Choir marks 40 years of song with special concert at Minster
THEY HAVE serenaded audiences for four decades, beginning their musical journey with a performance of Bach on a sunny Sunday evening in 1977.
Now, 40 years later, the acclaimed St Peter’s Singers, based in Leeds, have celebrated their anniversary with a special concert at Leeds Minster.
Founded by Harry Fearnley in the summer of the Queen’s Silver Jubilee year, the group has enjoyed a close relationship with the city-centre church, where members continue to rehearse for their many concerts which take place each season.
The choir celebrated their anniversary yesterday at Leeds Minster with a programme of music including Bach’s Cantata 11, Palestrina’s Missa Brevis and EJ Moeran’s Songs of Springtime – each of these three works was sung at the very first concert 40 years ago.
A spokesperson for the group said: “The music of Johann Sebastian Bach has been prominent in the repertoire of St Peter’s Singers and the group sustains an enviable reputation for its Bach performances.”
Later this summer, the choir, which is directed by Dr Simon Lindley, will perform at Fulneck Moravian Church on August Bank Holiday Monday with Bach
Cantatas 78 and 147, as well as Handel’s Foundling Hospital Anthem of 1749. The singers will be at Holy Trinity in Boar Lane, Leeds, on Saturday, September 30, for a Leeds Handel Festival Concert comprising all four 1727 Coronation
Anthems and the Anthem on the Peace, written in 1749 when the composer was at the height of his fame.
A special lunchtime concert at Leeds Town Hall on February 12, 2018, will include English music from exactly 100 years earlier in commemoration of the centenary year of the Armistice.
The 40th season will see a performance on Good Friday next year of Bach’s greatest masterpiece – the Mass in B minor – with the National Festival Orchestra and soloists.