Academy of Ancient Music/Choir of The Queen’s College

HANDEL: MESSIAH

University Church of St Mary the Virgin

Friday, 7pm

Tickets: www.queenschoir.com

Owen Rees conducts Handel’s great masterpiece with soloists Rowan Pierce (soprano), Esther Brazil (mezzo-soprano), Peter Harris (tenor) and Ashley Riches (baritone), plus the combined forces of Queen’s College’s world-renowned choir and one of the world’s finest period instrument orchestras.

Kennington & District United Church Choirs

GILBERT & SULLIVAN: THE YEOMEN OF THE GUARD

Abingdon Baptist Church

Friday, 7.30pm

Admission free

Trevor Cowlett conducts a concert performance of Gilbert & Sullivan’s tale of love, loss and deception set in the Tower of London in the 16th century. The only one of the Savoy canon without a ‘happy ever after’ ending, it is nevertheless full of humour, with Gilbert’s trademark wit, and the score is one of Sullivan’s finest. There will be a collection after this performance for Abingdon Baptist Church Development Project and Abingdon Carousel Children’s Centre.

Headington Singers

ROSSINI: PETITE MESSE SOLENNELLE

All Saints’ Church, Headington

Friday, 7.30pm

Tickets: On the door

Headington Singers

Famously neither small nor solemn, this glorious work is full of the dramatic intensity of the operas for which Rossini is best known. With Georgina Malcolm (soprano), Serenna Wagner (alto), Peter Willis (tenor), Will Orr (bass), Maureen Cooper (piano) and the Headington Singers Wind Quintet, conducted by Sally Mears.

Music at Oxford

FAMILY CHRISTMAS CONCERT

Christ Church Cathedral

Saturday, 2.30pm

Tickets: 01865 244806 or www.musicatoxford.com

Ideal for families with young children – from babies onwards! – Music at Oxford’s annual afternoon Christmas concert at Christ Church is a relaxed affair, with lots of traditional Christmas music and opportunities for the audience to sing along. With the boys of Christ Church Cathedral Choir and director Steven Grahl. Proceeds go to Christ Church Cathedral Music Trust.

City of Oxford Choir

SONGS OF ANGELS

University  Church of St Mary the Virgin

Saturday, 7.30pm

Tickets: 01865 305305 or www.ticketsoxford.com

Duncan Aspden conducts a concert of old favourites and new discoveries, as well as audience singalongs, on the theme of angels, heaven and peace on earth. Mulled wine and mince pies will be available during the interval.

Commotio

BRITTEN: CHRIST’S NATIVITY

St John the Evangelist

Saturday, 7.30pm

Tickets: www.sje-oxford.org

Matt Berry with Commotio

Commotio, one of Oxford’s most unusual and adventurous choirs, finishes its 20th anniversary year with a selection of little-known Christmas and Advent music from the last 90 years. This includes Christ’s Nativity, written by a 17-year-old Benjamin Britten in 1931, along with rarely-performed works by Peter Inness, Peter Maxwell Davies, Bernard Rose, Michael Tippett and Cecilia McDowall. Conducted by Matthew Berry.

Eynsham Choral Society

CHRISTMAS CONCERT

St Leonard’s Church, Eynsham

Saturday, 7.30pm

Tickets: www.eynshamchoral.org

Launching its 40th anniversary season, Eynsham Choral Society performs cantatas 1 and 6 from Bach’s glorious Christmas Oratorio, Reger’s Und unser lieben Frauen Traum, Palestrina’s Exultate Deo and Elgar’s Christmas Greeting. With Sofia Larsson (soprano), Hannah Bennett (alto), Ben Alden (tenor) and Timothy Nelson (bass), conducted by Stuart Dunlop.

Sorelle Singers

SOME ENCHANTED EVENING

St Mary’s Church, Long Wittenham

Saturday, 7.30pm

Tickets: www.sorellesingers.com

Three sopranos – Katie Blackwell, Megan Strachan and Olivia Bell – formed Sorelle Singers earlier this year after touring Oxfordshire together with Opera Anywhere. Now they are putting on a concert that changes the traditional view of women in opera as lovesick, weak or tragic and celebrates their strengths. Some Enchanted Evening focuses on witchcraft and magic with a repertoire that ranges from Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel to Sondheim’s Into the Woods and Schwartz’s Wicked.

Oxford Coffee Concerts

ADDERBURY ENSEMBLE

Holywell Music Room

Sunday, 11.15am

Tickets: 01865 305305 or www.ticketsoxford.com

Tickets are selling fast for this concert, which includes Dvorak’s String Quintet No.3 in E flat major Op.97, written during the summer of 1893 while in Spillville, Iowa. It was scored for an extra viola and, like the American String Quartet that preceded it, was inspired by the tribal dances of a group of Native Americans who visited Spillville during Dvorak’s stay. With Martyn Jackson (violin), Jenny Sacha (violin), Chris Windass (viola), Vanessa McNaught (viola) and Jane Fenton (cello).

Oxford Bach Choir

ELGAR: THE DREAM OF GERONTIUS

Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford

Sunday, 5pm

Tickets: 01865 980220 or www.oxfordbachchoir.org

Ben Nicholas

Benjamin Nicholas conducts Elgar’s monumental and ground-breaking work, a setting of John Henry Newman’s poem that follows the journey of a man’s soul from deathbed to the afterlife and the judgement of God.

Roderick Williams

With Kathryn Rudge (mezzo-soprano), Ed Lyon (tenor), Roderick Williams (baritone) and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.

Parents & Children Together (PACT)

CAROL CONCERT

Dorchester Abbey

Sunday, 5pm

Admission free but booking essential: www.pactcharity.org/support-us/fundraise-us/carol-concert-2019

The Dorchester Abbey Choir and The Mill Lane School Choir, together with soloist Alison Bruckner, perform in this annual carol concert to raise vital funds for independent adoption charity PACT. Pre-concert refreshments available from 4pm. Donations welcome.

NICOLA LISLE