Saturday 16 March 2024 7.30pm Banqueting Suite, Newcastle Civic Centre Orchestra North East Soprano : Ruth Jenkins-Róbertsson Alto : Heather Jill Burns Tenor : Austin Gunn Bass : Andri Björn Róbertsson Musical Director : Mark Anyan Tickets £20 with Free Programme Free for under – 18’s with a paying adult £10 Full – time students & unwaged Available online at https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/newcastle-choral-society Card payments or cash on the door Our first concert of 2024 featured two very different settings of the Roman Catholic Mass. Haydn’s Nelson Mass was followed by Norwegian composer Ola Gjeilo’s Sunrise Mass. Haydn’s foremost biographer and leading authority H C Robbins Landon has described the Nelson Mass as arguably the composer’s greatest single composition. Praise indeed when one considers the huge output of music in all genres that Haydn composed, most of which has become firmly established in the modern repertoire. Certainly the work is full of the energetic tunefulness and lyrical beauty one associates with Haydn, added to glorious and virtuosic solo writing alongside great chorus work, all accompanied by orchestration which benefits from the composer’s long experience of writing instrumental music. Gjeilo’s Sunrise Mass sets the text musically in a way that takes one from the vastness of the universe to the familiarity of Earth with the development of our self-awareness and life in civilised society. The composer sees this as a metaphor for a spiritual journey transcending conflict and dissonance. The music is constantly appealing, written for chorus and strings from which colourful and atmospheric effects are imaginatively drawn. It is a modern work, dating from 2018, providing a fine and contrasting companion to the...
Following on from the successful collaborative concert in June 2022, NCS are delighted to be joining the Newcastle Youth Choir once more for ‘A Christmas Concert’ in the Banqueting Suite of Newcastle Civic Centre at 19.00 on Saturday 02.12.2023 North Tyneside Youth Symphony Orchestra will also be performing Featuring a combined performance of ‘The Night Before Christmas’ by Oliver Tarney a fun setting of the classic Christmas poem featuring bursts of well-known carols such as, God rest ye merry, gentlemen, O little town of Bethlehem, and We Wish you a Merry Christmas (well-suited to audience participation.) Also featuring ‘On Christmas Night’ by Bob Chilcott and ‘Sleigh Ride’ by Leroy Anderson. Tickets priced at £6 each or £20 for a family ticket (plusbooking fee). Email hello@newcastlesings.org, visit...
NEWCASTLE CHORAL SOCIETY is recruiting! Musical Director Mark Anyan Join our friendly choir as we celebrate 70 years of choral excellence, with three exciting concerts, culminating in our Anniversary Concert in 2024 Saturday 15 June 2024 7.30pm Newcastle Civic CentreMass in Blue with the composer Will Todd and his Trio‘Driving jazz grooves and clear, strong, choral writing!’ Plus our newly commissioned piece by renowned composer Kristina Arakelyan, funded by Northumberland Freemasons STEP ONE! Did you take it? Come and Sing with us Faure Requiem Saturday 11 November 2023 All Saints Church Akenside Hill Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 3UF Musical Director Mark Anyan We welcomed guest singers into the beautiful setting of All Saints and enjoyed the Vocal Technique session with Mary Hitch. Mary is a freelance vocal coach and singing teacher and is the Study Leader in Singing at The Glasshouse (formerly) Sage Gateshead’s Young Musicians Programme, in which she coaches the most talented young singers in the north-east. NCS Accompanist Nick Butters Nick became the accompanist for Newcastle Choral Society in December 2021. He teaches and plays at the Centre for Advanced Training at the The Glasshouse and regularly accompanies the cellist, Deborah Thorne and soprano Mary Hitch, and the Wordsworth singers. Nick accompanied us at the Come and Sing. Mark Anyan NCS Musical Director took over for the rest of the session as we worked through the sublime Faure Requiem. We enjoyed a well deserved break for drinks and cakes – lots of them, before finishing the afternoon with a Beatles classic ‘And I love her’ Lots of lovely comments from our guest singers as they headed home. We hope some will be able to try us out as potential members....
