Seeking you
WELCOME!
Thank you for deciding to share this summer evening with Leeds Guild of Singers. We are happy to make this long-awaited return to All Souls’ Church, which was a regular venue for LGS concerts in the 1990s and 2000s. If you haven’t already explored this fascinating and beautiful building, do wander round during the interval or after the performance. We’re grateful to the church administration for their support in arranging and promoting this concert.
The ”Seeking you” in tonight’s concert title invites you on a musical journey of longing – for the divine, for lost love, for peace and for hope in the darkness. Sometimes this yearning is quiet and questioning, sometimes it is urgent and unrestrained. We hope you’ll also go on a voyage of discovery tonight – of lesser-known works by composers you’ve not experienced before, including by members of our choir. We’re delighted to showcase the composing talent that we have in our midst. And these composers are glad that you’ve come to support them in rare performances of their works.
Please take a minute to complete the feedback form and put it in the box at the exit. We value your comments, and we’d like to stay in touch to tell you about the concerts in our 2025-26 season, as well as the progress of our new commission. Best wishes.
David Bowman (Outgoing Chair of LGS committee)
PROGRAMME NOTES & TEXTS
Seeking You Kerensa Briggs (born 1991)
British-born Kerensa Briggs is an award-winning composer specialising in choral music, whose pieces have been performed by major choirs and broadcast internationally. This work was commissioned in 2024 by the Saint Louis Chamber Chorus, where she is composer in residence, and features lyrics by US poet Charles Anthony Silvestri. It tells of a weary traveller at the deathbed of their long-beloved.
Briggs has been described as writing in a generally tonal, audience-friendly and performer-friendly idiom. This is certainly in evidence in the richness of the close harmony in this piece, but it’s also coupled with some surprising shifts in tonality, whilst the final cadence seems to leave us hanging on an unanswered question.
Text:
My weary feet know only toil,
My sandals gilt with dust and soil;
A threadbare cloak against the chill,
My brittle bones do ache, and still
I journey on into the night,
Following the slender light.
Seeking you.
Before the bedside now I stand,
And offer up my outstretched hand.
I touch your brow, I feel you sigh,
And humbly I’m reminded why
I journey on into the night,
Following the slender light.
Seeking you.
My heart is full, my little rose,
That I could be the one you chose;
That I should come to you once more
And see your gentle face before
I journey on into the night,
Following the slender light.
Seeking you,
Ever seeking you.
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Prayers of Kierkegaard – I, II & III Knut Nystedt (1915-2014)
Nystedt was a leading Norwegian composer, who studied with Aaron Copland and whose music is much influenced by ancient church music, especially Gregorian chant and the music of Palestrina. This cantata, written in 1999, is settings of prayers by the Danish theologian and philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, and is for divided four-part choir.
Each of the six movements shows a sensitive and intensely personal treatment of the text and a generally homophonic texture. Each also reflects the contrast between the difficulty and complexity of a personal “relationship” with God and the simplicity of human love through Nystedt’s use of harmony. Typically, he uses dissonance with some very “crunchy” chords earlier in each movement, which resolve into a more recognisable tonality before the end.
Text:
I
We speak this way with you, o God,
there is a language difference between us,
and yet we strive to understand you,
to make ourselves intelligible to you,
and you are not ashamed to be called our God
II
Lord Jesus Christ, who loved us first,
you who until the last loved those
whom you had loved from the beginning,
you who until the end of time continue
to love everyone who wants to belong to you,
your faithfulness cannot deny itself!
III
Great are you, o God, great are you, o God!
Although we know you only as an obscure saying,
and as in a mirror,
yet in wonder we worship your greatness,
how much more shall we praise it at some time,
we shall praise it when we come to know it more fully!
When under the arch of heaven,
I stand surrounded by the wonders of creation,
I rapturously and adoringly praise your greatness,
you who lightly hold the stars in the infinite
and concern yourself fatherly with the sparrow.
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The Little Hill Lindsay Robertshaw (member of LGS)
Originally a finalist in an international choral writing competition for a Shropshire choir, this piece tries to reflect the innocent simplicity and charm of the poem by Mary Webb (1881-1927) with the use of a familiar harmonic vocabulary. The “arch” form means we start and return to the same place (as we often do on a walk) and there is much use of “word painting”, particularly for the words “chant” and “sing”, which is the climax of the central section.
Currently based in Leeds, Lindsay has sung in and composed for many choirs over many years.
Text:
This is the hill, ringed by the misty Shire,
The mossy, southern hill, where larches climb so high.
