocturnes)
• Dvorák: Stabat mater
• Elgar: Spirit of England
• Grainger: The Merry Wedding
• Handel: Acis and Galatea, The King shall Rejoice (Coronation Anthem) and Messiah (5)
• Haydn: The Creation
• Holst: Hymn of Jesus
• Lambert: The Rio Grande
• Moussorgsky: Boris Godunov (Coronation Scene)
• Mozart: Requiem Mass
• Parry: Ode on the Nativity
• Pergolesi: Stabat Mater
• Rachmaninov: Der Frühling (Spring)
• Vaughan Williams: Five Tudor Portraits and Towards the Unknown Region
• Verdi: Requiem and Aida (Acts i & ii)
• Wagner: Tannhäuser (Act iii), Die Meistersinger (excerpts from Act iii), and Parsifal (excerpts).

If you had wanted to buy a ticket for any of these concerts in 1945, you could have done so at Wilson Pecks in Fargate; it would have cost you between 2/6 and 7/6.

Download a pdf of Patrick’s article

Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus was formed in 1935, but its origins are much older. Sheffield, like many towns and cities in Yorkshire, has a long and distinguished tradition of music-making, particularly with its choruses.

Origins

The Philharmonic Chorus was formed from two choirs dating back to the middle of the Victorian period. The first of these was the Sheffield Amateur Musical Society, founded in 1864, developing from a singing class run by H.W.Ibbotson since 1857. When Sheffield City Hall opened in the 1930s, the Sheffield Philharmonic Society was formed in 1935 to put on an annual season of concerts, many being given by the Hallé Orchestra. The Philharmonic Series of concerts still takes place to this day in the City Hall, with concerts given by many world-famous orchestras. The Amateur Musical Society was adopted as the resident chorus, and renamed itself the Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus.

However, the Amateur Musical Society was not the only chorus in Sheffield. In 1876, the Sheffield Musical Union had been founded by Henry Coward (1849–1944). Coward was to conduct the Union for an astonishing period of 57 years, retiring only in 1933. As a musician, he was mostly self-taught, but became a highly respected choral conductor in the Yorkshire region, and also conducted other choirs such as the Huddersfield Choral Society. At its height, the Sheffield Choir was probably the leading amateur chorus in England. Amongst others, it gave the first performance of Elgar’s Coronation Ode (including Land of Hope and Glory) in 1902. Coward was knighted for his services to choral singing in 1927.

Coward documented his thoughts on choral training in a book Choral Technique and Interpretation (William Copper’s Hartenshield Group site). Read more about him here

You can listen to the Sheffield Choir on the Old Recordings page.

The early years

In 1937, the Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus (formerly the Amateur Musical Society) merged with the Musical Union to form a large choir of almost 400 members.

Patrick Vaughan has written a brief article on the first 10 years of the chorus, drawn from a pamphlet published in 1945 to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Philharmonic series.

Following the second world war, John Barbirolli returned from the USA to become conductor of the Hallé Orchestra, bringing about a major revival in its fortunes, and the chorus was to become closely associated with this orchestra and conductor. A recording of Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius, in which the chorus is joined by the Hallé Choir and the Ambrosian Singers, with Dame Janet Baker as soloist, is still in the catalogue and still a recommended recording. Amazingly, a few existing Chorus members took part in this recording! As well as its appearances in Sheffield, Barbirolli took the Chorus to many other cities, receiving widespread national acclaim: “…the Sheffield choir have every quality — power, richness, delicacy. Every section was first-rate.” (The Daily Telegraph); “…the Sheffield Philharmonic choir sang beautifully, almost past belief.” (Birmingham Post).

The chorus sang under many other leading conductors of the day in major choral works such as Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast, Berlioz’s Grande Messe des Morts in York Minster alongside Huddersfield Choral Society and Te Deum in the Royal Albert Hall under Sir Thomas Beecham. Other notable performances include Handel’s Messiah with Sir Malcolm Sargent, Vaughan Williams’s A Sea Symphony, with the composer himself conducting, and Tippett’s A Child of Our Time.

For many years the choir’s chorusmaster was Herbert Bardgett, the most distiguished chorusmaster in the North of England, and also chorusmaster of other major northern choirs (the Huddersfield Choral Society, the Hallé Choir and the Leeds Philharmonic Chorus, amongst others).

The nineteen eighties and nineties

More recent years have seen equally memorable highlights in which the choir has appeared with all the leading orchestras in the north, as well as many other orchestras. On two occasions (1989 and 1992), the men of the choir performed Schönberg’s Gurrelieder under Sir Charles Groves. In 1994, the chorus commissioned Geoffrey Poole’s Blackbird; the first performance was later broadcast on BBC Radio 3. In 1996, the chorus joined forces with the Hallé Choir for performances of Mahler’s Eighth Symphony (Symphony of a Thousand) with the Hallé Orchestra under Kent Nagano, in Manchester’s newly-opened Bridgewater Hall and also in Sheffield. Members of the chorus were among those who took part in a massive performance of Orff’s Carmina Burana during the 1998 season of the BBC Proms. In the following year, the chorus sang at York Minster for the opening concert of the Ryedale Festival, singing Berlioz’s Grande Messe des Morts, and sang again at York Minster in July 2002, in a performance of Beethoven’s Symphony no.9.

In the 1990s the chorus embarked on a series of short foreign tours — to Germany, Spain, Donetsk (Sheffield’s twin city in the Ukraine), France and the Czech Republic (where it gave a joint concert with the Brno Philharmonic Choir). Since 1992 it has appeared regularly in “Classical Spectaculars” in the Sheffield Arena, singing to upwards of 10,000 people, and in “Opera Galas” at the Bridgewater Hall (Manchester).

Since the millenium

In May 2000, we joined the Leeds Philharmonic Chorus and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra in Leeds Town Hall for a performance of Verdi’s Requiem, one of several of our concerts broadcast on BBC Radio 3. In 2005, the chorus sang in a Proms in the Park as part of the Last Night of the Proms celebrations, and a few years later we were invited to contribute to the traditional performance of Beethoven’s Symphony no.9 at the 2008 Proms. In 2002, the chorus made two recordings for Chandos; another followed in 2006, and a fourth in 2009. During these years, chorusmasters included Eric Chadwick, Stephen Westrop and Graham Barber.

The chorus undertook a short exchange with the Bochum Philharmonischer Chor, including a joint concert of Mozart’s Requiem in Bochum; further exchange visits are planned.

The Chorus has commissioned several new pieces in recent years, and we have made recordings for Chandos and for BBC Radio 3.  The Chorus also has its lighter moments, in particular our very popular annual Christmas Concerts with the Black Dyke Band, with whom we recorded a rousing Christmas CD in 2015, and a majestic new work The Holy Face by Philip Wilby, with Halifax Choral Society in 2017.

Further information is available in the excellent book “Music Making in the West Riding of Yorkshire”.