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Our 2025-26 season started with a performance of Handel’s most popular oratorio, Messiah. Perhaps unusually, this was a September matinée performance, on 27th September, at Christ Church, New Mill. A small group of instrumentalists from The Valley Sinfonia (led by Mary Barber) provided the accompaniment, and the soloists included internationally acclaimed operatic soprano Nicola Mills, with Emily Reaves-Bradley (who is a long-serving musical director of Honley Ladies’ Choir, and has sung solo for us previously), Colin Shires (a Mrs. Sunderland trophy winner) and David Kaye (of the Mastersingers) and indeed it was a memorable performance. It was conducted by Geoffrey Lockwood – his final Messiah with Holmfirth Choral before he retires in December, and Malcolm Hinchliffe was at the keyboard. The concert attracted a large and appreciative audience.

Our Summer concert again took place in Holmfirth Methodist Church on Saturday 28th June 2025, and was followed by canapés and (non-alcoholic) fizz and a social. It was an informal gathering in summery dress on a hot day when the church was cool at the start of the concert, but hotter by the end!

Many thanks to all who helped make this such an enjoyable event – choir members for rehearsals, those who donated food and drink, the appreciative audience (several commented both on the music and the interesting (?) facts about the composers which interspersed the singing and allowed the singers some respite between pieces. Also thanks to Holmfirth Methodist Church for the use of the premises and display technology which all admirably suited this type of event.

Our first concert of 2025 featured Mozart’s ever-popular Requiem, his final work which famously was incomplete at his early death, and which has been “completed” several times by various composers and scholars. We used the more traditional version attributed to Franz Xaver Süssmayr, who did know Mozart and sometimes worked with him. Also in our concert, as a contrasting theme to the Requiem, was Poulenc’s joyful Gloria. Holmfirth Choral has performed both these works more than once before to appreciative audiences, and this concert lived up to expectations. The Valley Sinfonia (leader Mary Barber) accompanied the works, and the soloists were Olivia Hunt (soprano), Hannah Cooper (contralto), William North (tenor), and Charlie Trueman (Bass). The concert was on Saturday March 22nd, and was enjoyed by a larger audience than other recent concerts, despite heavy rain at the time.

Our second concert of the 24/25 season was a Christmas-themed concert in our rehearsal venue – Holmfirth Methodist Church, followed by a Buffet Tea in the community room there.

The concert included some of the Christmas music from Handel’s Messiah together with a selection of Christmas music both popular and less well-known. There were also a few carols for all.

It was a very successful social event, with choir and audience members spending some time eating and chatting after the concert. Our facebook page has some pictures of the spread!

The first major concert of our 2024-2025 season was a performance of one of Rossini’s latest works, written only a couple of years before his death. Although entitled “Petite” – small, it is a full-length mass, using the Latin words that are very familiar to Holmfirth Choral members. Perhaps it was small in the sense that it was written originally for just 12 singers, but most modern performances are by larger choirs – as is ours.

There are four solo parts – for which we welcomed four singers all of whom have sung with us before: Julia Morley (soprano), Sarah Ogden (mezzo soprano), Alistair Donaghue (tenor) and Daniel Sumner (baritone).

Accompaniment was on piano (played by Chris Pulleyn), and harmonium (played by our accompanist Malcolm Hinchliffe)

It was a resounding success – the choir was on form, the quartet of soloists was superbly balanced with excellent solo performances, and some magnificent playing on piano and harmonium.

Calling all singers! This was an opportunity to come along, rehearse, and the perform this much-loved work. Holmfirth Choral led the singing, and a few visitors joined in.

There was a small but appreciative audience for the performance.

In June 2023, we took part in a celebration of Vaughan Williams’ music, specifically his collecting of folk tunes which metamorphosed into hymn tunes which he incorporated into the English Hymnal of 1906 which he edited. The celebration was a year long, involving concerts around the country, and we were privileged to be invited the choir performing in Huddersfield, by Broomdasher – the organisers of From Pub to Pulpit. We gave a recital of music by Vaughan Williams and his teachers (Stanford, Parry and Wood) in the first half, then led the massed singing by a full audience of three of his hymns, accompanied by David Pipe on the organ, in the second half. A memorable event!