Among the stars aslant they chant, they chant;
Among the purple lower slopes they lie
In lazy golden smoke, more faint, more still
Than the pale woodsmoke of the cottage fire.
Here some calm Presence takes me by the hand
And all my heart is lifted by the chant of them that lean aslant
In golden smoke, and sing, and sing, and softly bend and softly bend:
And out from every larch-bole steals a friend.
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Moorland Air Alistair Wood (member of LGS)
Composer’s note: “I wrote this piece shortly after I had attended the funeral of a dear friend. It took its starting point from an ancient piece that we had sung together on several occasions. The text was provided by my colleague Philip Jones, with whom I have collaborated on a number of occasions to produce choral and vocal works. In this “meeting of minds”, the composer has to enhance rather than detract from the wonderful poetry!
The piece begins with a musical quotation from the Agnus Dei in Four Parts by William Byrd, but soon becomes angular and bleak, until the words “moorland song” are reached, when the cloudy mood lifts to reveal a Scottish scene... We contemplate the beauty and power of landscape in a series of passionate rises and falls, then experience more of the sparse harmony and texture of the opening. The warmest possible restatement of the main theme builds to a climactic declaration of a couple’s love for each other. Finally, we restfully acknowledge the atmospheric purity. This piece is dedicated to the memory of Janis Mather.”
Ali has enjoyed singing with the Guild for five years. In his own words, his retirement “provides the luxury to spend oodles of time being a (very) amateur composer!”
Text:
End on the wind: a final chord
That carries far.
End on the wind, a moorland song
In bilberry and ling.
The hills will always have a voice
Beyond a time when none is there to hear;
The lasting chord is yours and mine,
Borrowed from the empty air.
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Prayers of Kierkegaard – IV, V & VI Knut Nystedt (1915-2014)
Text:
IV
Father in heaven!
Open the fountains of our eyes,
let a torrent of tears like a flood,
obliterate all of the past life,
which did not find favour in your eyes;
but also give us a sign as of old,
when you set the rainbow
as a gateway of grace in the heavens,
that you will no more wipe us out with a flood;
let sin never again get such power over us
that you again have to tear us out
with the body of sin.
V
Father in heaven,
In springtime ev’rything in nature,
comes back again with new freshness and beauty,
would that we, too, might come back unaltered to the instruction of these teachers!
But if, alas, our health has been damaged in time past,
would that we might recover it
by learning again from the lilies in the field
and from the birds of the air!
VI
Father in heaven! You loved us first!
Help us never to forget that you are love,
so that this full conviction might be victorious,
be victorious in our hearts over world’s allurement,
the mind’s unrest,
the anxieties over the future,
the horrors of the past,
the needs of the moment.
O, grant also that this conviction might form our minds,
so that our hearts become constant and true in love to them,
whom you bid us to love as ourselves
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Sing Matthew Oglesby (member of LGS)
Text:
Sing for yourself, when the words have escaped, but the tune won’t go away.
Sing the curlew and lark, the purling stream and rocky fell, the scurrying clouds and sleety rain,
Sing the rhythm of walking, through the city at night, where stars ride high above the streetlights.
Sing with a friend, sing unison cord from concord spun, weaving fresh harmony from threads diverse.
Hymn those mills reborn, after their bustling heyday, new life in sturdy old stone.
Sing to a stranger whose ear is cheered by hearing music instead of just noise.
Sing with your heart and voice, sing from your lungs and guts, sing through your grief and sing again for joy.
Dress up in black and sing for a crowd, sing on a whim, but sing out loud.
INTERVAL
The little boy Lost The little boy Found Benjamin Kirk (MD of LGS)
William Blake was born in 1757 in Soho. At the age of eight he saw “a tree filled with angels” on Peckham Rye, their bright wings “bespangling every bough like stars.” His visionary gifts as a poet, painter and engraver never left him, and when he died in 1827 in a two-room garret, he was singing.
Composer’s note: “My brother Barnabas bought me a beautiful edition of Blake's Songs of Innocence and of Experience at Christmas 2012, complete with Blake's paintings engraved and framing each poem therein (if you haven't seen these beautiful paintings, do search them out). The Little Boy Lost and The Little Boy Found are separate poems in Blake's book, but the first poem ends without punctuation, and the next poem begins directly where the last one left off. When I began setting this in 2013, I wanted the music to reflect this transition into the second poem, which completes the first. The music is Romantic, and I was trying with this to relay the trouble which the Little Boy finds himself in during the first poem - and then the sense of delivery and salvation at the end of the innocent boy's journey.”
