Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus (also known as Sheffield Phil) is a large choir based in
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...
,
South Yorkshire
South Yorkshire is a ceremonial and metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. The county has four council areas which are the cities of Doncaster and Sheffield as well as the boroughs of Barnsley and Rotherham.
In N ...
, England. The chorus consists of about 190 members from Sheffield and the surrounding area and performs between five and ten concerts each season. A regular venue is
Sheffield City Hall
Sheffield City Hall is a Grade II* listed building in Sheffield, England in Barker's Pool, one of the city's central squares. It was built and is owned by Sheffield City Council but is now managed by the Sheffield City Trust, under a 99-year l ...
, although the choir also performs concerts in the
Bridgewater Hall
The Bridgewater Hall is a concert venue in Manchester city centre, England. It cost around £42 million to build in the 1990s, and hosts over 250 performances a year. It is home to the 165-year-old Hallé Orchestra as well as to the Hallé ...
and
Leeds Town Hall
Leeds Town Hall is a 19th-century municipal building on The Headrow (formerly Park Lane), Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. Planned to include law courts, a council chamber, offices, a public hall, and a suite of ceremonial rooms, it was built be ...
as well as other national and international venues. The musical director is Darius Battiwalla, who has held the post since 1997.
History
The emergence of Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus stems from an amalgamation of two pre-existing Sheffield musical organisations in the 1930s, the Amateur Musical Society and Sheffield Musical Union.
Amateur Musical Society
The local Amateur Musical Society was founded in 1864 and run by H W Ibbotson (a local solicitor), having developed from a singing class he initiated in 1857. From 1935, the recently built Sheffield City Hall became the home of an annual series of concerts, which were to be organised by the Amateur Musical Society. The society changed its name to Sheffield Philharmonic Society and its choir, Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus, became the resident chorus.
Sheffield Musical Union
Founded in 1876 by
Henry Coward
Sir Henry Coward (26 November 184910 June 1944) was a British conductor and composer.
Born in Liverpool to parents in the entertainment industry, Coward took an apprenticeship to a cutler in Sheffield. Educating himself, he became a teacher an ...
, the Sheffield Musical Union started as a
tonic sol-fa class but grew in stature, undertaking international tours in early 1908 and 1911. In 1937, the Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus merged with Sheffield Musical Union, increasing the membership of the choir to almost 400.
Patron
On 6 February 2008, it was announced that the actor and director
Samuel West
Samuel Alexander Joseph West (born 19 June 1966) is an English actor, narrator and theatre director. He has directed on stage and radio, and worked as an actor across theatre, film, television and radio. He often appears as reciter with orche ...
would become patron of the chorus. He had already appeared with the chorus as the narrator for two performances of an arrangement of
Walton's ''
Henry V Henry V may refer to:
People
* Henry V, Duke of Bavaria (died 1026)
* Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor (1081/86–1125)
* Henry V, Duke of Carinthia (died 1161)
* Henry V, Count Palatine of the Rhine (c. 1173–1227)
* Henry V, Count of Luxembourg (121 ...
'' music in 2005.
Notable musical collaborations and events
Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus regularly sings with
BBC Philharmonic Orchestra
The BBC Philharmonic is a national British broadcasting symphony orchestra and is one of five radio orchestras maintained by the British Broadcasting Corporation. The Philharmonic is a department of the BBC North Group division based at MediaC ...
,
Northern Sinfonia
Royal Northern Sinfonia is a British chamber orchestra, founded in Newcastle upon Tyne and currently based in Gateshead. For the first 46 years of its history, the orchestra gave most of its concerts at the Newcastle City Hall. Since 2004, the o ...
,
Manchester Camerata
The Manchester Camerata is a British chamber orchestra based in Manchester, England. A sub-group from the orchestra, the Manchester Camerata Ensemble, specialises in chamber music performances.
The orchestra's primary concert venue is The Bridg ...
and the
Hallé, and over the last few years has performed under the batons of
Gianandrea Noseda
Gianandrea Noseda (born 23 April 1964, Sesto San Giovanni, Italy) is an Italian conductor.
Biography
Noseda studied piano and composition in Milan. He began conducting studies at age 27. He furthered his conducting studies with Donato Renzett ...
,
Nicholas Kraemer
Nicholas Kraemer (born 7 March 1945, in Edinburgh, Scotland) is a British harpsichordist and conductor.
Career
Kraemer began his career as a harpsichordist. From playing continuo (on a harpsichord) at the back of an orchestra he proceeded t ...
and
Sir Mark Elder
Sir Mark Philip Elder (born 2 June 1947) is a British conductor. He is currently music director of the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester, England.
Life and career
Elder was born in Hexham, Northumberland, the son of a dentist. He played the ...
, as well as its own regular conductor, Darius Battiwalla, and others. In previous years, Sheffield Phil has also been conducted by
Sir John Barbirolli
Sir John Barbirolli ( Giovanni Battista Barbirolli; 2 December 189929 July 1970) was a British conductor and cellist. He is remembered above all as conductor of the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester, which he helped save from dissolution in 194 ...
and
Vassily Sinaisky
Vassily Serafimovich Sinaisky (Russian: Васи́лий Серафи́мович Сина́йский, born in Abez, Komi Republic, April 20, 1947) is a Russian conductor and pianist.
Biography
Sinaisky studied conducting with Ilya Musin at th ...
.
