By Jill Stocks
St Margaret’s Church in Horsforth provided the setting for “Carols and Brass” as Horsforth Choral Society were joined by the YEP Brass Ensemble for their annual festive event.
Horsforth Choral Society, conducted by Matthew Lazenby, were joined by the YEP Brass Ensemble, conducted by Lee Whitmore, to present a selection of festive classics.
With Matthew Collins on piano/organ there was a selection of festive classics including White Christmas and In Dulci Jubilo, as well as some more up to date tunes such as All I Want for Christmas and On This Silent Night, the latter from a relatively new composer from Canada, Sarah Quartel.
The choir also showcased a piece by another modern composer, Toby Young, with a wonderful rendition of his piece O Be Joyful.
The audience also had a chance to play their part during the evening with the opportunity to join in with some traditional carols. O Little Town of Bethlehem, Good King Wenceslas and O Come All Ye Faithful amongst others found them in good voice in the beautiful setting of the church.
There was a warm reception for Frosty the Snowman, by YEP Brass soloist David Carlisle, who also dressed the part for the evening! David was also one of the original group of musicians to perform on the modern Christmas classic Stop the Cavalry by Jona Lewie, which the brass ensemble also performed a version of at the event.
The Brownlee Arms provided the raffle prize for the evening and there was a warming mulled wine and mince pie at the interval for everyone.
The choral society are also grateful to Horsforths local city councillors, whose work behind the scenes helps to keep ticket prices for their concerts low so that it is affordable to as many as people as possible.
Chair of Horsforth Choral Society Heather Booth said: “Horsforth Choral Society is in its 97th year. It’s our centenary in 2028 which we’re looking forward to.
“We are one of the few choral societies remaining in the area doing traditional choral music and providing an education on choral music as well for our members. We sing a wide range of choral music in four different concerts a year.
“We’re open to anyone who would like to do choral music. We are non audition so you don’t need to be able to read music to join us. We start rehearsals as easy as possible so that as many people can be involved as possible.
“We just aim to keep choral music within Horsforth. We do as many of our concerts as possible in Horsforth and just try and provide that for the community. But not many people know that we exist and so we’d like to grow that because choral music is a great form of music but it’s not as popular as it once was.
“We want to try and keep that tradition and keep going especially here in Horsforth when so many other choral societies have sadly closed.”
Choral Society Conductor Matthew Lazenby spoke of the public enthusiasm for the concert.
He said: “It’s a format that we do every year. Lots of people really enjoy coming to hear the choir and the band side by side.
“We’re lucky that we’re supported by friends and family of choir members in the community.
“We’re planning various events for the centenary in 2028 so watch this space for that.”
“We’re going into a very good period. We’ve done lots of exciting new music recently. We’ve been enjoying some new Christmas carols this year by Sarah Quartel, a Canadian composer who’s increasingly well known, and Toby Young, another young composer from Guildhall School of Music.”
Diane Carlisle, from YEP Brass Ensemble, told WLD about the group.
“We’re a symphonic ten piece brass ensemble and we’ve been a brass ensemble since 2002,” she said. “Before that there was a brass band under the same banner which folded and the Yorkshire Evening Post asked us if we’d like to carry on as normal which we did. We don’t get any sponsorship from the YEP, we just run on our own and have the right to use their name.
“There are ten brass players and we rehearse once a fortnight in Aberford. We just like to take music to places where live music probably wouldn’t be used. Because there’s only ten of us we can get into quite a small space.
“We do about ten events a year. All of our players play in other groups. Some in orchestras, in big bands, military bands, all kinds of things. That’s why we don’t rehearse very often. We want to encourage good players to play with us.”
The Choral Society will be carol singing at The Abbey Inn in Newlay on Thursday 18th December. Their next concert is on Friday, 20 March 2026 at the Grove Methodist Church on Town Street in Horsforth.
Horsforth Choral Society meet in St Margaret’s Parish Centre on Mondays from 7.30pm to 9.30pm during term time. The society currently has about 50 members, but new members are always welcome and there is no audition required.
You can also become a friend of the society. For a £40 annual donation friends of the society receive free concert tickets and an interactive newsletter.
Visit their website for more information on joining, becoming a friend or upcoming events.
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