Season 2025/2026
We take great pride this season in celebrating 20 years since the very first of our Oxford “Come and Sing” performances. Over the years, we have immensely enjoyed the loyalty, commitment, and musical spirit of our singers. Together, we have raised thousands of pounds for worthy causes – first for The Art Room; more recently for organisations dedicated to nurturing creativity in schools and inspiring young people to discover the joy of music and song; or other organisations who are helping the homeless – or those in detention – to experience how singing can help to build self-respect and confidence.
But all good things must come to an end – eventually. So we have made the difficult decision that this year’s concert will also be our final Oxford Orpheus Concert. The reasons are many: they include concerns about costs, about repetitions of repertoire, about the stamina of our Trustees – and even of our uniquely wonderful Musical Director. Above all we should like to finish with a celebration, not with a feeling of managed decline.
So it feels fitting to return to the piece with which it all began in 2006. By once more raising our voices together in Messiah, we come full circle – bringing to a close not only a concert, but 20 remarkable years of music-making, fellowship, and shared joy. HALLELUJAH! But with a difference !! 20 years on we shall be performing the Goossens-Beecham version of this wonderful piece. Robert Dean explains:
When I was a young boy, my sister bought a 7 inch EP of choruses from this beloved piece. She had primarily bought it for the “Hallelujah” chorus, but it also contained the “And the glory of the Lord” and “Glory to God” choruses. This was recorded well before the authentic movement re-imagined the piece and these choruses were taken from a complete recording of a version orchestrated by Sir Eugene Goossens, commissioned and conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham. Being a maverick when it came to his realisations of Baroque choral works, Beecham had wanted a new version orchestrated as Handel might have done it if he had the resources of a modern orchestra available to him – and so he asked Goossens “to throw the kitchen sink at it”. As a result, for some years I always assumed the Hallelujah Chorus began with a cymbal crash!
40 years later, I was the Chorus Master when Richard Hickox revived the ‘Goossens Messiah’ for a performance in the Royal Albert Hall. Hearing again the wonderfully outlandish colours conjured up, I determined there and then to conduct this version myself if ever the opportunity arose – I am now thrilled to be conducting a performance where the astonishing and colourful re-imagining of the score, set for a Verdi Requiem size orchestra but which also includes a harp and three percussionists, will startle and intrigue you! Because of its very inauthenticity, it is nowadays seldom performed. However, with its striking orchestration, it certainly deserves an outing, particularly accompanying the size of choir which we hope to field for this. Please encourage your die-hard Messiah friends to sign up, for if it is to succeed, it will need at the very least the number of singers we fielded for the Verdi this year – and for those of you who might say, “not another Messiah”, I can guarantee you will have never heard it quite like this before. It promises to be a memorable and surprising event. I do hope I have whetted your vocal cords with the above and that you will come and joyously participate, relishing the sense of occasion whilst actively contributing to a worthy 20-year celebration which this idiosyncratic yet still respectful version will inspire.”
Regarding the Workshop day on 22 November, Robert comments:
“COME AND SING MESSIAH”!!
How many times have we seen this on a flyer or poster? Whilst everyone assumes they know the notes and how to sing this wonderful oratorio, in the workshop I would like to put this to the test (in the friendliest way possible!) Not only will this be a day’s refresher course, but I also hope to give you pointers and tips on the good vocal technique needed to sing the plethora of choruses and survive, how to manage the multitude of runs without running out of puff and how to make the best possible sound in the Hallelujah chorus! For me this is an exciting challenge to pack the day with information whilst telling you much about the version we are doing. If you have a Messiah on your bookshelf, it’s time to dust it off and to renew acquaintance with this masterpiece because we shall be performing it in a way very different from the usual…….
So there is your invitation! And booking for both Workshop and Concert days is now open!! We have managed to hold the price for the Workshop to be the same as last year at £25. Unfortunately, rising costs for the Concert Day (partly musician costs, but more significantly the cost of hiring the Town Hall ☹) mean that we have reluctantly had to raise the cost of the Concert Day to £40.
You can find full information about each Event Day by clicking on the boxes at the top left of this page. Choral scores are the normal Messiah scores. If you don’t already have one, please source your own copy as soon as possible after booking! Novello (old or new edition) scores are recommended. Blackwell’s and Choral Line are usually reliable sources.
BOOK NOW BY CLICKING ON THE LINKS BELOW TO EVENTBRITE
BOOK WORKSHOP BOOK CONCERT DAY
We shall be supporting two partner charities in 2025-2026: The first will once again be the Oxford Bach Choir’s Schools Choral Programme whose purpose is to promote good quality choral singing in secondary schools in the Oxford area – hopefully helping sustain a choral tradition among the young people who are our future singers! We will also be supporting The Choir with No Name which in recent years has set up choirs for homeless people in seven UK cities. During the next 12 months they will be investigating the viability of establishing such a choir in Oxford.