Text:
Father, father, where are you going
O do not walk so fast.
Speak father, speak to your little boy
Or else I shall be lost,
The night was dark no father was there
The child was wet with dew.
The mire was deep, and the child did weep
And away the vapour flew.
The little boy lost in the lonely fen,
Led by the wand’ring light,
Began to cry, but God ever nigh,
Appear’d like his father in white.
He kissed the child and by the hand led,
And to his mother brought,
Who in sorrow pale thro’ tConhe lonely dale,
Her little boy weeping sought.
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O For a Closer Walk with God Cassie White (member of LGS)
Composer’s note: “This piece was written for the London Festival of Contemporary Church Music 2025, where it received its premiere at Southwark Cathedral. It is a setting of a William Cowper poem of the same name, made famous by a setting by Charles Villiers Stanford. This new setting for SATB double choir uses the two vocal groups as a representation of that closeness, with the two sections beginning on a steady unison pulse and expanding out into rich polyphony and dense harmonic textures. The piece contains several musical ideas that mirror each other, much like in Cowper’s poem, gradually transforming as though on a walk or journey themselves.”
Cassie is a composer based in Leeds, specialising in composition for choir and for video games.
Text:
O for a closer walk with God,
a calm and heav’nly frame,
a light to shine upon the road
that leads me to the Lamb.
Return, O holy dove, return,
sweet messenger of rest;
I hate the sins that made thee mourn,
and drove thee from my breast.
So shall my walk be close with God,
calm and serene my frame;
so purer light shall mark the road
that leads me to the Lamb.
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Media vita Kerensa Briggs (born 1991)
This piece was commissioned in 2015 by the English ensemble, Siglo de Oro, to celebrate 500 years since the birth of the English Renaissance composer, John Sheppard. The piece draws inspiration from both the expansiveness and intensity found within Sheppard’s setting of Media Vita and the meaning found within the text itself. These ideas are incorporated into a richer harmonic language and reflective sonority.
Text:
Translation:
Media vita in morte sumus.
Quem quaerimus adjutorem nisi te, Domine,
qui pro peccatis nostris juste irasceris?
Sancte Deus. Sancte fortis.
Sancte et misericors Salvator,
amarae morti ne tradas nos.
In the midst of life we are in death.
Whom can we seek as our helper, but you, O Lord,
who for our sins are justly angry?
Holy God. Holy and strong.
Holy and merciful Saviour,
deliver us not to the bitter pains of death.
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Vier doppelchörige Gesänge (Four songs for double choir) Robert Schumann (1810-1856)
Written in 1949 at the peak of Schumann’s maturity, this set of four songs is a masterpiece of choral writing. Schumann’s compositions embraced virtually all of the genres and formats of his day, but his personal life was marked by great struggle, tragedy and ill health. The huge emotional breadth, depth and contrast in his setting of the varied texts of these songs for double choir reflect this. His use of the two choirs is complex: sometimes, as in the opening of the first song, he uses the choirs antiphonally as if in a conversation, but at other times, he changes to a polyphonic texture where individual voices interrupt each other. Rarely does he settle into a predictable structure or form, and although he uses the familiar Romantic harmonic language of the mid-19th century, his ability to surprise us with his contrasts is often remarkable, but always sensitive to the text.
Texts:
Translations:
1. An die Sterne (To the Stars) – words by Friedrich Rückert
Sterne,
In des Himmels Ferne!
Die mit Strahlen bessrer Welt
Ihr die Erdendämmrung hellt;
Schau'n nicht Geisteraugen
Von euch erdenwärts,
Dass sie Frieden hauchen
Ins umwölkte Herz?
Sterne,
in des Himmels Ferne!
Träumt sich auch in jenem Raum
Eines Lebens flücht'ger Traum ?
Hebt Entzücken, Wonne,
Trauer, Wehmut, Schmerz,
Jenseit unsrer Sonne
Auch ein fühlend Herz?
Sterne,
In des Himmels Ferne!
Winkt ihr nicht schon Himmelsruh'
Mir aus euren Fernen zu?
Wird nicht einst dem Müden
Auf den goldnen Au'n
Ungetrübter Frieden
In die Seele tau'n?
Sterne,
In des Himmels Ferne,
Bis mein Geist den Fittich hebt
Und zu eurem Frieden schwebt,
Hang' an euch mein Sehnen
Hoffend, glaubevoll!
O, ihr holden, schönen,
Könnt ihr täuschen wohl?
Stars,
In the distant heavens!
Who brighten the twilight of Earth
with the beams of a better world;
Are there not ghostly eyes
looking from you towards the earth,
breathing peace
into clouded hearts?