On 29 September 2007, the chorus took part in the 75th Gala Concert for Sheffield City Hall, singing with the
soprano
A soprano () is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880&n ...
Lesley Garrett
Lesley Garrett, Order of the British Empire, CBE (born 10 April 1955) is an English soprano singer, musician, broadcaster and media personality. She is noted for being at home in opera and "crossover music".
Early life
Garrett was born in the ...
, joined by dancers
Erin Boag
Erin Boag (born 17 March 1975) is a professional ballroom dancer. She has danced from the age of three, originally starting ballet and later moving into ballroom dance, ballroom, Latin dance, Latin and Jazz dance, jazz. Born in Auckland, New Zeal ...
and
Anton du Beke
Anthony Paul Beke (born 20 July 1966), known professionally as Anton Du Beke (), is a British ballroom dance, ballroom and Latin dancer, and television presenter, best known for being a professional dancer and later a judge on the BBC One cele ...
.
Since around 2006, Sheffield Phil has developed touring and performance links with the Philharmonischer Chor Bochum, who are regular performers with the
Bochumer Symphoniker
The Bochumer Symphoniker is a German orchestra based in Bochum. Its primary residence is the Anneliese Brost Musikforum Ruhr.
History
The orchestra was founded in 1918 originally as the Städtisches Orchester Bochum , at the same time as the B ...
and based in
Bochum
Bochum ( , also , ; wep, Baukem) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia. With a population of 364,920 (2016), is the sixth largest city (after Cologne, Düsseldorf, Dortmund, Essen and Duisburg) of the most populous Germany, German federal state o ...
, one of Sheffield's twin towns in Germany.
Proms
The chorus has been invited to participate in
The Proms
The BBC Proms or Proms, formally named the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts Presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hal ...
on three occasions in recent years. In August 1998, the choir contributed to the total of thousand singers led by
Nicholas Kenyon
Sir Nicholas Roger Kenyon CBE (born 23 February 1951, in Cheshire) is an English music administrator, editor and writer on music. He was responsible for the BBC Proms in 1996–2007, after which he was appointed Managing Director of the Barbican C ...
who sang
Orff
Carl Orff (; 10 July 1895 – 29 March 1982) was a German composer and music educator, best known for his cantata ''Carmina Burana'' (1937). The concepts of his Schulwerk were influential for children's music education.
Life
Early life
Carl O ...
's ''
Carmina Burana
''Carmina Burana'' (, Latin for "Songs from Benediktbeuern" 'Buria'' in Latin is a manuscript of 254 poems and dramatic texts mostly from the 11th or 12th century, although some are from the 13th century. The pieces are mostly bawdy, irreverent ...
''. On 10 September 2005, Sheffield Phil performed in the Proms in the Park event for the Last Night of the Proms in
Heaton Park
Heaton Park is a public park in Manchester, England, covering an area of over . The park includes the grounds of a Grade I listed, neoclassical 18th century country house, Heaton Hall. The hall, remodelled by James Wyatt in 1772, is now only o ...
,
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
. For the 2008 Prom season, members of the chorus joined the
City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus
The CBSO Chorus is a chorus based in Birmingham, England.
Description
It was founded in 1973 as the CBSO Chorus, with an upper age limit of 45 years old. Simon Halsey has served as Chorus Director since 1983. Between 1995 and 2009 was known offi ...
and BBC Philharmonic Orchestra for Prom 75; the programme included
Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classical ...
's ''
Symphony No. 9'' (sung from memory) and his
Elegischer Gesang.
75th anniversary
For the 75th anniversary (2010-11 season) of the chorus a commemorative book was published by the longest serving member, Bill Smyllie. The chorus also appeared on ''
Songs of Praise
''Songs of Praise'' is a BBC Television religious programme that presents Christian hymns sung in churches of varying denominations from around the UK.
The series was first broadcast in October 1961. On that occasion, the venue was the Ta ...
'', working once again with their patron Sam West in Walton's ''Henry V'' and performing a number of large scale works such as
Elgar
Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet, (; 2 June 1857 – 23 February 1934) was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestr ...
's ''
The Dream of Gerontius
''The Dream of Gerontius'', Op. 38, is a work for voices and orchestra in two parts composed by Edward Elgar in 1900, to text from the poem by John Henry Newman. It relates the journey of a pious man's soul from his deathbed to his judgment b ...
'' and
Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (; 9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer best known for his operas. He was born near Busseto to a provincial family of moderate means, receiving a musical education with the h ...
's ''
Requiem
A Requiem or Requiem Mass, also known as Mass for the dead ( la, Missa pro defunctis) or Mass of the dead ( la, Missa defunctorum), is a Mass of the Catholic Church offered for the repose of the soul or souls of one or more deceased persons, ...
''.
Membership and organisation
The chorus is run by an elected committee of volunteers and consists of
soprano
A soprano () is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880&n ...
,
alto
The musical term alto, meaning "high" in Italian (Latin: ''altus''), historically refers to the contrapuntal part higher than the tenor and its associated vocal range. In 4-part voice leading alto is the second-highest part, sung in choruses by ...
,
tenor
A tenor is a type of classical music, classical male singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The lo ...
and
bass sections. Membership of the chorus is by audition and all members are re-auditioned on a regular basis. The musical director is assisted by an accompanist and voice coach.
Discography
References
External links
Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus home page
{{authority control
Choral societies
Yorkshire choirs
Musical groups from Sheffield
Musical groups established in 1864