Choir of Leeds Minster

Choir of Leeds Minster A page about the music of Leeds Minster, giving details of choral services and organ recitals.

ORGAN RECITAL by SIMON EARL (Christchurch Priory, Dorset)Friday 28th March, 1.00pmAdmission is free, with a retiring col...
27/03/2025

ORGAN RECITAL by SIMON EARL (Christchurch Priory, Dorset)
Friday 28th March, 1.00pm
Admission is free, with a retiring collection. Big-screen projection. Refreshments and sandwiches available in the Minster Cafe, by donation, from 12.30pm.

Simon will play:
Fanfare (1940) | Whitlock
Meditation from Thais | Massenet
Prelude and Fugue in G | Buxtehude
Variations on Amazing Grace | Bedard
Toccata in D major | Lanquetuit

Simon Earl is the Director of Music, Organist and Master of the Choristers at Christchurch Priory, a position he has held since February 2015. In this role, his principal responsibilities are the training, recruitment and development of the six choirs that currently sing for services in the Priory, as well as oversight of all concerts, Festivals and other musical events in the Priory.

Brought up and educated in Surrey, he received his formative musical training as a chorister and later Assistant Organist at his local parish church. He held Organ Scholarships at Southwell Minster (2005/06), Newcastle Cathedral (2006-2009), St John’s College, Durham (2008/09) and Guildford Cathedral (2009/10) and read for a degree in Music at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, where he specialised in organ performance and choral conducting.

Between 2011 and 2015 he was Assistant Director of Music at Wakefield Cathedral, where he accompanied and directed the weekly cycle of services, and toured, broadcast and recorded regularly with the Cathedral Choirs.

Simon is Musical Director of The Grange Choral Society. He maintains a busy recital schedule, is an examiner for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, and is regularly invited to lead and accompany choral events in the UK and abroad. He holds the Fellowship of the Royal College of Organists diploma, and his first solo CD - Roulade - was released in September 2019, which celebrates the music of English and American composers and organists.

In any spare time, Simon enjoys cooking and experimenting in all things culinary, as well as sailing and kayaking.

27/03/2025

Choral Evensong, Thursday 27th March at 7.00pm
(sung by the Choral Scholars, a ca****la)
Responses | Ebdon
Psalm: 39
Canticles: Fauxbourdons | Morley
Anthem: Call to remembrance | Farrant

21/03/2025

Choral Services on Sunday 23rd March

10.30am Choral Eucharist
Setting: Missa Brevis | Gabrieli
Psalm: 63: 1-9
Anthem: Sicut cervus | Palestrina
Voluntary: Kyrie, Gott, heiliger Geist | J. S. Bach

5.30pm Choral Evensong
Responses: Byrd
Psalm: 12
Canticles: Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis in B minor | Lindley
Anthem: Lord, I have loved the habitation of thy house | Lindley
Voluntary: Master Tallis’ Testament | Howells

ORGAN RECITAL by EUAN GOODWIN (Organ Scholar)Friday March 21st, 1.00pm - 1.45pmAdmission free, with retiring collection....
20/03/2025

ORGAN RECITAL by EUAN GOODWIN (Organ Scholar)
Friday March 21st, 1.00pm - 1.45pm

Admission free, with retiring collection. Big-screen projection. Refreshments and sandwiches available in the Minster Cafe, by donation, from 12.30pm. All welcome.

Euan will play:

No. 6 from Six pieces 'Paean' | Herbert Howells

Concerto in D minor | J. S. Bach (after Vivaldi) BWV 596
I. Allegro
II. Adagio e Spiccato
III. Allegro
IV. Largo e spiccato
V. Allegro

Master Tallis's Testament | Herbert Howells

Two movements from 'Triptyque' | Jean Langlais
I. Melody
III. Final

Euan Goodwin is the current Organ Scholar at Leeds Minster, contributing regularly in services and accompanying the Minster Choir alongside Organist Shaun Turnbull. Euan is studying Music as an undergraduate at the University of York, where he has performed with student led choirs. Previously a chorister from age 7 and then Organ Scholar at Hexham Abbey, Euan began learning the organ at 14 with Michael Haynes, Director of Music at the Abbey.