A MIDSUMMER CELEBRATIONTraditional and Contemporary Choral works from Handel to Hagenberg, Boulanger to Beach including ‘Zadok the Priest’ and ‘I was Glad’. Saturday 24th June at 19.30 in Trinity Church Gosforth Soprano: Mary HitchSoprano: Katie OswellPiano: Nick ButtersOrgan: Kris ThomsettMusical Director: Mark Anyan £12 with free programme Free to under 18s with a paying adult(£6 for those in full time education or registered unemployed)Available online at https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/newcastle-choral-societyCard payments or cash on the door There will be a Pay bar in the interval – CASH ONLY please Our midsummer concert consists of a wide variety of music drawn from different periods. Monteverdi, Vivaldi and Handel, Mozart, Fauré and Parry are included as well as Ola Gjeilo Morten Lauridsen is currently one of America’s most performed composers,whose Sure on this Shining Night provides us with the title for our programme. We are also pleased to perform a number of works by female composers. Music written by women has often been unjustly neglected in the past but is now being given the attention it fully merits. Amy Beach, Lili Boulanger and Elaine Hagenberg provide a substantial contribution to our programme. In addition to the United Kingdom we visit the USA, France, Italy, and Norway.Quiet, contemplative music and rousing, joyful choruses provide great contrast and there are two items which, conforming with tradition, accompanied important sections of the recent coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla, namely I Was Glad and Zadok the Priest.We are sure you will find much to enjoy in this well-chosen programme. FOR NOW Sing with Us – Two FREE sessions remaining: Discover: what it is like to sing with NCS. We are coming to the end of a series of monthly open rehearsals. Only Two more remain so come along at 7.30pm on the following Mondays: 22 May and 12 June. We started these sessions in February in great style, some participants choosing to come each week, in all sections. Join in – it’s not too late to get a flavour of NCS as we prepare a selection of choral favourites for our Summer Concert. These include works by Handel, Mozart, Lauridsen and Hagenberg, the latter choice, a sure winner to bring a tear to the eye! Sing with us in performance in the lovely setting of Trinity Church Gosforth on 24 June at 7.30pm! Beyond that become a fully fledged member of NCS and enjoy a rewarding choral experience with exciting opportunities ahead! Whats not to...
NEW Sing with Us – FREE sessions: Discover: what it is like to sing with NCS. We are running a series of monthly open rehearsals at 7.30pm on the following Mondays: 20 March,17 April, 22 May and 12 June. We started these sessions in February in great style, some participants choosing to come each week. Hurrah for Sopranos and Altos but we would love to welcome Basses and Tenors! Join in as we prepare a selection of choral favourites for our Summer Concert, including works by Handel, Mozart, Lauridsen and Hagenberg, the latter choice a sure winner to bring a tear to the eye! Sing with us in performance in the lovely setting of Trinity Church Gosforth on 24 June at 7.30pm! Beyond that become a fully fledged member of NCS and enjoy a rewarding choral experience with exciting opportunities ahead! Whats not to...
‘Come and Sing’ Mozart’s magnificent REQUIEM
with members of Newcastle Choral Society
Musical Director: Mark Anyan
SATURDAY 14 SEPTEMBER 2019 10 TILL 3
TRINITY CHURCH GOSFORTH
We had an amazing day on 14th September! Under our Musical Director Mark Anyan’s command, a choir of 104 singers in total, made up of guests and members of NCS, worked hard all day – the powerful attraction of Mozart’s Requiem without a doubt! Thank you to everyone who came and the appreciative audience of family and friends plus some passers by, who came in at the end of the afternoon for an informal performance! ” It really was a very good performance” from an audience member.
Warren Smith, Director of Music at St Mary’s Church Ponteland was our superb guest organist. Our guest soloists were a delight; Emma Anyan Mezzo, Nerys Angel Soprano, Luke Busbridge Bass and multi tasking Mark Anyan as Tenor and Conductor!
Trinity Church is a marvellous venue and our thanks go to the team of staff and volunteers who manage events such as ours so immaculately.
Rehearsals now continue for the Feb 1st 2020 performance of Mozart Requiem in the Banqueting Suite at Newcastle Civic Centre at 7.30pm.
