Concert History
Saturday 17th May 2025 - St Andrew’s Aldborough
Sprig of Thyme. The choir returned to St Andrew’s Church Aldborough on Saturday 17th May 2025 for a varied programme with the theme of classical meeting folk. The music included arrangements by John Rutter, Ralph Vaughan Williams and Matyas Seiber.
Saturday 15th Feb 2025 - St John's Sharow
Yorkshire Composers. Yorkshire’s rich musical heritage has inspired successive generations of fine composers. Our choral programme draws on the traditions of York Minster (Edward Bairstow, his pupil Gerald Finzi, Philip Moore and Richard Shephard) and Leeds Minster (SS Wesley and Simon Lindley). We also include works by Frederick Delius, born in Bradford, and local composer Philip Wilby.
Saturday 19th Oct 2024 - St John's Sharow
Happy and Glorious. The Paulinus Singers present an evening of beautiful unaccompanied music, sung in the welcoming atmosphere of St John’s Church, Sharow.
Tomás Luis de Victoria was the most famous Spanish composer of the Renaissance, on a level with Palestrina and Lassus.
Our concert features the best-known of his twenty masses, the Missa O quam gloriosum, which is based on his own joyful motet of the same name. The Mass is concise; it balances great simplicity with a marvellous controlled fervour.
Saturday 11th May 2024 - St John's Sharow
Songs for 200. The beautifully-reordered church of St John, Sharow celebrates its bicentennial this year. The Paulinus Singers, fortunate to have the church as their base, join in the celebrations with a concert marking some of the musical highlights of the last 200 years (and a few from the previous 200 years).
Saturday 24th Feb 2024 - St Andrew’s Aldborough
Stanford’s Legacy. It’s 100 years since the death of Charles Villiers Stanford, who taught a remarkable list of pupils, including Arthur Bliss, George Butterworth, Gustav Holst. John Ireland, Ernest Moeran and Ralph Vaughan Williams.
Our concert includes works by Stanford, Holst, Vaughan Williams and Stanford’s only female pupil, Rebecca Clarke. Sam Gardner also marks his final concert with us by including some personal favourites. Tim Harper will accompany the choir and also offer a couple of organ interludes.
This concert marks the first visit by the Paulinus Singers to the remarkable 14th century church in Aldborough, near Boroughbridge. Seating is in the church pews, which can prove a little hard, so you are welcome to bring your own cushion.
Saturday 14th Oct 2023 - St John's Sharow
Byrd 400. We mark the 400th anniversary of the death of William Byrd with a concert recognising Byrd himself, his teacher and collaborator Thomas Tallis, his pupils and his influence stretching forward to our own century.
Saturday 120h May 2023 - St John's Sharow
Coronation Composers. Composers chosen for the coronation – but not the coronation music! Handel, Parry and Elgar yes, but also Tarik O’Regan & Roderick Williams.
Twenty different composers are represented in the coronation service. We have chosen seven of them for this unaccompanied concert, but instead of the large set-pieces we sing some of their smaller-scale works.
Our programme also features the beautiful music of Tomás Luis de Victoria, the famous Spanish composer of the late Renaissance, and of Anton Bruckner, the nineteenth-century Austrian composer.
Saturday 25th Feb 2023 - St John's Sharow
Sparrow Mass. The programme includes choral music through the ages from Palestrina to Cole Porter. including well-loved pieces such as Fauré Cantique de Jean Racine, Vaughan Williams Valiant for Truth, Cole Porter Night and Day, and local composer Philip Wilby The Word made Flesh.
Mozart’s Sparrow Mass is a short mass in C major. The nickname is derived from violin figures in the Hosanna which resemble bird chirping.
Tim Harper, Assistant Director of Music at Ripon Cathedral, accompanies the choir in several pieces. He will also play two organ interludes.
Saturday 15th Oct 2022 - St James’s Baldersby
Truth and Beauty. In this beautiful church, the Paulinus Singers present a programme of choral music to bridge the two Elizabethan ages. From Tallis and Byrd to Parry and Finzi.
If ye love me – Tallis
O nata lux – Tallis
Sing joyfully – Byrd
Remember not, Lord, our offences – Purcell
Thou knowest, Lord – Purcell
Cantabo Domino – Palestrina
Sicut cervus – Palestrina
Christus factus est – Bruckner
Songs of Farewell – Parry
My spirit sang all day – Finzi
Haste on my joys – Finzi
Shenandoah – arranged Erb
Autumn Leaves – arranged Carter
Saturday 21st May 2022 - All Saints Ripley
Music, Flowers and Crowns. A celebration for the Queen.
