Candlelit Christmas Concert

It’s that time of year again, when choirs prepare for their Christmas concerts – traditionally the best loved and best attended performances of the year. That is true for the Surrey Hills choirs: Surrey Hills Chamber Choir and their sister choir, the Surrey Hills Singers, whose joint Christmas concerts have become an unmissable event for their supporters over the last few years. This year’s concert is at 7pm on Sunday 13th December at St Nicolas’ Church, Guildford. 

It has been quite a year for the Chamber Choir, with a highlight being a trip to the Cork International Choral Festival at the end of April. As well as the competition itself, this involved singing at a welcome gala with other choirs, and singing in local churches as part of the Sunday services. Although we did not win the competition, it was a wonderful opportunity to visit a beautiful part of the world, to compete with some of the finest amateur choirs around, and to enjoy each other’s company for a long weekend. 

So what are we looking forward to for our Christmas concert? Long-standing supporters will know that we have sung songs in many languages over the years, but we have never sung in Finnish. This December we will put that right with Mia Makaroff’s beautiful Armottoman Osa. That will be part of our usual mix of classical and contemporary, and sacred and secular music. One highlight will be Gustav Holst’s Christmas Day, a medley of traditional carols, including God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen and The First Nowell. 

What can first time audience members expect? Well, first of all, excellent musicianship: we rehearse long and hard so audiences can enjoy top quality singing. But more than that, we aim to engage the audience by our story-telling: getting to the heart of the meaning of all the songs. And we wouldn’t be able to communicate that if we didn’t learn all of the music by heart – no singing from scores in the concerts. And we don’t just stand in unmoving lines at the front – expect a full use of the space available in the course of the concert. 

If you haven’t been to one of our concerts before, the Christmas concert is the best place to start, which is why so many come back year after year. We hope to see you there! 

Tickets are £15 for adults and £5 for children and will be on sale from Saturday 14th November from our website at https://www.singsurreyhills.com/events