Help us start the festive season in style. We love hearing the audience sing with us at our Christmas concert, and this year we have made it even easier for you to join in. The words for all the singalong carols are ready and waiting.
You will find them in the printed programme, just £3, available from the foyer (cash only) or the bars (cash or card). If you prefer to use your phone or print your own copy at home, you can download the carol sheet using the links below.
Our annual Christmas concert with the Black Dyke Band is always a highlight, and this year we are joined by presenter Josie D’Arby from the BBC Proms. It is a lovely chance to step away from the whirl of shopping, wrapping and decorating, and enjoy an afternoon of festive music. Expect carols for choir, audience singalongs and seasonal favourites for the band. The programme features much loved pieces such as O Holy Night, Carol of the Bells and The Lamb, alongside classics including White Christmas and Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.
Tickets are available online or in person from the City Hall box office. They are selling quickly so it is worth booking soon.
Singalong sheet for 13 Dec City Hall carol concert
04 December 2025
Help us start the festive season in style. We love hearing the audience sing with us at our Christmas concert, and this year we have made it even easier for you to join in. The words for all the singalong carols are ready and waiting.
You will find them in the printed programme, just £3, available from the foyer (cash only) or the bars (cash or card). If you prefer to use your phone or print your own copy at home, you can download the carol sheet using the links below.
Our annual Christmas concert with the Black Dyke Band is always a highlight, and this year we are joined by presenter Josie D’Arby from the BBC Proms. It is a lovely chance to step away from the whirl of shopping, wrapping and decorating, and enjoy an afternoon of festive music. Expect carols for choir, audience singalongs and seasonal favourites for the band. The programme features much loved pieces such as O Holy Night, Carol of the Bells and The Lamb, alongside classics including White Christmas and Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.
Tickets are available online or in person from the City Hall box office. They are selling quickly so it is worth booking soon.
Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus are looking forward to welcoming choirs from France and Germany for a mini-tour of Yorkshire in April, culminating in a joint performance of Handel’s Messiah with the world-famous Black Dyke Band on St George’s Day, in the presence of the Lord Mayor.
‘This long-awaited trip was planned two years ago, but we had to postpone it when the pandemic struck’ explained bass 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 come together at the City Hall on Saturday 23 April for this very special performance of the brass version of Handel’s Messiah. ‘We are thrilled to be working with Black Dyke on this multi-national project’ said Chorus Chair Paul Henstridge, ‘The brass Messiah isn’t often performed, and it’s such a privilege to be able to sing it with one of the best bands in the world, fresh from their recent win at the Yorkshire Championships, and with our friends from France and Germany’.
The joint concert echoes a similar 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 sister city partnership with Sheffield is our oldest’ said Mayor Erica Stahl, ‘It was founded just five years after the end of the war and … many friends have been formed thanks to it’.
Members of the French choir, with whom the Chorus enjoyed a mini-tour of France in 2018, are driving to Sheffield ‘Just in case Covid messes up air travel’ explained Matthew. ‘We’re looking forward to bringing a mostly French programme, including choral and organ works by Faure, Gounod and Charpentier, to Malton in Yorkshire and Buxton in Derbyshire’.
The visit includes a tour of Sheffield Town Hall, hosted by the Lord Mayor, as well as trips to York and Haddon Hall. Visiting choristers will stay with members of the Sheffield Chorus, who are looking forward to returning the superb hospitality enjoyed during their trips to France and Germany.
Tickets for this very special Messiah on Saturday 23 April at 7pm, are available from the City Hall. Catch the French Choir, Musical Director Patrick Hilliard and organist Christopher Hainsworth, at St Michael’s Church, Malton, Yorkshire on Friday 22nd April, and St John The Baptist Church, Buxton, Derbyshire, on Sunday 24th, both at 7pm, paying at the door.
In 2019 the Chorus recorded John Rutter’s Gloria with Black Dyke Band – and the CD on which it is features reached the Number One spot in the Classic FM Specialist Classical Albums charts in October 2020, only two weeks after it’s release by Naxos.
The CD Anthems, Hymns and Gloria for Brass Band , was recorded in St Oswald’s Church on Bannerdale Road in Sheffield. Directed by Professor Nicholas Childs and Chorus Music Director Darius Battiwalla, the CD was featured as Album of the Week on the Classic FM radio station, and rapidly moved up the chart over the following week.
