Events

In the year they turn 80 and 70 respectively, the massed BBC choral and orchestral forces pay tribute to some of the most enduringly popular choral music of our time, music with an unerring ability to capture a mood or a moment and which speaks to us with a direct, poetic elegance and evergreen vitality.

This concert will be recorded live for Friday Night is Music Night.

BBC Concert Orchestra
BBC Symphony Chorus
Neil Ferris, Bob Chilcott & John Rutter – Conductors
Rebecca Lea – Soprano

As part of Hereford Cathedral School’s Music Makers series, John visits Hereford to lead a Come and Sing Workshop Day. In this workshop, John will lead singers through some of his best-loved compositions and share some of the tales of his formidable career!

John returns to Snape with another goody bag of choral music new and old, including a sneak preview of an exciting new choral work he has just written. Expect some familiar favourites along with a few surprises, and enjoy an afternoon of full-throated choral singing.

Singers of all ages and abilities will be welcome for a large-scale singing afternoon, staged as part of Aurora Orchestra’s 20th-anniversary weekend at Snape Maltings. Participants will fill Snape Maltings Concert Hall auditorium while John will facilitate from the stage.

Sheet music for the session will be provided on the day free of charge.

This is a unique opportunity to take part in a day of uplifting choral singing. John will lead singers through some of his best-loved compositions, a brand new work and pieces by other composers that he has chosen for the occasion. Singers of all ages and experience are welcome (age guidance 16 upwards), although the day will be geared to those who have at least some choral experience and music-reading ability.  We’ll sing the music just for fun, no advance preparation is expected and no performance is given at the end of the day. The pace will be relaxed and informal, John will share some stories from his extraordinary career and you’ll pick up some vocal tips along the way.

Join us for a unique opportunity to sing with Sir John Rutter and singers from The Bach Choir. We’ll sing some of John’s folk-song cycle The Sprig of Thyme and a sneak preview of his new work Dancing Tree together with a mixture of familiar favourites to bring some midsummer sunshine.

Do you love singing? If you do, and can read a bit of music, this inspiring workshop is for you. Led by John, Come and Sing is an afternoon of choral singing to lift the spirits.

He will be unveiling a new choral composition he has just completed called I’ll make me a world. It will be receiving its official concert premiere in St Paul’s Cathedral in November this year, but John has agreed to allow a pre-release workshop performance which we will be rehearsing during the afternoon, with the aim of a complete sing-through of this 20-minute work at the end of the afternoon, with two wonderful professional soloists, Melanie Marshall and Jonathan Brown. John Reid will be our accompanist.

John will open the Southern Cathedrals 2025 Festival with a Workshop and Concert in Salisbury Cathedral, led by Salisbury’s Cathedral Choir, Chamber Choir, Junior Choir and Youth Choir. Book a ticket to the workshop and you can learn from Sir John Rutter, then sing in the concert alongside our choirs.

Join the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at St Paul’s Cathedral for a concert celebrating the 80^th birthday of John, conducted by the man himself.

Be one of the first to hear the world premiere of a new piece specially composed by John for the occasion, before a performance of Vaughan Williams’ Symphony No.5. Only two years older than the evening’s conductor, it is a piece that manifests a vision of peace and tranquillity amid times of war; its heart-piercing Romanza will make you feel as though time itself has stopped.

The celebration’s centrepiece will be The Gift of Life, a work that the composer set out to write as a counterpoint to his earlier Requiem – a celebration of creation and life itself in all its majesty and manifold beauty. The six-movement piece, set to a blend of liturgical passages, poetry and original text, bursts with unabashed jubilation. Its central movement, the Hymn to the Creator of Light for double choir, is an intricate layering of voices and instruments that envelopes the listener in an array of radiant colours.

John Rutter – Conductor
The Bach Choir
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

Back by popular demand, John Rutter’s Christmas Celebration returns to the Royal Albert Hall with even more festive fun and cheer.

Join the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and John, for his much-loved Christmas spectacular that will no doubt get you well and truly into the Yuletide spirit.

A programme of choral and symphonic seasonal classics awaits you, as well as all your favourite sing-along carols. Don’t miss out: bring your family and friends and join us in this magical Christmas celebration!

Back by popular demand, John Rutter’s Christmas Celebration returns to the Royal Albert Hall with even more festive fun and cheer.

Join the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and John, for his much-loved Christmas spectacular that will no doubt get you well and truly into the Yuletide spirit.

A programme of choral and symphonic seasonal classics awaits you, as well as all your favourite sing-along carols. Don’t miss out: bring your family and friends and join us in this magical Christmas celebration!