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
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
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
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.
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