The CD features eleven tracks composed by Rutter and arranged for brass band by Belgian conductor Luc Vertommen. It includes many of the English choral composer’s most famous works, including the Pie Jesu from his 1985 Requiem, and This is the Day composed for the wedding of HRH Prince William and Kate Middleton in 2011.
John Rutter’s Gloria was composed in 1974 for choir, brass, percussion and organ, with an alternative version for choir and orchestra. Described as “exalted, devotional and jubilant”, it was Rutter’s first commission from the US. Structured in three movements and based on the Gloria from the Latin mass, it was always intended as a concert piece.
The CD recorded by the Chorus with Black Dyke Band has reached the Number One spot in the Classic FM Specialist Classical Albums charts, outselling recordings by Simon Rattle and the London Symphony Orchestra, the Halle, the Sixteen and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra.
The Chorus recorded the new Naxos CD release of music by composer John Rutter with the world-famous Black Dyke Band one chilly October evening last year, in St Oswald’s Church on Bannerdale Road in Sheffield. Directed by Prof Nicholas Childs and Chorus Music Director Darius Battiwalla, the CD Anthems, Hymns and Gloria for Brass Band was recently featured as Album of the Week on the Classic FM radio station. The impact on sales from around the world was immediate, and the CD rapidly moved up the chart over the following week.
Chorus and band recording the Gloria in St Oswald’s Church
‘We joined the band to record Rutter’s concert work ‘Gloria’, which was commissioned in 1974 by The Voices of Mel Olsen in Omaha, Nebraska, when Rutter was making his first trip to the United States.’ explained Chorus Chair Paul Henstridge. ‘We love collaborating with this amazing band of consummate musicians, who join us for the annual carol concert in the City Hall each year. We had a wonderful evening at St Oswald’s and are absolutely delighted that it has led to an Album of the Week and the Number One slot!’
The CD features eleven tracks composed by Rutter and arranged for brass band by Belgian conductor Luc Vertommen. It includes many of the English choral composer’s most famous works, including the Pie Jesu from his 1985 Requiem, and This is the Day composed for the wedding of HRH Prince William and Kate Middleton in 2011.
The Chorus has collaborated with the Black Dyke Band on numerous occasions, including two world premieres, Philip Wilby’s oratorio Holy Face with Leeds Philharmonic Chorus in 2017 and Paul Mealor’s beautiful Paradise in 2018. Joint recordings include Wilby’s Holy Face and Awake Arise, a Christmas CD full of festive music from Yorkshire. Chorus Music Director and Leeds City Organist Darius Battiwalla is no stranger to brass band music, regularly composing and arranging works for brass and chorus.
Recording with Black Dyke Band in St Oswald’s Church Bannerdale Road Sheffield
‘Darius most recently arranged two pieces for brass band and chorus during the coronavirus lock-down’ said Chorus Administrator Anne Adams, ‘One is an beautiful soprano aria from Handel’s Messiah, which we were planning to present with Black Dyke in Sheffield cathedral but sadly had to postpone, and the other is a 16th Century German carol which we and Black Dyke are going to record from our homes as part of a virtual Christmas carol concert in December.’
Chorus and band hope to present the brass Messiah in 2021, alongside choirs from France and Germany, and the Chorus is still hoping to be able to present Rachmaninov’s Vespers and Faure’s Requiem at the City Hall in May and June 2021.
It was with deep regret that we had to announce the postponement or cancellation of a number of concerts for this season, due to the need to protect our members, musicians and audiences and in light of Government advice regarding the Coronavirus.
2019-20 saw the Chorus planning to present concerts in Manchester and Sheffield, with the Halle, the Black Dyke Band, Wrexham Symphony Orchestra and with choristers from Wrexham, Liverpool, France and Germany. We recorded with the Black Dyke Band for their next CD, presented works from Scandinavia and the Baltic, and planned to sing choral favourite Messiah, Verdi’s wonderful Requiem and Mahler’s magnificent Symphony No. 8, known as the Symphony of the Thousand.
Saturday 9th November at 9.15pm City Hall
After Hours Choral Concert
We were pleased to present another short concert in the popular ‘After Hours’ series in the City Hall’s beautiful ballroom at 9.15pm. At 7pm in the main hall Tabita Berglund conducted the Halle in a programme of Grieg and Sibelius, and the Chorus followed in the ballroom with a programme of choral works from Scandinavia and the Baltic.
