Announcement
The Consort are delighted to announce that Gary Morley has joined as 1st Tenor. Gary is dedicated and hardworking, with a voice that works well in a Chamber Choir, and he will be a valuable addition to the choir.
Upcoming concerts
Spring Concert - Saturday 25th May, 19:30, St Peter's Church, Horbury
2024 marks the 100th anniversary of the death of Charles Villiers Stanford. This concert will compare and contrast his music with works by composers straddling the late-twentieth and early-twenty-first centuries, including music by Ola Gjeilo and Owain Park, both of whom have become very popular in recent years. We will be exploring both Stanford’s sacred music including his monumental Latin Magnificat for unaccompanied double choir, his much loved three Latin motets and his secular music, including his beautiful part song ‘The Bluebird’ amongst others.
Saturday 22nd June, 19:00, Adel Parish Church, LS16 8DE
More details to follow.
Director's Letter
Click the link below to read the latest letter from our Director of Music, James Bowstead
Our last concert
Saturday 21st October
40th Anniversary Concert at Wakefield Cathedral
Our 40th Anniversary Concert with Austonley Brass was at Wakefield Cathedral.
It featured Rutter's Gloria and other works by Bruckner, Gabrieli, Holt, Parry and Walton.
About Austonley Brass
Austonley Brass boasts some of the most sought after brass musicians and educators in the North of England. Every single performer with Austonley Brass is a soloist in their own right and is at home on the concert platform or recording studio.
Having performed live or recorded albums and radio & TV broadcasts with some of the UK’s world class musical ensembles and performers including: the Hallé Orchestra, the Orchestra of Opera North, the BBC Philharmonic, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Hallé Brass, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Royal Variety Performance Orchestra, Andrea Bocelli, Bryn Terfell, Bon Jovi, Manchester Camerata, the Grimethorpe Colliery Band, the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the Syd Lawrence Orchestra, McFly, the Royal, Northern Sinfonia, Corrine Bailey-Rae, the Goldberg Chamber Orchestra, the Wombats, Elbow, the Black Dyke Mills Band and Dame Shirley Bassey, to name a handful.
For more information, visit austonleybrass.co.uk
Introduction to St. Peter's Consort
St. Peter's Consort is a mixed-voice chamber choir based in Wakefield, formed in 1983 by John S North. The choir has won widespread critical acclaim for its performances of a wide range of sacred and secular music. It has built up an enviable reputation for high standards of performance and interesting programmes which have extended the repertoire to include secular works. The varied performances over the years include services, concerts, broadcasts and visits to cathedrals and churches at home and abroad. The choir has sung in more than half the Cathedrals of England and has taken its music making to North Wales and Scotland. It has sung services in Westminster Abbey, St Georges Chapel Windsor, Notre-Dâme Paris, and in the major churches of Bruges, Ghent and Brussels.
The choir took its name from St. Peter's Convent, Horbury, where the group was based for seven years. When the Convent was sold in 1990, the nuns moved into the neighbouring Guest House and Consort used Horbury Parish Church as its concert venue for a year before moving to Wakefield Cathedral in 1991. Since then concerts have mainly alternated between the Cathedral and St. John's Church at Wentworth Street in Wakefield, both locations providing splendid acoustics for music making.
Since John North's retirement in 2008 there have been four musical directors: Thomas Moore, Sachin Gunga, Philip Collin, and our present MD, James Bowstead.
For more information on the choir please visit the About Us page.
