About Us
Following their performance in the BBC Radio 3 Choir of the Year Category Finals, Northern Spirit Singers can proudly count themselves among the best choirs in the country, and in their seven years of singing together, they have firmly established themselves as one of the north’s leading choirs.
Originally formed in September 2000 by a group of friends from the National Youth Choir, the choir comprises mostly of current and former students of Durham University, and now includes many of the region’s music teachers.
They gave their first concert in June 2001 at Elvet Methodist Church and have since enjoyed regular Summer and Christmas concerts in one of Durham’s most popular performance venues. Other concerts in and around the region have included lunchtime concerts in Durham Cathedral and a concert with Durham County Youth Choir in the Gala Theatre.
The choir performed as the semi-chorus for Walton’s ‘Belshazzer’s Feast’, in Middlesborough Town Hall with Cleveland Philharmonic Choir and Alan Opie. In December 2004 they sang at one of the opening concerts at The Sage, Gateshead alongside Howard Goodall, Black Voices and the BBC Chorister of the Year.
The choir have joined soprano Lesley Garrett on three tours, performing at venues all over the UK including Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Birmingham Symphony Hall, and the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester. They reached a national audience when they appeared as guests on her BBC2 Christmas Day Concert, with Jose Cura and trumpeter Guy Barker.
Always open to interesting and exciting opportunities the choir have featured on BBC Songs of Praise, as carol singers alongside Pete Waterman, and performed as the backing choir for Barry Manilow at the Newcastle Arena.
The choir won the prestigious Mrs Sunderland Music Festival 2002 in Huddersfield and recorded their first CD, featuring the best of the choir’s repertoire of sacred and secular a cappella music. Since then they have recorded two further CDs: “There in Spirit” (February 2005) and “Spirited Away” (May 2008)
The choir were awarded ‘Choir of the Day’ at the 2008 regional BBC Radio 3 Choir of the Year Competition in Edinburgh, and went on to perform in the Category Finals at the Royal Philharmonic Hall in Liverpool.
They have taken part in several successful ‘Northern Tours’ giving concerts in Harrogate, Huddersfield and Chester for the last four years, and this year will travel to London to perform a joint concert with Chantage- the BBC Radio 3 Choir of the Year 2006
Northern Spirit Singers continue to perform the world’s best choral music to a high standard, in a relaxed and enjoyable manner.
