St Gabriel's Church Choir

Singing and music has been a treasured part of life at St Gabriel’s for over 100 years. In church we have a 3 manual pipe organ, and a robed choir. They sing at every Sunday morning service (on a rota basis), and for two Choral Evening services a month. Our vision is to include our whole local community in coming together to make music. Singing and music-making improves health, happiness, and wellbeing, and we believe it should be available to all people.

2024 has seen the choir continue to solidify with more and more people singing regularly. We continue to attract new members of our no-strings-attached list – there’s never a month when we don’t say hello to someone new.

An early highlight of the year was singing the Ash Wednesday Eucharist as a joint service with The Chapel Choir of St Hild and St Bede College, Durham with the stunningly poignant beauty of Allegri’s Miserere mei. In May the choir sang Evensong at Newcastle Cathedral, a particular highlight being Kerensa Briggs’ hypnotic setting of the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis, written for her home cathedral of Gloucester, and one of the most inspired settings of those words written this century.

We celebrated the 125th Anniversary of the founding of St Gabriel’s with a spectacular Solemn Evensong with Orchestra and a come-and-sing choir of participants augmented the church choir, raising the roof in a fitting celebration of our musical heritage, and all the people that have sung and played in St Gabriel’s over all those years.

At St Gabriel’s, we are inviting anyone in the area (or far-flung) to come and join me to sing a service (or more). You don’t need to commit long-term  – you are welcome to come and sing for just one service, it is a lovely way to get singing again if you are missing it.

Email me at singingstgabriel@gmail.com for more information on St Gabriel’s Choir.
Sunday services are 9.45am every week, with a rehearsal at 9.00am

Tim Burke, Choir Director