Coming Up This Season
The YPC really ‘hit the ground running’ at the start of their 2018/19 season with 2 concerts in the month of November.
On 3rd November 2018 at 7.00 pm in Wakefield Cathedral, the YPC feature an evening of Elgar’s music. As we approach the nation’s annual season of remembrance, this year prominently commemorating the 100th anniversary of the end of WW1, the concert will feature Elgar at his most noble in The Spirit of England which is a setting Laurence Binyon’s poem from which the famous epitaph adopted by the British Legion comes ‘They shall grow not old......’. Alongside this the orchestra will feature ‘Pomp and Circumstance March No 4’.
The second half will consist of Elgar’s setting of another period poem in The Music Makers. A work composed before the horrors of WW1 had so affected Elgar and so many others.
Experienced Soloists Gaynor Keeble, (Mezzo) and Ben Thapa (Tenor), join the YPC and together with the Amici Ensemble in full symphony orchestra format, this will ensure a performance of outstanding stature.
On Sunday Evening 25th November at 6.30pm in Wakefield Cathedral, YPC will present Handel’s Messiah. Probably the best loved of choral works in the English Choral repertoire. It is here performed on the cusp of the Advent season, when it so often featured worldwide.
It is 7 years since the YPC performed ‘Messiah’ in the Cathedral and with superb soloists Bibi Heal (Soprano), Beth McKay (Contralto), Toby Ward (Tenor) and Miles Taylor (Bass) and the Amici Ensemble in support it will be a memorable night.
Only a few weeks later on Saturday 15th December 2018, 7.00pm in Wakefield Cathedral, will be the YPC’s Annual Christmas Concert. This has become one of the most popular events of the year in this area, with tickets always needing to be bought early to guarantee your seat. As usual it will be a joyful evening of Christmas celebration with music old and new, carols to sing and the seasonal sound of brass and organ. The YPC’s guests for this evening will be the Silcoates School Choir. Come and experience an evening which is sure to set your Christmas off on the right lines.
Spring sees the YPC change mood to feature music from the Baroque period. On Saturday 6th April 2019 at 7.00pm in Wakefield Cathedral, it will present one of the most technically challenging of works in Handel’s Dixit Dominus. Alongside this will be the ever popular setting of Gloria by Vivaldi and, from the Amici Ensemble, The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba.
Soloists Katie Kelly (Soprano), Clare McCauldin (Mezzo), Chris Trenholme (Tenor) and Miles Taylor (Bass), will add their considerable vocal expertise to what should be a most interesting and enjoyable evening of ‘early’ music.
In contrast, the YPC’s Summer Concert, on Saturday 15th June 2019 at 7.00pm in Wakefield Cathedral will swing forward to the 20th and 21st Centuries to feature the works of possibly the UK’s favourite living choral composer, John Rutter. In a first performance in this area the YPC will feature The Gift of Life. This a 6 movement choral celebration of the living earth, of creation and of life itself. It contains a Kaleidoscope of moods from contemplative to majestic and inspirational.
Also will be featured JR’s ever popular cycle of spirituals Feel the Spirit a joyous celebration of the genre and here the YPC is thrilled to be welcoming back Melanie Marshall as the Mezzo soloist for whom John Rutter wrote the solo parts of the work. The YPC have performed this work, to critical acclaim (and standing ovations) on two previous occasions and recorded it on their last CD, John Rutter himself commenting ‘A performance with heart and soul and voice. The fervour of the spirituals comes through triumphantly and movingly from first to last’.
Tickets are available for all these concerts from the Box Office on this website, priced at £16 (Seniors £14, students and under 16’s £5).