Programme:
Champagne Reception
National Anthem
Reading: the young Queen’s vow
I vow to thee my country – Holst
Prayer for Ukraine – Konysky & Lysenko
The Turtle Dove – Vaughan Williams
The Blue Bird – Stanford
Haste on my joys – Finzi
Name that Tune – Gritton
Over the Rainbow – Arlen
INTERVAL
The Heavens are Telling – Haydn
Hear my prayer – Mendelssohn
If ye love me – Wilby
Blessed be the God and Father – Wesley
Jerusalem – Parry
Zadok the Priest – Handel
Hallelujah Chorus – Handel
Saturday 5th Mar 2022 - St John's Sharow
Live Music!
As a result of Covid-19 we have had a long break from singing so we very much look forward to our return to St John’s Sharow.
They are at rest – Elgar
The Lamb – Tavener
O quam gloriosum – Victoria
Exsultate justi – Viadana
Laudibus in Sanctis – Byrd
Almighty and everlasting God – Gibbons
Christus factus est – Bruckner
O salutaris hostia – Rossini
My soul, there is a country – Parry
Linden Lea – Vaughan Williams
My spirit sang all day – Finzi
Name that tune – Grayston Ives
Lets do it – Cole Porter arranged Blackwell
Three minute Messiah – Gritton
Saturday 29th Feb 2020 - St John's Sharow
Nelson Mass. Once again we are joined by Tim Harper, Assistant Director of Music at Ripon Cathedral. He accompanies us in Haydn’s Nelson Mass and works by Stanford and Wesley. The choir also sings unaccompanied works by Byrd, Monteverdi, Bruckner and Parry.
Programme:
Haec dies – Byrd
Laudibus in Sanctis – Byrd
Missa in Angustiis “Nelson Mass” – Haydn (omitting Credo)
Interval
Cantate Domino – Monteverdi
Christus factus est – Bruckner
My soul, there is a country – Parry
For lo I raise up – Stanford
Blessed be the God and Father – Wesley
Saturday 26th Oct 2019 - St John's Sharow
Our unaccompanied concert will contrast Bach’s glorious motet, Lobet den Herrn, alle Heiden (Praise the Lord all ye nations) with Byrd’s setting of the same text. We will sing sonorous Rachmaninoff and some more familiar favourites.
Blessed is the man – Rachmaninoff
Cherubic Hymn – Rachmaninoff
Bogoroditse Dyevo – Rachmaninoff
Mother of God, here I stand – John Tavener
Lobet den Herrn, alle Heiden – J S Bach
Praise our Lord, all ye Gentiles – Byrd
Hosanna to the Son of David – Gibbons
Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace – Wesley
Beati quorum via – Stanford
Holy is the true light – Harris
Saturday 18th May 2019 - St Mary's Richmond
The choir’s first visit to Richmond, where we sang glorious choral music with favourites old and new, and also introduced works not heard so often, by composers including Byrd, Lassus, Tallis and Lauridsen.
Locus Iste – Bruckner
Cantate Domino – Monteverdi
Sicut cervus – Palestrina
Tristis est anima mea – Lassus
O magnum mysterium – Victoria
O magnum mysterium – Lauridsen
If ye love me – Tallis
Loquebantur variis linguis – Tallis
Haec dies – Byrd
Sing joyfully – Byrd
God so loved the world – Stainer
Holy is the true light – Harris
The Lamb – Tavener
Shenandoah – arr Erb
O waly, waly – Rutter
Bushes and briars – James
Over the Rainbow – Arlen
Saturday 23rd Feb 2019 - St John's Sharow
With Tim Harper (Ripon Cathedral) on the organ
Programme to include:
Locus Iste – Bruckner
God so loved the world – Stainer
If ye love me – Tallis
Jehova, quam multi sunt hostes mei – Purcell
Interlude
Rejoice in the Lamb – Britten
Interval
Shenandoah
The Lamb – Tavener
The Spirit of the Lord – Elgar
Interlude
If ye love me – Philip Wilby
How lovely are thy dwellings – Brahms
Cantique de Jean Racine – Fauré
Saturday 27th Oct 2018 - St John's Sharow
The concert features four beautiful motets by Francis Poulenc.
The Quatre Motets pour un temps de Noel are of a gentle nature, both musically and thematically. They are light in texture and exude a sense of joyful serenity. Poulenc began these short motets for four-part mixed chorus in November 1951, completing them the following May. They reflect Poulenc’s love of religious paintings and architecture through subtle musical/visual imagery. The composer often studied religious art, and he kept a picture of a Romanesque cathedral bathed in sunlight on his mantelpiece.