We will also be squeezing in a festive concert on Sat Dec 7th 2019 at Trinity Church again.
Diary Date:
SUNDAY 3rd May 2020 at 3.00pm
SAGE ONE GATESHEAD
NCS are delighted to be collaborating with Hertfordshire Chorus and their Musical Director David Temple in a blockbuster concert in Hall One. https://www.hertfordshirechorus.org.uk/ They are a very impressive choir and it is a privilege to be joining forces with them!
In the first half, the combined choirs of around 200 voices will be performing the North east premiere of James McCarthy’s Codebreaker’– an oratorio about the life of Alan Turing, the “father of computer science”, commissioned by Hertfordshire Chorus in 2014. It’s a terrific piece!
This will be conducted by Mark Anyan
In the second half, David Temple will conduct Vaughan Williams Sea Symphony
It’s all go at NCS! Come and join us!!
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On SATURDAY 29 JUNE 2019, 7.30pm
TRINITY CHURCH GOSFORTH
NEWCASTLE CHORAL SOCIETY and NCS CHAMBER CHOIR
Musical Director MARK ANYAN
A bit of Awakening and Toe Tapping went on in our FEEL THE SPIRIT concert last month, the final one of the 18-19 season!
RUTTER Feel the Spirit
TIPPETT Five Spirituals
BRITTEN Rejoice in the Lamb
The audience enjoyed the varied programme and particularly the guest organist Louise Reid who accompanied the choir for the Britten piece Rejoice in the Lamb. Louise’s son Christopher, a chorister at Newcastle Cathedral, sang the Treble in the same piece. Members of the choir took solo roles in the Britten and the Tippett and were declared a hit!
S
ara Louisa Parry mezzo soprano delighted us with 3 pieces by Harold Arlen. Sara, combines a professional singing career with a busy teaching practice. She is a member of vocal trio Closer performing mainly in Switzerland, and in the UK with the Neil Sedaka tribute show Oh! Carol
Our own Eileen Bown accompanied the choir and Sara on piano
NCS Chamber Choir had their own section in the concert singing Charles Wood’s Full Fathom Five and Irving Berlin’s Blue Skies.
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‘Sing Gospel’ workshop
Come find your joy with Sharon Durant at our ‘Sing Gospel’ workshop.
Join in with uplifting gospel songs, beautiful harmonies and John Rutter’s ‘Feel the Spirit’ for a great day of singing together.
Hosted by Newcastle Choral Society
Musical Director Mark Anyan
Saturday 15th June 2019 10 till 3
St Lukes Church Hall, Claremont Road, Newcastle upon Tyne
All voices welcome
Cost £10
Tea and coffee available – bring your own lunch or use food outlets nearby
Parking available on Claremont Road
Contact enquiries@newcastlechoralsociety.org.uk
Mobile 07980 484598 or 07707 621312
Sharon Durant is a freelance vocal teacher, performer, choir leader and composer. She works with singers of all ages leading workshops and singing projects within a wide variety of settings including schools, where she trains teachers on the use of singing in the classroom.
For many years, Sharon worked at Sage Gateshead as Vocal Strand leader, delivering a diverse collection of large-scale singing projects. She has also worked with organisations such as Music in Hospital and Care, British Lung Foundation (Singing for Lung Health), Sunderland Music Hub and Concordia.
Sharon directs, composes and arranges for several community choirs including Customs Voices, Urban Chorus and North East Gospel Choir and performs as part of Mouthful, a four piece ensemble who push the boundaries of vocal possibility and successfully devise new vocal material.
On Saturday 23 March 2019 7.30pm
at the Banqueting Suite Newcastle Civic Centre
Newcastle Choral Society and the NCS Chamber Choir
Musical Director Mark Anyan had a blast with
Carl Orff’s ‘Carmina Burana’
Our soloists were stunning!
Austin Gunn Tenor
Lisa Swayne Soprano
Philip Smith Baritone
David Murray and Eileen Bown provided the accompaniment, on two pianos, and also performed Lutoslawski ‘Variations on a Theme of Paganini for two Pianos’ which was breathtaking!