20/03/2025

Choral Evensong
Thursday 20th March, 7.00pm

Responses | Byrd
Psalm: 71
Canticles: Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis in A minor | Noble
Anthem: Cast me not away from Thy presence | Wesley
Voluntary: Der Tag ist hin, mein Jesu bei mir bleibe | Oley

14/03/2025

Choral Services on Sunday 16th March

10.30am Choral Eucharist
Setting: Communion Service in E | Darke
Psalm: 27
Anthem: Turn thy face from my sins | Attwood
Voluntary: Variations on ‘Forty days and forty nights’ | Ritchie

5.30pm Choral Evensong
Responses | Ebdon
Psalm: 135
Canticles: Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis in F | Wise
Anthem: Let thy merciful ears, O Lord | Mudd
Voluntary: Double Voluntary in A minor | C Gibbons

ORGAN RECITAL by MICHAEL STODDART (Norwich Cathedral)Friday 14th March, 1.00pm - 1.45pmAdmission is free, with retiring ...
13/03/2025

ORGAN RECITAL by MICHAEL STODDART (Norwich Cathedral)
Friday 14th March, 1.00pm - 1.45pm
Admission is free, with retiring collection. Refreshments and sandwiches available in the Minster Cafe, from 12.30pm, by donation. Big-screen projection.

Michael will play:
M Dupré: Variations sur Ave Maris Stella Op 18
JS Bach: Prelude and Fugue in C minor BWV 546
M Duruflé: Méditation
E Reuchsel: From Promenades en Provence
i) Les Grandes Orgues de la Basilique de Saint-Maximim
ii) La Chartreuse d Montrieux, au crépuscule
iii) Le Moulin d’Alphonse Daudet, à Fontvielle

Michael Stoddart commenced his musical education as a chorister at Westminster Abbey where he studied the organ with Christopher Herrick. After secondary education at the Haberdashers' Aske's School in Elstree and gaining his ARCO, he was appointed Organ Scholar at Magdalen College, Oxford. Here he played a full part in Oxford musical life both as an organist, playing daily choral evensong, and as a singer deputising at Christ Church and New College. Returning to London, he was appointed organist and choirmaster of St Peter's Streatham, where he directed a mixed choir and was able to enjoy playing a four-manual Hill instrument, and sang as a deputy lay clerk at St Paul's Cathedral.

He then moved to Paris for an extended period of organ study at the Paris Conservatoire with Susan Landale. He was appointed organist and then choirmaster of St George's Church and was involved in the musical life of Evreux Cathedral, where he initiated a children's choir. He also played a part in plans for a new organ in the Cathedral. He then directed the Choeur d'Enfants at the Parisian church of St Louis en l'Ile and spent two years as assistant organist at the American Cathedral in Paris.

Returning to the UK in 2004, he was appointed Organist and Director of Music at St Mary's Portsea and Musical Director of the St Mary's Music Foundation where he greatly expanded the children's choir. He was also Assistant Sub-Organist at Portsmouth Cathedral and gained his FRCO. As a deputy lay clerk he frequently sang with the choirs of Wi******er, Chichester and Portsmouth cathedrals.

Appointed Organist and Director of Music at Newcastle Cathedral in 2009, he was responsible for training the Cathedral choirs of boys, girls and adults which sing for six regular weekly services, and had overall responsibility for all aspects of music-making in the cathedral.

Moving to Auckland, New Zealand in 2016, he maintained a busy schedule of organ playing, choir training, singing and teaching. Until March 2021 he was Associate Cathedral Organist at St Patrick's Cathedral, in Auckland's city centre.

Michael and Elisabeth relocated to Avignon in the south of France to be closer to family in the northern hemisphere. Michael is now co-titular organist at the Basilica Notre Dame des Doms, playing both the Cavaillé-Coll/Mutin choir organ and the Piantanida 'Orgue Doré', as well as the churches within the city of Avignon.

From April to August 2023, Michael was the Acting Assistant Organist at Bath Abbey in the UK, and enjoyed a busy schedule, accompanying the Abbey's Boys and Girls Choirs with the Abbey Lay Clerks. By coincidence they were heard on tour in Avignon and Malaucène in July 2023.

Michael is currently interim Assistant Organist at Norwich Cathedral where he takes a share in both organ playing and conducting duties.

13/03/2025

Choral Evensong, Thursday 13th March at 7.00pm
Responses | Ebdon
Psalm: 116
Canticles: The Short Service | Ayleward
Anthem: Lord, for thy tender mercy’s sake | Farrant
Voluntary: Voluntary in F | Locke

12/03/2025

This afternoon, the choir vestry played host to the first rehearsal of Leeds Minster Children's Choir, with 14 children from St Peter's C of E Primary School joining us. This marked the first children's rehearsal at Leeds Minster since 2015. After a warm up, we learned S. S. Wesley's 'Lead me, Lord', prior to trying out a simple setting of the Kyrie. We're back again next week; do wish us luck during the embryonic first few months of this activity!

