Come along to our upcoming Open Evening Monday 16th September 2024- 7:30pm

Thinking of joining a choir? Want to make new friends? Improve your well-being and mental health?

Do come along to our Open Rehearsal Evening on 16th September at St Johns Community Centre, Penistone. You’ll be able to take part in a typical rehearsal, starting at 7.30pm, hear some of our repertoire and join in. We usually have a short break mid-rehearsal at which point you can either choose to stay for the rest of the rehearsal (until 9.30pm) or head home…we will also give you some further information about the choir that you can take home with you to help you decide if it is for you.

Everyone is welcome – no experience necessary & it doesn’t matter whether you read music or not.

We look forward to welcoming you on the night!

Penistone Ladies Choir!

Deputy Accompanist Needed!

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A Warm Welcome to our new Musical Director – Joseph Shaw!

We are delighted to announce the appointment of Joseph Shaw as our new Musical Director.  Joseph, a composer, conductor, guitarist and tutor, studied for 5 years at the Royal Northern College of Music, graduating in 2017, then gaining a Masters Degree in composition and artistic research.

Over the years he has worked as a composer and sung with many choirs, notably in the Sheffield region.  His passion lies in exploring a varied repertoire from the Renaissance Period to the broad variety of music in the present day, also in the culture of choral music and voice as an essential means of expression. 

Keen to inspire others, he comments “I am delighted and excited to begin this new chapter as musical director of Penistone Ladies Choir. I would like to thank them for the appointment and look forward to much music-making together in the future.”

A rather lovely aside is that Joseph is the great-nephew of John David Hirst, who was a previous Musical Director of Penistone Ladies Choir for many years and is still fondly remembered by many current members of the choir.

Joseph started at the beginning of October and is currently working with the choir towards its first post-lockdown concert in conjunction with Skelmanthorpe Male Voice Choir on 18th December in St John’s Church, Penistone. 

Penistone Ladies Choir Seeks New Musical Director

We are a friendly, award-winning 35-strong ladies community choir, based in Penistone, South Yorkshire, and are looking to appoint a new Musical Director from September 2021.  We are well-established, having been founded 35 years ago back in 1986.  We rehearse in Penistone on Monday evenings 7.45 – 9.45 and typically enjoy 8-10 performances a year, with a mix of fundraising and community concerts, weddings, festivals, competitions and the occasional tour elsewhere in the UK or abroad.  We have a varied repertoire comprising folk, classical, religious, spiritual and show songs. 

We are looking for a talented, motivational, professionally trained MD who can lead and inspire the choir, further developing their vocal technique.  We require a candidate who has:

  • An understanding of choral singing and vocal coaching techniques and an ability to develop those techniques within the choir
  • A broad approach to choral repertoire
  • Good communication and people skills, working with both the choir, the accompanist and the committee.
  • The ability to lead a choir with differing levels of technical ability (e.g. sightreading)
  • The ability to commit sufficient time to Penistone Ladies Choir such that the programme of concerts and festivals can be supported.

Remuneration to be in line with recommended rates which are regularly reviewed and initially based on experience.

Interested applicants should send a CV, availability to start and a covering letter of application to plchoir@btinternet.com by the closing date of 16th August 2021.  We hope to then invite a shortlist of candidates to direct a trial rehearsal as soon as possible. 

If you would like further information or to discuss the position further, please call our Chair Denise Pozorski on 07954 137627

Support our choir when you buy on SmileAmazon

Penistone Ladies Choir have just signed up as one of the charities that will receive funds from Amazon when people shop via SmileAmazon.  Every time you buy goods via SmileAmazon, they will make a donation to the choir of 0.5% of your purchase price.  It won’t cost you any more, but will help raise valuable funds for the choir.  Smile Amazon has the same products, prices, and shopping features as Amazon.com. The difference is that when you shop on AmazonSmile, the AmazonSmile Foundation will donate 0.5% of the purchase price of eligible products on a quarterly basis, to the charitable organization of your choice.

https://smile.amazon.co.uk/ch/1144282-0

With so many purchases being made online at the moment, it’s a great opportunity to help us raise funds.  There are almost 1 million charities signed up, so please do choose us if you’re not already supporting a charity – you can always change your choice again later. 

