Welcome to the website of The Singers, a chamber choir based in Newcastle upon Tyne

The choir draws its members from all over the North East as well as singers regularly travelling to monthly Singers events from Yorkshire, the Midlands, Cheshire, Cumbria and Scotland! We sing beautiful music in beautiful venues in the UK and abroad.

Recent event

York Minster – Choral Residency 6 – 8 April 2024

The Singers are delighted and privileged to be able to sing the services in York MInster over the weekend after Easter. We have compiled a beautiful programme of music. This year marks the centenary of the death of the English composer Charles Villiers Stanford. Stanford died in 1924 and was buried on 3 April in Westminster Abbey. He is now mostly remembered for his melodic, accessible and effective choral music. We’ll be including settings by Stanford in all three choral services on Sunday 7 April.

2024 is also the 150th anniversary of the birth of the English composer Gustav Holst. His eight part setting of the Nunc Dimittis remains a relative rarity in performance. We love it more every time we get a chance to sing it. We think of the aged Simeon anticipating death as this setting begins slowly low down in the basses. It ends in glorious confidence with an amazing clash in the high voices – perhaps a moment of ecstasy (or panic?) before (in this case) the glory of death.

We are pairing the Holst with an eight part setting of the Magnificat by the Spanish Renaissance composer Tomás Luis de Victoria at the Saturday evensong . This amazing (honest!) extended setting of the song of Mary is one of our favourite pieces.

Our anthem for the Saturday Evensong is the six part Abendlied (literally ‘evening song’) by Josef Rheinberger. This wonderfully romantic piece is a firm favourite with choirs. Many of us have happy memories of singing this at Vespers in Cologne Cathedral on the first Sunday after Easter in 2016.

2024 is also the 200th anniversary of birth of Anton Bruckner and this is being widely celebrated. His Locus Iste is probably his best known choral work. We’ll be singing this at the Sunday Evensong.

We’re remaining in York to sing at the special service on Monday 8 April to mark the Annunciation (very late this year). We’ll be singing Harold Darke’s simple but effective service setting. We end our residency with another piece by Victoria – the beautiful four part Ne Timeas Maria (Fear not, Mary).

Our organist for the weekend is the wonderfully talented Will Campbell. Will is currently Organ Scholar at Canterbury Cathedral and will soon be taking up a post at Leeds Minster.

Saturday 6 April Evensong, 5.30pm
Magnificat primi toni – Victoria
Nunc dimittis – Gustav Holst
Abendlied – Rheinberger

Sunday 7 April Matins, 10.00am
Te Deum and Jubilate in B flat – Stanford
Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace – Samuel Sebastian Wesley
Livestreamed video: https://bit.ly/3UbrLYX
Order of Service: https://bit.ly/3U34XKP

Sunday 7 April Sung Eucharist, 11.00am
Communion Service in G and B flat – Stanford
Ave verum Corpus – Peter Philips

Sunday 7 April Evensong, 4.00pm
Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis in C- Stanford
Locus iste – Anton Bruckner

Monday 8 April Sung Eucharist, 5.30pm
Darke in E, Collegium Regale – Harold Darke
Ne timeas Maria – Victoria

St Mary Magdalene, Longbenton
11 May 2024 – 12 noon

Annual Concert 

St George’s Jesmond
11 May 2024 – 15:00 to 16:00

Music for a Jesmond Spring

as part of the Jesmond Community Festival 2024

Joining The Singers

If you are looking for opportunities to sing with a top notch friendly choir please explore the possibilities of joining us. We rehearse one weekend most months – a Friday evening and the following Saturday morning. If you are interested in the work of the choir please contact the choir’s musical director, Donald Halliday.

The Singers, St Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh, 2019 [photo DH]

YOU MISSED …

Durham Cathedral – Choral Eucharist for the Epiphany

Saturday 6 January 2024, 7.30 pm

Communion Service in G and B flat – CV Stanford (1852 – 1924)
Anthem: Omnes de saba – Jacob Handl (1550 – 1591)

The Singers
Conductor Donald Halliday
Organist Kris Thomsett

Link to Order of Service

Christmas with The Singers, Newcastle

Saturday 16 December 2023 7pm

St George’s Jesmond, Newcastle upon Tyne

This year our annual Christmas concert included carols featuring trees and marked the loss of our famous sycamore on Hadrian’s Wall.

Our guests included:

The Magnolia consort of viols
James Clark, Scottish smallpipes

Here’s a LINK to the programme.

St Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh

Sunday 22 October 2023 6pm

St Giles at Six

For programme – click here.

Chester Cathedral
Saturday and Sunday 5 & 6 August 2023

Saturday and Sunday services

See here for details and photos

The Singers at Home

Saturday 13 May 2023, 1 pm

Our annual informal concert in our rehearsal home, St Mary Magdalene in Longbenton in May. This is always an enjoyable occasion and gives us all a chance to engage with our supportive Longbenton community.

Programme here