Saturday 24 May 2025

Come and Sing in Upper Chapel, Norfolk Street, Sheffield

Darius Battiwalla – Conductor

Peter Shepherd – organ

Rachel Fright – piano

Following the success of our first Come and Sing event in Upper Chapel last year, we are returning to this wonderful venue to host another. This time visitors are invited to join us in a day’s workshop featuring English Anthems. On the programme will be popular delights including Toward the Unknown Region by Vaughan Williams, A Blest pair of Sirens and I Was Glad by Parry, and Faire is the Heaven by Harris. With no solo performances, choral singing will be the order of the day, so do come along and sing your heart out!

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 on the very successful day he led last year.

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 will 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 performance for family and friends at 6pm.

Scores will be provided for those who don’t have their own; any version is acceptable so do bring your own if you feel comfortable with it.

The short performance from 6pm is free to family and friends.

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 from 1st December 2024, costing £25 including score and refreshments. NB. There won’t be 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.

Tickets for the performance are FREE, but tickets will be required as our Chorus is a large one (we expect around 100 of us to be there) so space is limited.

Sunday 8 June 2025 Sheffield City Hall at 4pm   

Haydn Creation

The Sheffield International Concert Series season finale will leave you in awe of the wonders of creation. Under the baton of the Hallé’s charismatic Choral Director, Matthew Hamilton, the massed forces of the Hallé and the Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus will be joined by a trio of exceptional soloists to breathe hope and joy into Haydn’s divine masterpiece, The Creation. The composer dreamt of a big sound with this oratorio – around 180 musicians and singers took part in the Viennese premiere – and this life-affirming work takes you on a musical journey from chaos and darkness to the creation of a new world. The perfect antidote to a world of despair and tyranny, this concert is a celebration of the beauty of life and the power of music.

The Hallé

Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus

Matthew Hamilton conductor

Rowan Pierce – soprano – Gabriel/Eve

James Way – tenor – Uriel

Matthew Brook – bass-baritone – Raphael/Adam

Pre-Concert Talk with BBC Broadcaster Trisha Cooper & Guests: 6pm

Tickets available from the City Hall box office, online, or on the door on the night.

Special offer – gather 10 friends and family together and book at the same time for just £10.50 per ticket – no matter where you sit!

BUY TICKETS

This season’s concerts that have now passed:

Friday 15 November 2024, 7pm Sheffield City Hall 

• DEBUSSY Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune
• BOULANGER Psalm 130: De Profundis (Out of the Depths)

• SAINT-SAЁNS Fantaisie in Eb major for organ
• SAINT-SAЁNS Symphony No.3, “Organ”

Our season in Sheffield started with a fantastic concert featuring works by French composers, in the City Hall with Resident Orchestra the Halle, award-winning conductor Delyana Lazarova and our own Darius Battiwalla playing contrasting pieces by  Saint-Saens on the magnificent City Hall organ.

Delyana Lazarova, winner of the inaugural Siemens Hallé International Conductor’s Competition, began this concert with Debussy’s sensuous evocation of the poet Mallarmé’s dreams and desires of a faun. Delyana then directed the massed forces of the Hallé, Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus, a rising RNCM star and the stunning mezzo-soprano, Hanna Hipp, in Lili Boulanger’s ominous setting of Psalm 130, widely believed to be a reaction to the outbreak of World War One. Written from her sickbed in the year before her untimely death aged just 24, the work formed her own personal requiem and reflects her grief, anger and despair.

In the second half Chorus Musical Director and leading organist Darius Battiwalla pulled out all the stops in music by Saint-Saёns. His first published organ work, Fantaisie, has two contrasting movements: one, full of elegance and charm and the other, strong and confident. The concert concluded with his monumental, fascinatingly-textured “Organ” Symphony. – a very popular work that left the audience uplifted and exhilarated in equal measure.

The Hallé

Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus
Delyana Lazarova conductor
Hanna Hipp mezzo-soprano
RNCM vocalist tenor
Darius Battiwalla organ

Saturday 14 December 2024 Sheffield City Hall at 2.30pm

Christmas Concert with Black Dyke Band

A Christmas tradition like no other! The Black Dyke Band and Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus returned once again for this wonderful seasonal celebration with carols for choir, singalongs for the audience and gems for the band. Presented by the multi-talented broadcaster, presenter, actor and author, Zeb Soanes, who led an almost full City Hall through a programme that included perennial favourites such as Sleigh Ride, Winter Wonderland and O Holy Night as well as newly-arranged pieces by one of the most successful of all living composers, John Rutter. There were also local Sheffield carols, including Hail Smiling Morn, a long-neglected carol by Barnsley composer, Arthur Godfrey, entitled Christmas Eve, and a new arrangement of Christus Natus Est by African-American composer Rosephayne Powell.

Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus

Darius Battiwalla – conductor

Black Dyke Band

Nicholas Childs – conductor

Zeb Soames – presenter

The concert was recorded by World of Brass and can be watched again by those with a subscription, at https://wobplay.com

Composer Rosephayne Powell sent this message: “I just listened to [the concert].  Your arrangement and performance of “Christus Natus Est” is wonderful! ……The power, beauty, and sensitivity of this arrangement cannot be missed.  It is most effective and captures the essence and heart of the work.  Thank you and have a safe and Merry Christmas! Best, Rosephayne”

World of Brass reported: “We had a great time filming and recording Black Dyke Band and Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus at Sheffield City Hall on Saturday. Capturing their performances for the Yorkshire Christmas Extravaganza was a lot of fun! From Sleigh Ride and Winter Wonderland to local Sheffield carols, this concert is packed with classic Christmas music. Big thanks to Darius Battiwalla, Nicholas Childs, and Zeb Soanes for helping bring it all together.”

Zeb Soames enthused as follows: “…Queue backstage for mince pies (and a SMALL sherry) as the @sheffphilchorus come offstage at the interval during our YORKSHIRE CHRISTMAS SPECTACULAR at a packed @sheffieldcityhall They deserve it — singing to such a high standard is hungry work!”