2026-27
The choir is looking forward to another enjoyable season of music making – the 77th year!
We always welcome new members from all voice parts, so do come along and see what it’s like. See Join Us for more.
WORKSHOP: Rossini PETITE MESSE SOLONNELLE
Saturday 19 September 2026
10.30 to 16.00, Wesley Hall, Crookes
Your chance to come and have a go! The season begins with a full day workshop featuring Rossini’s wonderful Petite Messe Solonnelle. “Have I just written sacred music, or rather, sacrilegious music?” wrote Rossini of the mass which is as full of drama as you’d expect from the composer of William Tell.
This will be a fun day, with plenty of “have a go” singing – and lots of cake! The day will be led by conductor Philip Collin, with Ruth Nicholson on piano. Registration from 10.00. We’ll break for lunch from 12.30 to 14.00, and there are lots of eating places within easy reach at Crookes. There’ll be refreshment breaks as well, and plenty of chance to chat to fellow singers.
You’ll be able to hire a score and hear about how you can join the choir for the concert performance of Petite Messe Solonnelle on Saturday 14 November at St Mark’s Church.
- Sheffield Bach Choir
- Philip Collin – conductor
Tickets are £10 (including tea/coffee & cake)
TO BOOK A PLACE PLEASE EMAIL SARAH HOGAN at secretary@sheffieldbachchoir.org.uk
Rossini PETITE MESSE SOLONNELLE
Saturday 14 November 2026 at 7.30pm
St Mark’s Church Broomhill
Our first concert features Rossini’s wonderful Petite Messe Solonnelle. Ironically titled, the work is neither short nor solemn, but bursts with beautiful operatic melodies, elaborate flourishes and dramatic dynamics.
Written some 30 years after his final opera composition, it’s a full mass which the composer described as one of his “sins of old age”. This sumptuous work is as colourful and dramatic as you might expect from such an accomplished operatic composer – one not to miss!
“choral sound.. most impressive” “joyous” Tom Owen, Sheffield Telegraph (previous concert)
- Sheffield Bach Choir
- Hannah Andrusier – soprano
- Ailsa Mainwaring – alto
- Joseph Banerjee – tenor
- William Burn – bass
- James Mitchell – harmonium
- Ruth Nicholson – piano
- Philip Collin – conductor
Do join us for a wonderful performance at St Mark’s Church Broomhill. Doors open at 7.00 pm.
COME SING MESSIAH
Monday 7 December 2026
St James’s Church Norton
December brings a chance for you to “have a go” – our popular Come and Sing Messiah in St James’s Church, Norton. President George Nicholson will conduct and Music Director Philip Collin will play the organ.
This is always a fun evening for lovers of Messiah, with mulled wine and mince pies available in the interval, so come along and sing your hearts out!
- Professor George Nicholson – Conductor
- Philip Collin – Organ
Tickets available online (see below, booking fee applies) and on the door, £15 (students £9) to include mulled wine and mince pies; scores will be available to hire.
HANDEL – MESSIAH
Monday 14th December 2026 at 7pm
Cutler’s Hall Sheffield
Don’t miss this return of Messiah to Cutler’s Hall following the sell out performance in this most magnificent of settings last year. The choir is thrilled to have been invited back this year, and tickets will no doubt be very popular – the main hall looks marvellous at the best of times but is spectacular decorated for Christmas. Given the choir’s legendary mastery of the work, the stage is set for a very special concert!
Composed in 1741 with text from the Bible, Messiah has been performed countless times the world over ever since, the Hallelujah Chorus featuring in countless films from ‘Bridget Jones’ Diary’ and ‘Shrek the Halls’ to ‘Scrooged’ and ‘The Duchess’.
Make your Christmas celebrations complete by joining the choir, the National Festival Orchestra and a team of stunning soloists for this very special performance. There truly is nothing like hearing this magnificent choral work accompanied by a full orchestra, and Sheffield’s historic Cutler’s Hall, ‘where historic grandeur meets timeless elegance’ will make it an extra special experience!
Refreshments will be available from the Cutler’s Hall bar before the concert and during the interval.
Mistress Cutler Gina Jackson had this to say after last year’s performance: ” The hall normally has a buzz during our annual feast but tonight your choir beat that hands down .“
Bernard Lee in the Sheffield Telegraph following a previous concert: “the final Amen prompted an instantaneous standing ovation. Entirely merited: sopranos soaring, it was absolutely superb choral singing.”
- Sheffield Bach Choir
- National Festival Orchestra
- Ruth Nicholson – Continuo
- Helen Massey – Soprano
- Ailsa Mainwaring – Alto
- Nicholas Watts – Tenor
- Dean Robinson – Bass
- Philip Collin – Conductor
Tickets are likely to sell fast, so booking online is strongly recommended (small booking fee payable). Tickets will be released on Tuesday 8 September, when you can BOOK YOUR MESSIAH TICKETS
Tickets will also be available through choir members; it’s likely that few will be available on the door.
BACH – ST JOHN PASSION
Saturday 13 March 2027 at 19.30
St Mark’s Broomhill
Described by John Elliot Gardiner as being “closer to theatre than anywhere else in his sacred music”, Bach’s St John Passion is full of dramatic tension, with pauses for reflection and chorales providing response. As one of his ‘big three’ it’s a must for lovers of baroque and choral music, and of course, of J.S Bach.
The Sheffield Bach Choir has performed this magnificent work every three years for over fifty years and over twenty with the wonderful National Festival Orchestra, and choir and orchestra are well matched masters of the work. Sung in the original German as part of Classical Sheffield’s Classical Weekend festival 2027 and conducted by Phillip Collin, this will be one not to miss.
“From the outset, the audience was captivated by the sheer intensity of the haunting opening chorus, with the choir and orchestra capturing the pain and suffering of the biblical text.” Gary O-Shea, Sheffield Telegraph, following a previous performance of this work
- Sheffield Bach Choir
- National Festival Orchestra
- Tristan Moore – Evangelist
- William Burn – Christ
- Louise Wayman – Soprano
- Katie Sharpe – Alto
- David Bonar – Bass
- Philip Collin – conductor
Tickets will be available online and on the door, prices to be announced, accompanied children free.
ELGAR – DREAM OF GERONTIUS
Saturday 19th June 2027 at 19.30
Victoria Hall, Sheffield
The season ends with a joint performance of Elgar’s masterpiece with Sheffield Oratorio Chorus, conducted by Philip Collin.
Set to a poem by Cardinal John Henry Newman, it tracks the spiritual journey of an ordinary man’s soul from his deathbed, past judgment by God, and into Purgatory.
Elgar imagined Gerontius to be an ordinary man. “Therefore, I’ve not filled his part with Church tunes and rubbish but a good, healthy full-blooded romantic, remembered worldliness.” The result is full of drama and some of Elgar’s most touching music, from the hushed opening to the sublime ‘Angel’s Farewell’.
‘This is the best of me”, wrote Elgar ‘This, if anything of mine, is worth your memory.”
“bright and well balanced sound throughout” “tremendous.” Tom Owen, Sheffield Telegraph following a previous concert
- Sheffield Bach Choir and Sheffield Oratorio Chorus
- National Festival orchestra
- Katie Symonds-Joy – mezzo soprano
- Peter Davoren – tenor
- bass/baritone to be announced
- Philip Collin – conductor
Tickets will be available online and on the door, price to be determined. Accompanied children will be free
Sheffield Bach Society 