Vocalis

20/04/2026

Vocalis summer concert ‘Deep River’
📍 St Wilfrid’s Church, Duchy Road, Harrogate HG1 2EY
🕰️ Sunday 12th July 2026 at 4.00pm

Vocalis are delighted to welcome you to their summer afternoon concert, offering a programme filled with joyful, uplifting and at times deeply moving choral music, all enhanced by the beautiful acoustics of St Wilfrid’s Church. Under the direction of Musical Director James SavageHanford, the choir will present a rich selection of American spirituals, folk songs and timeless favourites from the Great American Songbook.

The programme features a number of wellknown spirituals and Gospel songs, including Michael Tippett’s powerful set of Five Spirituals from A Child of Our Time — Steal Away; Nobody Knows the Trouble I See; Go Down, Moses; O, By and By and Deep River. You’ll also hear Moses Hogan’s thrilling arrangement of The Battle of Jericho.

The concert continues with a set of Appalachian folk music, including a beautifully crafted arrangement of Shenandoah and the traditional Shaker tune Simple Gifts.

To bring the afternoon to a warm and memorable close, Vocalis will send you on your way with a selection of beloved Great American Songbook classics such as George Gershwin’s Summertime, Cole Porter’s Let’s Do It, and Ain’t Misbehavin’ by Thomas “Fats” Waller and Harry Brooks.

Tickets: Adults £15, Students £7, under 19s and carers/companions free.
Online tickets via: www.harrogatevocalis.org.uk or available from Vocalis members and on the door.

Refreshments will be available during the interval.

24/03/2026

Vocalis are very much looking forward to this year’s Passiontide collaboration with John Longstaff, St Peter’s Church choir and the Harrogate Bach Players; a complete performance of Bach’s St. John Passion in a new English translation by Andrew Greenan and John Longstaff.

Toby Ward (Evangelist)
Andrew Greenan (Jesus, bass arias)
Richard Cressall (Pilate)
Jennifer Clark (soprano)
Yvonne Howard (alto)
Alexander Grainger (tenor)
Alan Horsey (organ)

🕰️ Wed April 1st 7:15
📍 St Peter’s Church, Harrogate
See poster for ticket details

09/03/2026

Vocalis Chamber Choir is currently putting the finishing touches to their exciting and engaging programme for this Saturday’s spring concert ‘Passion & Adoration’

📍 Wesley Centre, Harrogate, HG1 1PP
🕰️ Saturday 14th March at 7.00pm


A fascinating and inspiring musical evening of meditation and devotion in the comfortable surroundings of the Wesley Centre. Musical Director James Savage-Hanford has put together a glorious programme of choral and instrumental music drawing on Lenten themes of Christ’s crucifixion and adoration of His mother Mary, alongside other prayerful invocations.

The evening will include male and female composers across the centuries, from Italian-born Antonio Lotti who composed his 8-part Crucifixus around 1719, up to the current day with Cornish-born Kerensa Briggs’s Media vita. Vocalis will perform Sergei Rachmaninov’s wonderful Bogoroditsye Dyevo (from the All-Night Vigil) and two pieces by the contemporary Estonian composer Arvo Pärt: The Deer’s Cry and The woman with the alabaster box. Other composers included in the evening are Amy Beach, Pablo Casals, Knut Nystedt, Henryk Górecki, Ola Gjeilo and Caroline Shaw.

James has paired the choir’s resplendent a ca****la offerings with instrumental music provided by cellist Doug Badger and pianist Matthew Kam, who will perform another Arvo Pärt piece, Spiegel im Spiegel, as well as Olivier Messiaen’s extraordinary Louange à l’éternité de Jésus from the Quartet for the End of Time (composed and first performed in 1941 while Messiaen was interned in a prisoner-of-war camp).

Tickets: Adults £15, Students £7, under 19s and carers/companions free.
Online tickets via: www.harrogatevocalis.org.uk or available from Vocalis members and on the door.

Refreshments will be available during the interval.

