The orchestra has confirmed details of its upcoming festive festival, running from the 9th to the 23rd December.
The Sinfonia Smith Square is inviting audiences to enjoy the Christmas period with their special Christmas festival next month. This programme will feature a range of live classical music events that will showcase renowned orchestras, choirs, and soloists all of which will be performed in the Smith Square Hall which will be decorated festively.
On Monday 9th December, audiences can enjoy The Pembroke College Chapel Choir who will be led by their Director of Music, Anna Lapwood MBE, to perform a varied classical programme. This concert will open with with Patricia Van Ness’s The
Nine Orders of the Angels: Archangelus and will finish with with Jonathan
Rathbone’s arrangement of Franz Gruber’s Christmas classic Silent Night.
Meanwhile, on the 12th December the Sinfonia Smith Square and National Youth Voices will host an evening of Christma choral classics and audience carols, featuring pieces from esteemed composers, including Dame Judith Weir and Sir John Rutter.
For two performances on the 15th December, there will be a live performance of The Snowman and The Snowdog. Suitable for families, this performance will see the as Sinfonia Smith Square performs a soundtrack to accompany the film being shown
on the big screen, which is a sequel to the classic The Snowman. This concert will also offer audiences the opportunity to to meet the musicians and try out their instruments after the concert, plus a special visit from Santa himself.
This festival will also offer audiences an opportunity to experience the work of Grammy Award-winning composer and conductor, Eric Whitacre who has curated an evening event for Sinfonia Smith Square on Saturday 14th December. Highlights from his own works will see classical favourites such as Lux Aurumque, Little Tree and Sleep performed alongside traditional festive pieces including O Christmas Tree and Carol of the Bells. The evening will be conducted by Eric himself.
The festival will then be rounded up by an evening of Bach and Corelli. For two hours on Sunday 22nd December, this annual event will transport audiences with vocal, choral and instrumental virtuosity as Polyphony and The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment join forces under the experienced direction of Stephen Layton, for
Bach’s great retelling of the nativity story. On Monday 23rd December, Stephen Layton will again conduct Polyphony and The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in a very special festive performance of Handel’s Messiah.
To book tickets for any of the events visit: https://www.sinfoniasmithsq.org.uk/festival/christmas-festival-%202024/