Our next concert

Gorgeous choral music around a theme of night

Featuring:

Seek Him That Maketh the Seven Stars by Jonathan Dove
Nocturnes (including Sure on this Shining Night) by Morten Lauridsen, and
Music by Jonathan Berkahn

Our soprano soloist is Rowena Simpson

Join us for an enchanted starlit experience celebrating the music of the night.

Anything but sleepy, this concert features the show-stopping forces of Dove, Mendelssohn, Lauridsen, Haydn, and Berkahn.

Prepare for choral magic, organ virtuosity, and the luminous clarity of soprano soloist Rowena Simpson’s remarkable voice.

$25

Tickets also available from choir members.
Limited door sales – Cash only.

Click to Download the Programme Booklet

Can’t make it to the concert in person – but would still like to support the choir?

You will be able to view our Livestream Video of the concert on our Facebook page, here: https://www.facebook.com/FestivalSingers

Tickets for the Livestream are just $10 each. If you would like to pay more, please buy more tickets. Book on Eventbrite here: https://tinyurl.com/5n7xybyh

Please note: This Livestream will be able to be viewed by the public without charge.

So buying a Livestream ticket is a choice you can make to support the choir.

(The full video will be viewable for 3 days after the concert and you will be able to buy tickets as a donation until 17 May 2022.)

NB: We will stop the Livestream at the end of the first half of the concert, and resume it at the start of the second half.

Thank you.

Festival Singers 2022 plans

Thanks for visiting our website.

If you are looking for a choir to sing with in 2022 we’d love hear from you.
Contact details are at the bottom of the page.

Covid Policy

You must present a valid Vaccine Pass to attend choir rehearsals and events.
If you are unwell, please don’t come to choir rehearsals or events.
Wearing a mask is strongly recommended.

We will review this policy as the Covid situation changes.

Programme for the remainder of 2022

Starlit Night concert: 7:30pm Saturday 14 May 2022 at St Peters on Willis (details above)

Includes: Seek Him That Maketh the Seven Stars by Jonathan Dove, and Nocturnes by Lauridsen.

Featuring: Soprano Rowena Simpson

Concert with the choir of St. Mary of the Angels, 17 Boulcott Street – late July/early August 2022

Programme will include: Zadok the Priest, Parry’s I Was Glad, Allegri’s Miserere, Stanford’s Three Latin Motets, and a wide range of composers from Josquin to Britten.

A mid-year workshop

“Rewritten” concert. October / November 2022

We’ll sing music that’s been used in one context and then rewritten for another, e.g. JS Bach’s Passion Chorale that Paul Simon rewrote as American Tune.

December 2022

We plan to sing at the Seatoun Carols event at St Christopher’s that fundraises for the Wellington City Mission.
We may perform a Christmas concert
We may sing at some rest-homes

Our Last Concert

Ceremony of Carols Christmas concert

7:00pm Saturday 20 Nov. 2021
St John’s on the Hill, Johnsonville

Benjamin Britten’s stunning
Ceremony of Carols for choir and harp
featuring Michelle Velvin harpist.

We also performed a sparkling selection of traditional and contemporary Christmas music, by Gardner, Stopford, Lauridsen and new works by Jonathan Berkahn.

Programme Booklet

Click here to download a PDF
of the programme booklet for the concert

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Our Musical Director

We welcomed Ingrid Schoenfeld as our Musical Director from July 2019

Ingrid Schoenfeld is a classical pianist and accomplished teacher. She completed her Bachelor of Music in Classical Performance with first-class Honours at the New Zealand School of Music.
She has learned primarily from Richard Mapp as well as Dr. Jian Liu, and has played in masterclasses for Diedre Irons, Janos Cegledy, Paul Rickard-Ford, Natalia Sheludiakova, and the New Zealand String Quartet, among others. In addition to piano, she also studied harpsichord for three years under prominent early music specialists Dr Erin Helyard and Douglas Mews.
She made her orchestral debut in 2016 with the Nelson Symphony Orchestra, playing Shostakovich’s 2nd piano concerto.
Ingrid studied conducting at the New Zealand School of Music under Kenneth Young, and has conducted and accompanied multiple choirs around Wellington, including the Northern Chorale, St. James church choir, and the St. Mary of the Angels Youth Choir.
She sang with the St. Mary of the Angels church choir for two years, was a reserve member in the New Zealand Youth Choir, and currently sings in the Wellington Cathedral Choir under Michael Stewart.
In addition to performing regularly in solo, chamber, and choral concerts, she runs a successful teaching studio.
Ingrid has many exciting, creative ideas and the choir has a bright future under her leadership.
Ingrid was Festival Singer’s Accompanist from the start of 2018 to mid-2019.

Singalong Messiah

Festival Singers (director Jonathan Berkahn)
Northern Chorale (director Monika Smith)

Tawa Orchestra — conductor Thomas Nikora

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With soloists:

Shayna Tweed
Soprano

Linden Loader
Alto

Declan Cudd
Tenor

William King
Bass

7 pm Sunday 2 December 2018

Wesley Methodist Church,
75 Taranaki Street, Wellington

The audience sang these choruses with us

4 — And the glory of the Lord
19 — O thou that tellest
12 — For unto us a child is born
17 — Glory to God in the highest
23 — Behold the Lamb of God
24 — Surely he hath borne our griefs
25 — And with his stripes
26 — All we like sheep
28 — He trusted in God
33 — Lift up your heads – second part
44 — Hallelujah!
46 — Since by man came death
53 — Worthy is the Lamb – Amen

Click here to download the
PDF copy of the Programme booklet for this concert

SingFest 2018

Festival Singers was one of 8 community choirs who gathered
on Saturday 7 April 2018 St Peter’s Church, Ruahine Street, Palmerston North, for SingFest 2018
Special thanks to Kate Love Photographer for the photos

Ingrid’s dynamic conducting set us off at a fast pace, singing Awake the Harp – from Haydn’s Creation

Jonathan leading us.

The Festival Singers pews
Singing Shenandoah
Singing Shenandoah

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2017 Christmas Concert

FS_Christmas_2017_poster-300w

Come Celebrate Christmas

Music included:
Mozart’s charming Pastoral Mass in G major, K. 140, and works by J S Bach, William Billings, J Barnby, Edward Elgar, Jonathan Berkhan and Zoltan Kodaly.

Directed by Jonathan Berkahn

7-00pm Sunday 10 December 2017
St Barnabas Anglican Church
35 Box Hill, Khandallah

Featured:
Thomas Nikora ~ accompanist
The Festival Players
& special guests
The Northern Chorale.

A koha for Downtown Community Ministry was collected

Click here to download a PDF of the programme booklet for the concert.

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NZ Choral Federation workshop

On 5 & 6 May 2017 several Festival Singers members took part in the NZ Choral Federation’s workshop learning and then performing Donizetti’s Mass in G Minor.