07/03/2025

Choral Services on Sunday 9th March

10.30am Choral Eucharist
Setting: Missa Brevis | Lotti
Psalm: 92: 1-2; 9-16
Anthem: Hide not thou thy face | Farrant
Voluntary: Allegro (from Concerto in Dm after Vivaldi) | J. S. Bach

5.30pm Choral Evensong
Responses | Ebdon
Psalm: 119: 73-88
Canticles: Second Service | Byrd
Anthem: Miserere mei | Byrd
Voluntary: Voluntary in A minor | Locke

ORGAN RECITAL by SHAUN TURNBULLFriday 7th March, 1.00pm - 1.45pmAdmission free, with retiring collection. Big screen pro...
06/03/2025

ORGAN RECITAL by SHAUN TURNBULL
Friday 7th March, 1.00pm - 1.45pm
Admission free, with retiring collection. Big screen projection. Refreshments and sandwiches in the Minster Cafe from 12.30pm. All welcome.

Join us for this week's lunchtime recital, given by our Assistant Organist, Shaun Turnbull. Shaun will play:

From the Klavierubung | J. S. Bach
i) Aus tiefer Not schrei Ich zu dir (BWV 686)
ii) Jesus Christus, unser Heiland (BWV 688)
iii) Jesus Christus, unser Heiland (BWV 689)

Elegaic Romance | Ireland
Variations on 'Caswall' | Paul Ritchie
Toccata on 'Aberyswyth' | David Bednall

Shaun Turnbull began learning the organ in sixth form. Thereafter, undergraduate and postgraduate study was completed at Birmingham Conservatoire. A number of roles in cathedral, church and university contexts has led to his current partial career change working in the Development Department at Ripon Cathedral alongside a busy calendar of choral accompaniment and recital work at the organ.

Engagements in the current season include Keighley Choral Union, St Peter’s Singers of Leeds, Kendal Choral Society and Jarrow Choral Society. Recent recitals include Ripon Cathedral, Hexham Abbey and St Chad’s Shrewsbury. Additionally, he holds the post of Assistant Organist at Leeds Minster.

In his spare time, Shaun enjoys fell walking, road cycling and eating out. When his other commitments don’t interfere, he is battling to maintain his single-figure golf handicap index.

06/03/2025

We're pleased to announce the arrangements for the funeral of Dr Simon Lindley.

In accordance with Dr Lindley’s wishes, a simple funeral will be held at St John’s Church, Moor Allerton (LS17 7BZ) on Tuesday 8 April at 12 noon, followed by his burial in the churchyard there.

A Requiem Mass sung to the music of Maurice Duruflé will take place at Leeds Minster on Thursday 10 April at 8.00pm.

It is intended that a celebratory concert in memory of Dr Lindley will take place on Saturday 18 October – more details will follow when available.

04/03/2025

Choral Eucharist for Ash Wednesday, with the Imposition of Ashes
Wednesday 5th March, 7.00pm

Setting: Missa Brevis | Walton
Psalm: 51 (plainsong)
Motet: Remember not, Lord, our offences | Purcell

28/02/2025

Sunday 2nd March
10.30am Choral Eucharist
The Little Organ Mass | Haydn
Psalm 99
Ave Maria | Simon Lindley
Praeludium in C | Buxtehude

At 5.30pm there will be the Organ and Choral Scholars' Showcase Concert, in place of Choral Evensong. Our 12 scholars, from Leeds and York Universities and Leeds Conservatoire, will perform ensemble pieces as well as a range of vocal and instrumental solos. Admission is free, with a retiring collection to support the scholarships programme at the Minster. Do come and support these talented young musicians who give so much to the musical life of the Minster!

Join us this Friday 28th February for our 1.00pm Lunchtime Organ Recital, given by Edward Taylor, Assistant Organist at ...
27/02/2025

Join us this Friday 28th February for our 1.00pm Lunchtime Organ Recital, given by Edward Taylor, Assistant Organist at Carlisle Cathedral.

Marcia Eroica, from Four Intermezzi, Op. 189 | C. V. Stanford
Fileuse | Alec Rowley ,
Fanfare, from Four Extemporisations | Percy Whitlock
Prelude in the form of a minuet | C. V. Stanford
A Thanksgiving processional | Herbert Brewer
Chorale Prelude on ‘Eventide’ | Hubert Parry
Festival Toccata | Percy Fletcher

Edward Taylor is the Assistant Organist and Director of Consort at Carlisle Cathedral. He also leads a busy freelance career and is in high demand as a concert organist, conductor and accompanist. Edward has performed in many prestigious venues including Westminster Abbey, Ely Cathedral, Durham Cathedral, Leeds Town Hall, Hull City Hall and Liverpool Cathedral in the UK and St Petri Hauptkirche, Hamburg, Germany, Hardenburg Church in Holland, Brussels Cathedral, Belgium and Salzburg Cathedral, Austria.

Edward holds a Bachelor of Music Degree and is an Associate of the Royal College of Organists having studied at the University of Leeds with David Sanger, Simon Lindley and Henry Fairs and at the Strasbourg Conservatoire with Parisian organist, Christophe Mantoux.