Audiences will be familiar with the Norwegian Romantic composer Edvard Grieg (1843 – 1947), but maybe not his countyman Ola Gjeilo, born in Norway in 1978, or Eric Ešenvalds, born in Latvia a year earlier. Gjeilo, who now lives in America, studied in Norway and at the Julliard School and the Royal College of Music in London. Award-winning composer Ešenvalds studied in Latvia and at Trinity College Cambridge, and composed the official anthem of the World Choir Games when Riga was the European Capital of Culture in 2014.
A packed audience included Sheffield’s Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress, who were presented with a gift from Bochum, Sheffield’s twin town in Germany; read about this here. After the presentation the audience heard the Chorus sing the following works ‘up close and personal’:
Saturday 14th December 2019 at 2pm and 5.30pm, City Hall
Christmas Carol Concerts
Once again we joined with the world famous Black Dyke Band for a festive celebration featuring family favourites and sing-along carols. The award-winning and internationally renowned Black Dyke Band, led by Dr Nicholas Childs, is one of the most celebrated brass bands in history and has toured the world winning international and national competitions. Presenting this year’s concerts was Tom Redmond, presenter, horn player and animateur specialising in music education. He’s a regular voice on BBC Radio 3 presenting live concerts, studio programmes and the BBC Proms.
This was a wonderful concert for all the family to join in singing some of the most loved Christmas music old and new, experiencing a live brass band and chorus in the beautiful setting of the Oval Hall. On the programme was Ring the Bells, a new carol by Paul Fincham, the royalties for which are being donated to homelessness charity Crisis. There were also three local carols, Egypt, Tyre Mill and Hail Smiling Morn, as well as perennial favourite O Holy Night, which was selected as a winning carol in the Making Music / Classic FM Drive carol competition.This is the fourth time one of the carols from our Christmas CD has been selected by Classic FM, and we’re thrilled that this time it was our favourite O Holy Night!
Tom Redmond presenter
Black Dyke Band, Dr. Nicholas Childs conductor
Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus, Darius Battiwalla conductor
Saturday 18th April at 7pm Sheffield Cathedral (NOTE REVISED VENUE)
Messiah
It was with deep regret that we had to announce the postponement of this concert, due to the need to protect our members, musicians and audiences and in light of Government advice regarding the Coronavirus. The concert was re-scheduled to Saturday 23 April 2022.
If you purchased your ticket from the cathedral or at rehearsal, please contact to obtain a refund. If you bought your ticket on-line, you don’t need to do anything; WeGotTickets will re-imburse you in due course.
For many people, Easter isn’t complete without hearing Handel’s wonderful oratorio Messiah, regularly performed at Christmas but more pertinently celebrating the Easter message of redemption, hope and joy. Messiah is probably Handel’s best-known and most-loved work for its beautiful solos and duets, rousing choruses and dramatic instrumental writing. A performance in the brass band format is very different and well worth coming along to hear.
Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus present this spectacular Easter Messiah in Sheffield Cathedral, accompanied by the world-famous Black Dyke Band. The Chorus last performed Messiah with a baroque orchestra in April 2017, and is pleased to be presenting the brass band version this Easter. Making it even more special, the Chorus will be joined by choristers from Sheffield’s twin town Bochum in Germany, and from Perigeux in France, following successful singing trips to both European cities over the last two years.
So do come along and hear this magnificent work as you’ve never heard it before!
Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus and choristers from Germany and France
Black Dyke Band
Darius Battiwalla (conductor)
Saturday 2nd May at 7pm City Hall
Verdi Requiem
It was with deep regret that we had to announce the cancellation of this concert, due to the need to protect our members, musicians and audiences and in light of Government advice regarding the Coronavirus. Ticket refunds were available from the City Hall.
Gianluca Marcianó, the Hallé and the Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus are joined by a fine cast of soloists for Verdi’s remarkable Requiem. A response to the death of the great author Alessandro Manzoni – a figure Verdi revered – it is the most theatrical, agnostic and indeed popular work of its kind ever written. From the hushed beginning of its opening ‘Requiem’, to the tumultuous, apocalyptic vision of the ‘Dies Irae’ and the turbulent uncertainty of the ‘Libera Me’, Verdi brings his supreme skills as a dramatist to bear on the traditional liturgy to quite stunning effect. A Requiem not for the dead but for the living.