Remember, if you want Amazon to donate to Penistone Ladies’ Choir, you need to start each shopping session at the URL smile.amazon.co.uk, not just Amazon….

Many thanks all!

Bits and Pieces

So what’s our latest news…?  We are in a quieter period of no concerts or competitions but having a lot of fun learning new music, some with mind-and body-testing actions!  Our first concert of the year is not until April at Penistone Paramount, alongside Hade Edge Band – the fifth time we will have performed together.  So we are also perfecting the pieces we will sing there.  The diary is also filling up with further concerts for later in the year, so keep watching the events page.

We have just had our Annual General Meeting and are happy to say that as a choir we are in good shape.  We decided to use the occasion to present a cheque for the funds that we raised at our Christmas Charity concert to our chosen charity.  We always try to support a children’s charity at Christmas and this year we selected the Yorkshire Children’s Trust.  Simon Widdop, founder of the charity came along to receive the cheque then stayed to listen to a little of our rehearsal.  Lots of laughter ensued, as we were practicing actions for a song…and it was very moving to hear his personal reasons for founding the charity, which benefits local children.

Just over half of the choir are going to Prague in May, so those going spend the last fifteen minutes of our rehearsals on the pieces we will sing there, including 4 new songs that we are learning and will sing with the other choirs attending the Spring Choral Meeting, one in Czech! It is not a competition but a chance to meet other choirs from different countries, sing together and make new friends and visit the sights in the beautiful Old Town of Prague.  We will have two 30-minute performances, in churches in the old town and will also take part in a friendship concert with all the other choirs.  Watch out for live posts from Prague!

About 10 members of the choir are also singing in another “come-together” choir, called Coro Amici, set up by our Music Director Jane.  We are rehearsing for 3 months, then performing Handel’s Messiah in Dewsbury Town Hall at Easter time. 

So as ever, lots going on with Penistone Ladies Choir.  And new members always welcome…

Co-op Members help Penistone Ladies Choir to raise funds

We are delighted that we have been chosen to take part in the Co-op Local Community Fund.  At a time when funds for community groups and charitable organisations are becoming more difficult to access, we’re incredibly grateful for this opportunity to make a real difference in and around Penistone.

We are raising funds to help more people to experience the benefits of singing in a community choir by holding recruitment events and choir tasters.  The choir (now 50 strong) provides a forum for local women, many of whom are elderly, to have regular social contact. It also helps to enhance physical and mental wellbeing – singing in a community choir is proven to have several physiological and psychological benefits. The choir enhances the cultural offer of local venues and works collaboratively with other choirs in the area to encourage young singers and musicians and give them a platform to develop through guest performances at concerts and events. It gives members the opportunity to experience the sense of accomplishment that performance can bring. The choir also contributes to local events – for example singing at charity and commemorative events and supporting local music festivals. https://membership.coop.co.uk/causes/32996

To help us raise vital funds, we’re relying on Co-op members. When a member buys selected products or services from the Co-op they earn a five per cent reward for themselves, with a further one per cent for local causes like ours.  Co-op members can choose a cause by going online www.coop.co.uk/membership. We really hope that people will visit the website and choose to support us.  If you’re not a member and would like to support us, you can join at your local store or online at www.coop.co.uk.

When a community comes together we’re able to achieve great things, so we hope you can help promote our project.  We’ll keep you up to date with the total that we have all raised on our Facebook and Twitter sites:

Penistone Ladies Choir on Facebook

Penistone Ladies Choir on Twitter

Prague Bound!