Edward's vast organ solo repertoire consists of works spanning five centuries from the Renaissance period to the 21st Century, specialising particularly in music of the French Romantic Period. In 2009, Edward held a fund-raising event in which he completed a 12 hour organ marathon, showcasing 12 consecutive themed hours of organ works from transcriptions and major works to improvisations.

As a choral director, Edward specialises in choral workshops for children and youth choirs and 'Come and Sing' events for adult choirs. Edward is Choral Director of the Penrith Singers and Solway Singers in Cumbria. He has conducted many large scale works with orchestra including Ahoy! and Zimbe! by Alexander L'Estrange, Bach’s St John Passion, Handel's Messiah, Haydn’s Creation and Rutter's Requiem and Magnificat. Edward leads Carlisle Cathedrals ‘Singing Out’ programme as Musical Animateur. Through this he provides choral training in Primary Schools throughout Cumbria, working with over 500 children each year culminating in six concerts at the cathedral each year. In 2009 he co-founded the Carlisle Cathedral Children’s Choir, Carlisle Cantate, who perform secular music in concert venues across Cumbria.

Edward has directed the Cathedral's Consort on the televised BBC’s Songs of Praise programme and Radio 4’s Sunday Morning Worship. He has organised and directed the choir on two successful tours to Brittany, France and Mallorca, Spain. Edward also directed the choir in the making of their debut CD "God is Gone Up with a Triumphant Shout" in collaboration with Borders Brass.

Edward has appeared on several CDs, accompanying the Girls’ Choir of Ely Cathedral on the CD "Sing Reign of Fair Maid" on the Regent Label, the Leeds University Liturgical Choir on the CD ''Vox Dei'' in 2006 and sung on numerous CD's as a Chorister of Ely Cathedral with Hyperion and Priory Records. Edward’s debut solo CD, ‘Fantasy on Carlisle’ was released in 2017 with Priory Records on the organ of Carlisle Cathedral. Edward's You Tube channel, which he started during ‘lockdown’ currently has 280 videos of organ music, mainly performed on the cathedral organ in Carlisle (). Follow Edward on Facebook and Instagram.

CHORAL EVENSONG on Thursday 27th February, at 7.00pmThis service includes music (psalm chant, canticles, anthem and volu...
26/02/2025

CHORAL EVENSONG on Thursday 27th February, at 7.00pm
This service includes music (psalm chant, canticles, anthem and voluntary) composed by Dr Simon Lindley, who sadly passed away on Tuesday 25th February, and who was Master of Music and Organist of this church between 1975 and 2016.

Responses: Rose
Psalm: 78 (vv. 40 to end)
Canticles: Fauxbourdons | Simon Lindley
Anthem: Ave Maria | Simon Lindley
Voluntary: Echo Rondel | Simon Lindley

We are deeply saddened to hear of the passing today of Dr Simon Lindley (1948 - 2025), distinguished Organist & Master o...
25/02/2025

We are deeply saddened to hear of the passing today of Dr Simon Lindley (1948 - 2025), distinguished Organist & Master of Music at Leeds Parish Church (latterly Minster) from 1975 - 2016.

Among other positions, Simon was also Musical Director of the St Peter's Singers of Leeds (1977-2021) and Leeds City Organist (1976-2016), as well as an erstwhile President of the Royal College of Organists.

For half a century, he was the greatest of ambassadors and enablers for music-making in the City of Leeds and the West Riding.

May he rest in peace and rise in glory.

22/02/2025

Choral Services on Sunday 23rd February

10.30am Choral Eucharist
Gloria (congregational) | David Thorne
Sanctus, Benedictus and Agnus Dei from Mass for the Mystery of Faith | Ghislaine Reece-Trapp
Psalm 65
Ubi Caritas | Durufle
Voluntary: Piece Heroique | Franck

5.30pm Choral Evensong
Responses: Rose
Psalm: 147: 13-end
Magnificat: Collegium Magdalenae Oxoniense | Leighton
Nunc Dimittis in A | Sumsion
Anthem: Sing, O Heavens | W. Lloyd Webber
Voluntary: Toccata on Hanover | Leighton

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Kirkgate
Leeds
LS27DJ

Opening Hours

Tuesday 11am - 2pm
Wednesday 11am - 2pm
Thursday 11am - 2pm
Friday 11am - 2pm
Saturday 11am - 2pm

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A huge thank you to Paul Dewhurst for all he's done as our Director of Music at the Minster. We will be eternally grateful for his fantastic leadership and musicianship. We will all miss him dearly and wish him the best of luck in his new post as Director of Music at Bridlington Priory Choir. Here he is opening his 'Christmas' present.

Extract No.2 from Evensong on March 2nd. ANTHEM - "Oh Pray for the Peace" - Howells

From our evensong on March 2nd - our male voices sounding gorgeous! Extract from Byrd "Fauxboudons"

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