The Leeds-based chamber choir St Peter’s Singers make a return visit to the beautiful Balearic island of Mallorca from 26th to 29th October 2013. This will be the choir’s fourth overseas tour, following acclaimed trips to Romania in November 2007, Mallorca in October 2009 and Brittany in May 2011. The choir will be directed by Dr Simon Lindley (Music Director since the choir’s foundation in 1977) and accompanied by its renowned organist David Houlder, who will also perform organ solos in each of the recitals.
The Singers are privileged and deeply honoured to have been invited back to the beautiful Parish Church of St John the Baptist in Muro - where they gave their first recital of the 2009 Tour - and to Palma’s magnificent Basilica de Sant Francesc, which will be the venue for the concluding recital of the 2013 Tour.
The choir and its supporters will again be staying in the lovely coastal resort of Puerto Pollença in the north of the island. This provides an ideal base for the new recital venues – the Parish Churches of Campanet (Eglesia San Miquel) and Artà (Eglesia Transfiguracio del Senyor) – as well as for Muro.
Each hour-long recital will comprise a panorama of sacred choral music from British and Continental traditions spanning over 500 years. Particular features of the 2013 programmes include celebration of the birth centenary of Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) as well as works by composers with particular associations with Leeds Minster, where the Singers are based.
The Singers’ Music Director, Dr Simon Lindley, said:
“It will be our privilege and delight to sing music ranging from the earliest Spanish, Italian and English Polyphonic masters through the succeeding four centuries of the rich heritage of works composed for the British cathedral tradition to American and UK figures of the middle to late 20th and early 21st century. Some of this is music devised particularly for performance in historic Leeds Minster at the heart of Yorkshire (England’s largest county) where the Singers are based and where rehearsals are held nearly every Sunday evening of the year. We thank warmly our Mallorcan hosts, particularly our friend Arnau Reynès, for welcoming us to the magnificent churches in which we will be singing.”
Concert Dates:
Parish Church of Sant Joan
Saturday 26th October
at 2100 hrs
Parish Church of Sant Miquel
Sunday 27th October
at 2030 hrs
Parish Church of Transfiguracio del Senyor
Monday 28th October
at 2000 hrs
Basilica de Sant Francesc
Tuesday 29th October
at 2015 hrs
Free admission, with retiring collection
St Peter's Singers is a mixed choir of about forty voices based in the City of Leeds, directed by Simon Lindley. For well over thirty years the Singers have enjoyed a close relationship with Leeds Minster (St Peter-at-Leeds), formerly Leeds Parish Church, where many concerts and liturgical appearances take place each season. At the same time, the choir performs at many other venues in and around Leeds, including Leeds Town Hall, St Anne's Roman Catholic Cathedral and the Minster Churches of Dewsbury and Doncaster. York Minster has been the venue for three memorable presentations in recent years, and the choir sang Evensong at St Paul's Cathedral on Easter Monday in 2005 and 2008, and at Guildford Cathedral on Spring Bank Holiday Saturday in 2011. Other Cathedrals visited recently have included Derby, Ely, Leicester, Ripon and Worcester.
Recent choral endeavour by the Singers in receipt of national media coverage took place in early Summer of 2011 and included participation in BBC4's award-winning production of Frankenstein's Wedding telecast live from Kirkstall Abbey and the provision of Dominic Haslam's exciting musical score for the critically acclaimed West Yorkshire Playhouse production of John Ford's 'Tis pity she's a whore.