We’re off to Prague! It is a few years since our last choir trip abroad which was to Normandy.  It was mooted that it was time for another overseas trip, so when we received an email invitation from the Prague Festival Office to go to one of their choral meetings, we jumped on the idea!  They take place throughout the year, but we have chosen the Spring Choral Meeting in early May.  It is not a competition but a chance to meet other choirs from different countries, sing together and make new friends and visit the sights in the beautiful Old Town of Prague.  We will have two 30-minute performances, in churches in the old town and will also take part in a friendship concert with all the other choirs.

Roughly half the choir have signed up to go, some taking family or friends to also enjoy the experience and sightseeing.  It will be fascinating to hear all the other choirs, which could be from any genre: mixed, male, women, children, barbershop, gospel, church choir, Gregorian music, instrumental vocal ensemble…

Penistone Ladies sing in “The Concert Choir”

The Concert Choir is an exciting ad-hoc choral project dreamt up by our own MD Jane Hobson & Daniel Timmins. Thirteen of us from Penistone Ladies Choir signed up to join over 140 others from 28 different Yorkshire choirs, to learn and perform both Vivaldi’s Gloria and Faure’s Requiem. Having signed up a whole year ago, we went along to rehearsals, from February to May this year, usually either Sunday afternoons, or Wednesday evenings in The Methodist Church in Skelmanthorpe. The project culminated in two performances in the UK in Sheffield and Wakefield cathedrals and for a slightly smaller group, a trip to Malta to sing in 3 magnificent churches there.

    


Rehearsals were challenging, especially when they were increased to 3 hours long, but the camaraderie was fantastic, and we revelled in the chance to sing in those two great choral works. Some people were experienced singers, belonging to one choir or more, others did not sing in a choir at all, nor read music. It all went very quickly and almost as soon as you blinked, we only had a couple of rehearsals left before the performances.
It was magnificent to sing in Sheffield & Wakefield cathedrals, and we had sell-out audiences to sing to on both nights. We didn’t know exactly what it would sound like until the final rehearsal in Sheffield Cathedral, as we had never before been joined by the small orchestra, but the harp and trumpets in particular were fabulous. Such a full sound!
Eight of us had chosen to go on tour to Malta, four nights, three of them with concerts, with free time and sightseeing during the day. The sun shone and all went very smoothly. The last concert in the magnificent Mosta Dome will for sure remain with us all forever, with amazing acoustics, an audience of well over 300 and a standing ovation!

The whole project was a true “experience of a lifetime”. Bring on the next Concert Choir project!!

Didn’t we have a “loverly” day….

Saturday 13th April saw us all on a coach to Whitby for the annual Eskdale Music Festival.  We had an early start in Penistone at 9.00am.  Less than two hours later we were at the coast, on a beautiful, clear, sunny but very cold day.  We had a few hours to while away before we were to rehearse at 2.00pm & perform at 3.00pm.  Some of us wandered into Whitby for an early fish ‘n chip lunch, to buy kippers and fresh crab, others stayed warm in the Pavillion.

Elation! We won!

Our trip coincided with Whitby Goth Weekend, so there were certainly some spectacles to be seen, although we couldn’t quite work out what some of the costumes were meant to be.  It was almost “Anything Goes”, so long as it was black, purple, or gold & had feathers.

Then we were singing….  We warmed up in a corridor (we have done worse!), very narrow, steamy and squishy for two full choirs!  We entered two classes:- the Christmas In April class & the Ladies Choir class.  In the Christmas class we were competing against ourselves, as we sang firstly on our own as Penistone Ladies, then with our chums Skelmanthorpe Male Voice Choir, as “Yorkshire Mixtures”.

We were blown away to come away with two first places & two cups, for both the Christmas and the Ladies Class.  Incredibly the Ladies Class included the set piece of Mr Sandman, which very few of us felt confident about and which usually brought about a big groan every time Jane asked us to rehearse it.   Thanks Jane for your confidence in us…our view of Mr Sandman may just change now!

It was also lovely to see Skelmanthorpe MVC placed second & third in their classes and thanks to them for joining forces with us once again.