Gianluca Marcianó conductor Claire Rutter soprano Madeleine Shaw mezzo–soprano Sam Furness tenor David Shipley bass
Saturday 20th June at 7pm, Bridgewater Hall Manchester
It was with deep regret that we also had to announce the postponement of this concert, due to the need to protect our members, musicians and audiences and in light of Government advice regarding the Coronavirus. The concert will be rescheduled.
Mahler Symphony No. 8 ‘Symphony of the Thousand’
The season will end with a performance of Mahler’s magnificent Symphony No. 8, known as the Symphony of a Thousand, with the Liverpool Welsh Choir and the Cantorion Sirenian Singers, accompanied by the Wrexham Symphony Orchestra in the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester.
This very special concert will form the culmination of the orchestra’s groundbreaking Mahler Charitable Concert series, which has seen them perform all Mahler’s symphonies to increase awareness of the impact of Alzheimer’s and dementia. The Mahler 8 marks a return to the Bridgewater Hall, following the orchestra’s critically acclaimed debut there with the Resurrection Symphony in 2015. Sponsored by medical research company Cobalz Limited, who specialise in the field of Alzheimer’s, the Mahler Charitable Concert series has raised over £15,000 for Alzheimer’s and dementia charities.
A Sheffield choir music director has been busy over lockdown, writing a new brass arrangement for Handel’s Messiah which world-famed musicians performed in their homes.
The arrangement by Darius Battiwalla of the soprano aria How Beautiful Are the Feet is actually one of three from the Messiah that he put together for Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus.
“Darius wrote the new arrangements for us in return for continued payment during the lockdown,” said chorus chair Paul Henstridge.
“We’re absolutely thrilled. It means that when we eventually perform the brass version with the wonderful Black Dyke Band, we can sing two more choruses than would otherwise have been possible”.
The chorus were set to perform a brass version of Messiah in April but the concert had to be postponed.
Soprano Catrin Pryce-Jones was to have appeared alongside the chorus, so she was delighted when Darius asked her to make a virtual recording of How Beautiful Are the Feet, along with members of the world-famous Black Dyke Band, all performing from their own homes during lockdown.
“The new arrangement is very light and delicate, which is just right for this aria,” said chorus dministrator Anne Adams. “Catrin sings it beautifully and the band accompany her with great sensitivity.”
In addition to the new Messiah arrangements, the chorus also commissioned Darius to write some Christmas music for them to sing at their popular annual carol concert at the City Hall in December.
He has created a new brass arrangement of Resonet in Laudibus, a 16th-century German carol. If that concert can’t go ahead, they plan to perform it virtually as part of an online carol concert, along with the Black Dyke Band, again recorded from their own homes.
The brass Messiah concert has been rescheduled for Saturday, April 23, 2022 in Sheffield City Hall. The 180 members of the chorus were going to be joined by more than 50 singers from Perigeux in France and from Sheffield’s twin city of Bochum in Germany.Happily, both choirs are planning to cross the Channel for the rescheduled concert.
A Sheffield choir music director has been busy over lockdown, writing a new brass arrangement for Handel’s Messiah which world-famed musicians performed in their homes.
By Julia Armstrong Sheffield Telegraph Tuesday, 21st July 2020
The arrangement by Darius Battiwalla of the soprano aria How Beautiful Are the Feet is actually one of three from the Messiah that he put together for Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus.
“Darius wrote the new arrangements for us in return for continued payment during the lockdown,” said chorus chair Paul Henstridge. “We’re absolutely thrilled. It means that when we eventually perform the brass version with the wonderful Black Dyke Band, we can sing two more choruses than would otherwise have been possible”.
The chorus were set to perform a brass version of Messiah in April but the concert had to be postponed. Soprano Catrin Pryce-Jones was to have appeared alongside the chorus, so she was delighted when Darius asked her to make a virtual recording of How Beautiful Are the Feet, along with members of the world-famous Black Dyke Band, all performing from their own homes during lockdown.
“The new arrangement is very light and delicate, which is just right for this aria,” said chorus administrator Anne Adams. “Catrin sings it beautifully and the band accompany her with great sensitivity.”
You can judge for yourself, as the recording has been uploaded to the chorus website and can be enjoyed for free at https://sheffieldphil.org/how-beautiful-are-the-feet/.