We were joined by a choir of schoolchildren from St Godric’s RC Primary School Durham and St Stephen’s RC Primary School Longbenton. They behaved impeccably, sang their own pieces beautifully in the first half and gave that extra lift to Carmina Burana. Lovely comments were received from the Head Teacher of St Godric’s:
‘A great experience that will inspire the children for years to come! We were so well looked after and everyone was so kind to us.’
and from the Deputy Head of St Stephen’s ‘It was a pleasure to be involved and such an experience for all of the children and their families.’
From an appreciative audience member: ‘Carmina was amazing, a ‘tour de force’ and the children’s input to the whole concert, brilliant’.
We were all very happy!
David Whetstone, former Culture Editor of the Journal was kind enough to give us a lovely review. This can be viewed here
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NCS Chamber Choir was born June 2018
Our Christmas 2018 concert was held on 15 December, forecast to be dire weather later in the afternoon and sure enough it was! Arctic blasts transformed the roads and pavements into sheets of ice! Singers living in farflung places and prospective audience members decided it was safer to stay at home. Nevertheless, for the hardy folk who turned out undeterred, we thank you! It was a super night, much appreciated by the audience. NCS Chamber Choir, newly formed in the summer,sang an Appalachian Carol which was well received.
‘ A cappella group Quintessential Voices brought traditional and modern elements to the concert in their own inimatable way.
The pay bar and the complementary mince pies went down a treat. Trinity Church Gosforth is such a great venue and we were, as always, well looked after by their staff and volunteers.
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Roderick Williams Baritone
BRITTEN ‘WAR REQUIEM’
Newcastle Choral Society (NCS) was delighted to be the guest choir of Cleveland Philharmonic Choir (CPC), along with Northern Spirit Singers for this magnificent performance held in Sage One on Saturday 10th November 2018.
We joined the Choristers of Durham Cathedral and St Peter’s Church Stockton, Cleveland Philharmonic Junior Choir, and the Mowbray Orchestra. The acclaimed soloists were the magnificent baritone Roderick Williams, his voice deemed by an audience member to be ‘like melted chocolate’ wonderfully expressive tenor Mark Padmore and thrilling soprano Rachel Nicholls who sat amongst the choir. The Conductors were led by the commanding John Forsyth MBE, Gary Matthewman, and Daniel Cook, Master of the Choristers, Durham Cathedral. The details of the concert can be viewed here
A wonderful evening and a thrill to perform alongside CPC!
We sang to a hugely appreciative audience totalling 1111 and received rapturous applause as well as many post concert plaudits!
…“fantastic, marvellous performance, most impressive, never boring. Well done!
...Astonishing’ ‘Astounding’’ A triumph’ ‘Magnificent’…
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Adam Bushnell Author and Educator
Mark Anyan Musical Director NCS
NCS at Trinity Church Gosforth
A Tenor and a Bass enjoying the summer sun
Singers awaiting….
Two Tenors in the summer sun
Our summer concert featured compilations of familiar and traditional tunes and texts of the British Isles, some with a new twist, all interwoven with readings from Adam Bushnell, local author and storyteller, and all sung by the full chorus accompanied by Venera Bojkova.
Adam Bushnell is a qualified teacher, experienced storyteller and published author. He aims to inspire a love of creative writing and reading amongst adults and children alike. He is also voice over artist for museums, audio guides and audio books CDs.
He certainly enthralled our audience and made us laugh too!
Venera Bojkova is a recitalist, teacher and workshop leader, a skilled harpist and also conducts Bishop Auckland Choral Society.
We were delighted to introduce the newly formed 18 strong NCS Chamber Choir who performed madrigals to an appreciative audience. They will continue to enhance our concerts in the future.
Newcastle Choral Society
Mark Anyan Musical Director
‘Summerthyme and Tales
The Sprig of Thyme: John Rutter
Selection of traditional songs of the British Isles
Songs and Sonnets: George Shearing
Shakespeare inspired Jazz settings
Venera Bojkova Piano
Adam Bushnell Author and Storyteller
Saturday June 30th 2018 at 7.30pm
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