Repertoire Planning Group

Current members Darius Battiwalla, Jo Briddock, Victor Brooks, Russell Eagling, Marianne Grayson, Ros Hobson and Stephen Vickers

Key responsibility: to explore potential events and repertoire for those events, and for SICS concerts in conjunction with the Halle Concert Society, in line with SPC’s strategic aims.

Membership of the Repertoire Planning Group (RPG) is open to professionals and members of the Chorus but must include the Music Director (MD), who shall lead the group, and at least two trustees and two members from the Chorus. The Chorus participants shall serve for two consecutive years on an alternating basis.

Terms and Conditions

  • A member of RPG can resign at any time, giving at least three months’ notice wherever possible to enable timely replacement.
  • Overall responsibility for issues delegated to RPG lies with the Chorus Trustees.
  • RPG is responsible for allocating actions to individuals and ensuring that these actions are progressed.
  • RPG must keep a record of group meetings and report their decisions and actions to trustees.
  • Some decisions about Sheffield International Concert season (SICS) concerts may fall outside the remit of SPC, its trustees and RPG, and will be determined by the Halle Concert Society in conjunction with the Chorus MD.
  • Trustees will review these Terms and Conditions every three years.

How the Chorus music programme is organised

Sheffield International Concert Season (SICS)

  • Organised by the Halle Concert Society (HCS) and Sheffield City Hall, which is run by ASM Global.
  • HCS is the over-arching organisation that deals with the affairs of the Halle orchestra and chorus and all the associated subsidiary groups.
  • ASM Global took over the running of the City Hall in 2024; it was previously run by a social enterprise (Sheffield City Trust).
  • Darius has discussions with the Halle Concert Society about works that could form part of the International Concert Season, including works suggested by the Repertoire Planning Group and by chorus members.
  • For example, we have gradually sung most of the works that were suggested by chorus members via a survey that was conducted some years ago, and we have recently conducted another survey which Darius will use to feed into the discussions with the Halle Concert Society.
  • Detailed discussions between Darius and HCS focus on practical musical issues such as the size of the orchestra required, likely rehearsal requirements, availability of particular instrumentalists or soloists, availability of conductors and where they – and the orchestra – are working immediately before and after the proposed concert in Sheffield etc.
  • Darius says ‘Putting together the whole season is very much a jigsaw and by the time all the various factors have been taken into account the actual choice of repertoire is quite constrained‘.
  • Costs obviously play a part in deciding what the annual programme is able to be. The costs are such that at least two thirds of the 2,270 tickets must be sold for an orchestral concert to break even, and more if the orchestra is large and the soloists expensive.
  • Choral concerts are more expensive, because of the costs involved in erecting the choir risers, expanding the stage so an orchestra still fits, and removing the seats in the stalls. This means that at least three quarters of the 2,270 tickets must be sold for a choral concert to break even.
  • In fact, choral concerts sales are usually around 1,000 (less than half capacity), and sometimes fall below even that figure. For example:
    • Creation June 2025 = 790
    • Mahler 2 March 2023 = 1,355 (sales led by the four organisations planning the concert)
    • Music in Common Time January 2023 = 424
  • This has affected the number of choral concerts that the City Hall and the Halle Concert Society have felt able to support in Sheffield over the last few years, especially since ticket sales clearly show that choral concerts have unfortunately generated smaller audiences.
  • The income and costs of SICS choral concerts are shared between the partners; SPC pays soloist fees and gets a proportion of ticket sales in accordance with a formula which is designed to offset the fees if ticket sales are good.
  • Unfortunately sales have not reached the required capacity for many years, so all SICS concerts lead to a deficit in SPC funds.
  • The Christmas concert is different; SPC pays no costs so we don’t get a share of the income.

Self funded concerts

  • It costs over £15,000 to hire the City Hall for a concert, and at least the same to hire a large, high quality orchestra; good soloists cost around £1,500 to £2,00 each.
  • We would need to sell at least 1,500 tickets at £25 each (plus booking fees) to cover these and other costs (conductor fee, marketing etc) for a break-even outcome; even the Mahler 2 concert did not reach these figures
  • For example, the Messiah self-funded concert with Black Dyke Band at City Hall in 2022 made £11,081 in ticket sales from 691 tickets sold, and costs were £19,978, so we lost over £8,000 from Chorus funds.
  • This means that we are unlikely to be able to afford to have a self funded concert there without significant sponsorship, or spending a significant amount from our reserves. We might do this for a special occasion but could not sustain it on a regular basis.
  • The Chorus has put on self-financed concerts at the City Hall, aided by generous sponsors and people donating their services for free.
  • Examples include the Messiah concert sponsored by Bill Smyllie, the Vaughan Williams concert sponsored by Julie Smethurst and others, and the Britten War Requiem, which was sponsored by Steve Terry. These concerts were also supported from chorus reserves.
  • This is why most of our self-financed concerts have used smaller, less expensive venues with fewer musicians rather than a full orchestra; this has given us the opportunity to sing a wider range of works that we might otherwise have been able.
  • However, it’s worth pointing out that we don’t have the best record of selling tickets ourselves – for example we sold 260 tickets for the Messiah concert in the Victoria Hall in 2017, ie 10 short of a capacity sell-out, fewer than 1.5 tickets per member.  This number doesn’t make much impact at the City Hall, which holds over 2,000 people.
  • We will need to continue run cost-effective self-financed concerts alongside those organised as part of the SICS, in order to secure a vibrant and exciting annual programme.