In addition to the new Messiah arrangements, the chorus also commissioned Darius to write some Christmas music for them to sing at their popular annual carol concert at the City Hall in December. He has created a new brass arrangement of Resonet in Laudibus, a 16th-century German carol. If that concert can’t go ahead, they plan to perform it virtually as part of an online carol concert, along with the Black Dyke Band, again recorded from their own homes.
The brass Messiah concert has been rescheduled for Saturday, April 23, 2022 in Sheffield City Hall. The 180 members of the chorus were going to be joined by more than 50 singers from Perigeux in France and from Sheffield’s twin city of Bochum in Germany. Happily, both choirs are planning to cross the Channel for the rescheduled concert.
In June 2020, during the coronavirus lock-down, our Music Director Darius Battiwalla produced brass arrangements of some movements from Handel’s Messiah that hadn’t up to then been arranged for brass band accompaniment. He did this in preparation for our performance of Messiah with the world-famous Black Dyke Band, originally scheduled for 2020 but which had to be postponed until April 2022.
Listen to one of the movements, the lovely soprano aria ‘How Beautiful Are the Feet’, sung by Yorkshire-born soprano Catrin Pryce-Jones accompanied by the Black Dyke Band.
Catrin Pryce-Jones
Yorkshire born Soprano Catrin Pryce-Jones studied music at the Royal Academy of Music, Chethams School of Music and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
Catrin has been soprano soloist with many choral societies including the Edinburgh Choral Union, Oxford Harmonic Choir, Brighton Orpheus Choir, Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus and the Halifax Choral Society, singing solo soprano in numerous oratorios including the Fauré Requiem, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, the Vivaldi Gloria, Bach’s St John Passion, Mozart’s Requiem, Haydn’s Creation and of course Handel’s Messiah.
The Chorus continues to pay its three professionals during these strange times, which are proving to be very difficult for professional musicians, many of whom are self employed. In return for the continued payments, the three musicians are working for the Chorus in different ways.
For example, Music Director Darius Battiwalla is composing a new Christmas carol, and writing brass arrangements for the sections of Messiah that don’t currently have them. This will enable the Chorus to sing more of Handel’s work when it joins with Black Dyke Band in the re-scheduling of the brass concert which was postponed due to the coronavirus.
“We are pleased to be able to support our three professionals by commissioning alternative work from them at this time” said Chorus Chair Paul Henstridge. ” We are all missing live rehearsals, but at least we will gain a lasting positive out of this very difficult situation”.
Accompanist Rachel Fright and Voice Coach Maggie McDonald are working together to digitise Maggie’s vocal exercises, which are sent to the Chorus to enable them to continue to keep their voices in trim during the lock-down.
You will find them in the printed programme, just £3, available from the foyer (cash only) or the bars (cash or card). If you prefer to use your phone or print your own copy at home, you can download the carol sheet using the links below.
We were pleased to present another short concert in the popular ‘After Hours’ series in the City Hall’s beautiful ballroom at 9.15pm. At 7pm in the main hall Tabita Berglund conducted the Halle in a programme of Grieg and Sibelius, and the Chorus followed in the ballroom with a programme of choral works from Scandinavia and the Baltic.
Presenting this year’s concerts was Tom Redmond, presenter, horn player and animateur specialising in music education. He’s a regular voice on BBC Radio 3 presenting live concerts, studio programmes and the BBC Proms.
Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus present this spectacular Easter Messiah in Sheffield Cathedral, accompanied by the world-famous Black Dyke Band. The Chorus last performed Messiah with a baroque orchestra in April 2017, and is pleased to be presenting the brass band version this Easter. Making it even more special, the Chorus will be joined by choristers from Sheffield’s twin town Bochum in Germany, and from Perigeux in France, following successful singing trips to both European cities over the last two years.
to the death of the great author Alessandro Manzoni – a figure Verdi revered – it is the most theatrical, agnostic and indeed popular work of its kind ever written. From the hushed beginning of its opening ‘Requiem’, to the tumultuous, apocalyptic vision of the ‘Dies Irae’ and the turbulent uncertainty of the ‘Libera Me’, Verdi brings his supreme skills as a dramatist to bear on the traditional liturgy to quite stunning effect. A Requiem not for the dead but for the living.
Choir and the Cantorion Sirenian Singers, accompanied by the Wrexham Symphony Orchestra in the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester.
See What’s On this week in Sheffield on the 