15/02/2026

Many congratulations to Harrogate Ladies’ College Chapel Choir on this outstanding achievement. It was a pleasure to share our Christmas concert with them last year and we wish them well at Symphony Hall, Birmingham! 🎶

A huge congratulations to our incredible Chapel Choir, who have secured a place at the Barnardo's National Choir Competition Grand Final for the third year in a row.

The Choir will again perform in the Birmingham Symphony Hall next month, and this year, we're Yorkshire's lone representative in the Senior Grand Final!

READ | https://www.hlc.org.uk/news-article/chapel-choir-named-national-finalist-for-third-consecutive-year/

26/01/2026

Vocalis spring concert ‘Passion & Adoration’
📍 Wesley Centre, Harrogate, HG1 1PP
🕰️ Saturday 14th March at 7.00pm

Vocalis warmly invites you to join them for a musical evening of meditation and devotion in the comfortable surroundings of the Wesley Centre. Musical Director James Savage-Hanford has put together a glorious programme of choral and instrumental music drawing on Lenten themes of Christ’s crucifixion and adoration of His mother Mary, alongside other prayerful invocations.

The evening will include male and female composers across the centuries, from Italian-born Antonio Lotti who composed his 8-part Crucifixus around 1719, up to the current day with Cornish-born Kerensa Briggs’s Media vita. Vocalis will perform Sergei Rachmaninov’s wonderful Bogoroditsye Dyevo (from the All-Night Vigil) and two pieces by the contemporary Estonian composer Arvo Pärt: The Deer’s Cry and The woman with the alabaster box. Other composers included in the evening are Amy Beach, Pablo Casals, Knut Nystedt, Henryk Górecki, Ola Gjeilo and Caroline Shaw.

James has paired the choir’s resplendent a ca****la offerings with instrumental music provided by cellist Doug Badger and pianist Matthew Kam, who will perform another Arvo Pärt piece, Spiegel im Spiegel, as well as Olivier Messiaen’s extraordinary Louange à l’éternité de Jésus from the Quartet for the End of Time (composed and first performed in 1941 while Messiaen was interned in a prisoner-of-war camp).

Tickets: Adults £15, Students £7, under 19s and carers/companions free.
Online tickets via: www.harrogatevocalis.org.uk or available from Vocalis members and on the door.

Refreshments will be available during the interval.

15/12/2025

Messiah
Friday 19th December 2025 at 7.15pm
St Peter’s Church, Harrogate, HG11PB

Get ready to experience the magic of G.F. Handel's "Messiah" in a live performance in the centre of Harrogate in the run-up to Christmas
Handel's ever-popular Messiah with the choirs of St Peter's, St Wilfrid's churches, Vocalis members and the Harrogate Voices, with the professional Harrogate Handel Players (leader Fiona Love) and star soloists Jenny Stafford, Heather Ireson, Alexander Grainger and Andrew Greenan. John Longstaff (DoM St. Peter's) directs, Anthony Gray (DoM St. Wilfrid's) on the organ

Tickets £18.00
Available online: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/gf-handel-messiah-tickets-1952611596849
Via St Peter's Parish Office (cash or cheques only) by calling 07425 161 425
Or on the door (card payments accepted)

06/12/2025

Tomorrow…

On Christmas Night
A Festive Concert by Vocalis
Sunday 7 December, 4.00pm
St Wilfrid’s Church, Harrogate, HG1 2EY

Vocalis Chamber Choir, directed by James Savage-Hanford, invites you to an afternoon of glorious seasonal music in the magnificent setting of St Wilfrid’s Church, Harrogate.

The centrepiece of the programme is Bob Chilcott’s On Christmas Night. Composed in 2010, it is a sequence of eight carols telling the Christmas story using familiar carol melodies within his own settings.

Harrogate Ladies’ College Chapel Choir, directed by Kate Morgan will join Vocalis, for a festive collaboration with Anthony Gray, Director of Music at St Wilfrid’s accompanying on the organ.

