October 2025 News
Next concert: Feel the Spirit
St George’s Singers’ next concert is a big birthday celebration for three choral music masters: Arvo
Pärt, Bob Chilcott and John Rutter. ‘Feel the Spirit’ is on Saturday 22 November 2025 at 7.30pm in
St George’s Church, Stockport, and has something for everyone: jazz, spirituals and tintinnabulation
We’ll be singing three works by Chilcott: the Nidaros Jazz Mass, the fascinating Five Days that
Changed the World, and the ‘alternative’ worlds of Ophelia, Caliban and Miranda. Pärt’s Beatitudes
is one of his most simple yet stunning works, and we’ll be joined in Rutter’s Feel the Spirit by the
glorious voice of mezzo soprano Melanie Marshall, for whom Rutter composed the work, and the
Manchester-based Cotton Trio.
Neil Taylor and Rosemary Broadbent will be giving a free pre-concert talk* at 6.45pm in the church
to give invaluable insights into the music. Not to be missed!
We do hope you will be able to join us for this concert. The concert poster is here and for more
information and to book tickets click here.
*Entrance to the talk is included in the concert ticket price. There is no need to book for the talk,
which will take place in the side chapel in the Church.
Singing Day
Booking is now open for our 2026 Singing Day, which takes place on Saturday 17 January 2026 in St
George’s Church, Poynton. This year the work being sung is Karl Jenkins’ The Armed Man: A Mass for
Peace – a work that has enormous relevance at the present time when armed conflicts are raging
across the world. More information, leaflets and registration forms are available here.
A new carol for Christmas
Alongside our usual traditional carols, we’ll be performing a new carol at our ‘Carols by Candlelight’
concert on Saturday 6 December. Alice Beckwith is a much sought-after and award-winning
composer of orchestral, chamber and vocal music, and her carol, Love Came down at Christmas, is a
setting of the famous poem by Christina Rossetti. Alice originally composed the carol several years
ago for ladies’ voices and piano, but has written a new four-part arrangement especially for St
George’s Singers and the children of Bradshaw Hall. You can find out more about Alice and her work
at alicebeckwith.co.uk and tickets for the carol concert, which features the first performance of this
lovely new arrangement, can be found here.
Bradshaw Hall young artists!
Looking ahead to Christmas, we’ve set the children of Bradshaw Hall Primary School a task this year
– design our Christmas concert poster! Twenty-four drawings have been submitted from children
aged 7 to 10, and elements from the entries have been used to create the final poster here. In
addition, all the entries will be on display at our carol concert in St George’s Church, Stockport on 6
December.
New Chair
Many of you who come to our concerts regularly will know John Smith, the indefatigable Chair of St
George’s Singers. But after nine years shepherding the Choir through triumphs and tribulations (not
least of which was Covid) John is handing over the reins and retiring to the second basses. Everyone
in the Choir is enormously grateful to John for his energy, enthusiasm and expertise (musical and
organisational) during his time in the hot seat, and we wish him well in the calmer (if noisier) reaches
of the back row! We’re delighted that taking over from John as Chair is Ros Stuart-Buttle, whose
first concert in the role will be ‘Feel the Spirit’. We all wish Ros the best of luck in her new job.
Chorister of the Year
The BBC’s annual competition to find the Young Choristers of the Year has just been broadcast, and
you can catch up with the semi-finals and the finals for both the Junior and the Senior categories on
BBC iPlayer at BBC One – Songs of Praise – Available now. As an added bonus, when you tune in you’ll
see St George’s Singers’ musical director, Neil Taylor, accompanying all the finalists at Hallé St Peters
in Manchester.
Come and Sing – again!
We were delighted to welcome visitors to our last Come and Sing on Tuesday 30 September, when
Neil introduced them to the syncopated sounds of Chilcott and Rutter! Our next Come and Sing is on
Tuesday 27 January 2026, when all are invited to join us at our rehearsal in St George’s Church Hall,
Poynton, at 7.30pm.
On the evening we’ll be rehearsing the music for our March concert: Faure’s Requiem, plus works by
Jonathan Dove, Gerald Finzi, Will Todd and Edward Bairstow. Music will be provided. Everyone is
welcome, but please contact us in advance to let us know you are coming: secretary@st-georges-
singers.org.uk, tel 01625 857437.
The Choral
Choral singers everywhere might want to go and see The Choral, which is released in cinemas on 7
November 2025. Written by Alan Bennett, directed by Nicholas Hytner, and starring Ralph Fiennes
and a dream team of British actors, it is the story of a Yorkshire choral society during World War One
who are trying to put on a performance of Dream of Gerontius.
The choir itself consists of singers who were specially recruited for the film, and and amongst them we’ll be seeing if we can spot David Hoult, who is well known in the North West as a singer, broadcaster and educationalist, and who has sung with St George’s Singers on many occasions. Our link with the film is even stronger however – the choir was rehearsed by our very own vocal coach, Joe Judge. The film reviews are
great – do go and see it!