Founded in 1972, and having celebrated our 50th anniversary in 2022, The Durham Singers give some three concerts per year in and around Durham, including venues such as St Cuthbert’s Chapel at Ushaw, Durham Cathedral, St Oswald’s Church, and St Brandon’s, Brancepeth. In November 2026, sadly we say goodbye to Tom Edney, our music director, for nearly 5 years.
Under Tom’s leadership, the Durham Singers have had some extraordinary experiences, including singing the office of Compline at St Brandon’s on St Brandon’s Day; recording Tarney’s ‘The Night before Christmas’; singing for the ‘Light up a Life’ service in association with St Catherine’s Hospice, in Durham Cathedral; and singing for the Bishop of Durham’s Christmas service in Auckland Palace.
Recently, we have performed a rich variety of concerts, for example, in December 2024 we gave a concert titled ‘A European Christmas’, presenting Christmas music from 13 different European countries and singing in 7 different languages. This concert included carols for audience participation.
At Easter 2025, a very special concert, ‘Komm süsser Tod’, with music by J S Bach, Ethel Smyth and others, and finishing with Tom Edney’s astounding piece The Crucifixion, took place in St Cuthbert’s Chapel, Ushaw, and was extremely well received. The Crucifixion included seven new extremely moving Passiontide hymns written especially by Mother Carrie Thomson.
Summer 2025 saw us performing an a cappella concert at St Brandon’s called ‘Only in Sleep’, containing a performance of a new setting of the office of Compline by Lucy Walker and Parry’s momentous Songs of Farewell.
Our performance of Brahms’ Requiem with four-hands piano accompaniment at St Oswald’s Church, Durham, in autumn 2025, was another musical and box office success. This programme also included Brahms’ Schicksalslied (Song of Destiny).
In December 2025 we joined forces with the Northern Spirit Singers for a joint concert which included Cecilia McDowall’s Christmas Cantata.
Easter 2026 was a challenging concert for both choir and audience as we gave the third ever performance of Oliver Tarney’s St Mark’s Passion in the magnificent St Cuthbert’s Chapel, with libretto by Lucia Quinault. This spectacular work, which comprised the Durham Singers, a separate professional semichorus of 16, an orchestra with lots of percussion and seven soloists in named parts, was semi-staged and choreographed by a professional choreographer from ENO, providing the audience with a truly immersive experience.
Our summer concert 2026, ‘Echoes of Puebla’, at St Brandon’s, for a cappella choir with percussion, presented a concert of sacred and secular renaissance music associated with Puebla Cathedral, Mexico, sung in Latin, Spanish, and the Quechua and Náhuatl languages.