Alongside Chilcott’s music, the concert features a sparkling selection of festive favourites performed by Vocalis and Harrogate Ladies’ College Chapel Choir with opportunities for audience carol-singing — the perfect way to welcome the start of Christmas!

During the interval, festive refreshments will be available to enjoy in the beautiful surroundings of St Wilfrid’s Church.

Tickets available online via www.harrogatevocalis.org.uk, from choir members or on the door. Adults £15; Students £7; Under 19s and essential companions/carers are free

We look forward to welcoming you for an inspiring afternoon of choral music, festive warmth, and community spirit in one of Harrogate’s most beautiful historic buildings.

06/12/2025

Messiah
Friday 19th December 2025 at 7.15pm
St Peter’s Church, Harrogate, HG11PB

Get ready to experience the magic of G.F. Handel's "Messiah" in a live performance in the centre of Harrogate in the run-up to Christmas
Handel's ever-popular Messiah with the choirs of St Peter's, St Wilfrid's churches, Vocalis members and the Harrogate Voices, with the professional Harrogate Handel Players (leader Fiona Love) and star soloists Jenny Stafford, Emma Carrington, Alexander Grainger and Andrew Greenan. John Longstaff (DoM St. Peter's) directs, Anthony Gray (DoM St. Wilfrid's) on the organ

Tickets £18.00
Available online: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/gf-handel-messiah-tickets-1952611596849
Via St Peter's Parish Office (cash or cheques only) by calling 07425 161 425
Or on the door (card payments accepted)

10/11/2025

On Christmas Night
A Festive Concert by Vocalis
Sunday 7 December, 4.00pm
St Wilfrid’s Church, Harrogate, HG1 2EY

Vocalis Chamber Choir, directed by James Savage-Hanford, invites you to an afternoon of glorious seasonal music in the magnificent setting of St Wilfrid’s Church, Harrogate.

The centrepiece of the programme is Bob Chilcott’s On Christmas Night. Composed in 2010, it is a sequence of eight carols telling the Christmas story using familiar carol melodies within his own settings.

Harrogate Ladies’ College Chapel Choir, directed by Kate Morgan will join Vocalis, for a festive collaboration with Anthony Gray, Director of Music at St Wilfrid’s accompanying on the organ.

Alongside Chilcott’s music, the concert features a sparkling selection of festive favourites performed by Vocalis and Harrogate Ladies’ College Chapel Choir with opportunities for audience carol-singing — the perfect way to welcome the start of Christmas!

During the interval, festive refreshments will be available to enjoy in the beautiful surroundings of St Wilfrid’s Church.

Tickets available online via www.harrogatevocalis.org.uk, from choir members or on the door. Adults £15; Students £7; Under 19s and essential companions/carers are free

We look forward to welcoming you for an inspiring afternoon of choral music, festive warmth, and community spirit in one of Harrogate’s most beautiful historic buildings.

03/11/2025

Did you know that the Swiss composer Frank Martin’s popular Mass for double choir resided in a drawer, unperformed, for some forty years? The composer considered this work, dating from the 1920s as something of a private matter between God and himself. We are thankful that it eventually came to light as it forms a centre piece of our autumn concert this coming Saturday. Our Musical Director, James Savage-Hanford, has paired this beautiful piece with Fauré’s celebrated Requiem. The evening will also include the 1st movement of Antonin Dvořák’s Piano Quintet in A Major, Op 81 and Maurice Ravel’s Cinq Melodies Populaires Grecques.

We will be joined by first class musicians Robert Webb (baritone), Jennifer Clark (soprano), the Dales Ensemble and Tim Harper (Assistant Musical Director of Ripon Cathedral)

📍 Wesley Centre, Oxford Street, Harrogate, HG1 1PP
📅 Saturday 8th November 2025
⏰ 7.00pm
🎟️ Tickets are available online via www.harrogatevocalis.org.uk - from choir members or on the door.
Adults £15, Students £8, under 19’s and essential companions/carers are free.