Stars,
In the distant heavens!
Is the fleeting dream of life
dreamed even in that far-off place?
Are there hearts beyond our sun
which are also lifted
by delight, joy,
sorrow, melancholy, anguish?
Stars,
In the distant heavens!
Do your twinkles not signify heavenly peace
to me from far off?
Will you not melt peace
into the soul of weary men
one day in golden meadows?
Stars,
In the distant heavens,
until my spirit takes wing
and flies to your peace,
I pin my longings on you,
hoping, trusting!
O you lovely, beautiful ones,
is it possible for you to deceive me?
2. Ungewisses Licht (Uncertain Light) – words by Johann Christian von Zedlitz
Bahnlos und pfadlos, Felsen hinan
Stürmet der Mensch, ein Wandersmann.
Stürzende Bäche, wogender Fluß,
Brausender Wald, nichts hemmet den Fuß!
Dunkel im Kampfe über ihn hin,
Jagend im Heere die Wolken zieh'n;
Rollender Donner, strömender Guß,
Sternlose Nacht, nichts hemmet den Fuß!
Endlich, ha! endlich schimmert's von fern!
Ist es ein Irrlicht, ist es ein Stern?
Ha! wie der Schimmer so freundlich blinkt,
Wie er mich locket, wie er mir winkt!
Rascher durcheilet der Wandrer die Nacht,
Hinnach dem Lichte zieht's ihn mit Macht!
Sprecht, wie: sind's Flammen, ist's Morgenrot,
Ist es die Liebe, ist es der Tod?
Without a path, without a trail,
the man, the wanderer storms up the cliffs:
Plunging streams, a roaring river,
Booming woods, nothing breaks his stride!
Warring in darkness above,
Clouds pursue him in armies;
Rolling thunder, streaming torrents,
A starless night, nothing breaks his stride!
At last, ha! At last it glitters in the distance!
Is it a phantom, is it a star?
Ha, its sparkle is so friendly,
How it entices me, how it beckons to me!
Faster now the wanderer hurries through the night,
Drawn by the power of the light.
Tell: is it flames, is it the sunrise,
Is it love, is it death?
3. Zuversicht (Assurance) – words by Johann Christian von Zedlitz
Nach oben musst du blicken,
Gedrücktes, wundes Herz,
Dann wandelt in Entzücken
Sich bald dein tiefster Schmerz.
Froh darfst du Hoffnung fassen,
Wie hoch die Flut auch treibt.
Wie wärst du denn verlassen,
Wenn dir die Liebe bleibt?
You must look up,
Oppressed, wounded heart,
Then your deepest agonies
Will soon turn to delight.
You may cling to hope gladly,
However high the flood rises.
How can you be lost
If you still have love?
4. Talismane (Talismans) – words by Johann Wolfgang van Goethe
Gottes ist der Orient!
Gottes ist der Okzident!
Nord und südliches Gelände
Ruht im Frieden seiner Hände.
Er, der einzige Gerechte,
Will für jedermann das Rechte.
Sei von seinen hundert Namen
Dieser hochgelobet! Amen.
Mich verwirren will das Irren,
Doch du weisst mich zu entwirren,
Wenn ich handle, wenn ich dichte,
Gib du meinem Weg die Richte!
Gottes ist der Orient!
Gottes ist der Okzident!
Amen!
God is the East!
God is the West!
Northern and southern lands
Rest in the peace of his hands.
He, the only righteous one,
Desires what is right for everyone.
Of his hundred names,
May this one be highly praised! Amen.
Wandering may lead me astray,
But you know how to untangle me,
When I act, when I write,
Guide me on my way!
God is the East!
God is the West!
Amen!
Programme notes by Lindsay Robertshaw & LGS composers, Texts & translations by Robbie Curtis, 2025.
LEEDS GUILD OF SINGERS
Founded in 1948, Leeds Guild of Singers has established a reputation as one of Yorkshire’s finest chamber choirs and is a group of around 40 singers which prides itself on a light, flexible and pure sound. We perform a wide and adventurous repertoire of sacred and secular music, mostly unaccompanied and spanning seven centuries. Recent highlights include a tour to France in 2016, the first performance of a work specially commissioned for our 70th anniversary, and a suite of virtual performances recorded during the pandemic.
Email: secretary@leedsguildofsingers.org.uk
web: www.leedsguildofsingers.org.uk
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BENJAMIN KIRK – MUSICAL DIRECTOR
Benjamin was born in Beverley, East Yorkshire in 1992, attended Christ’s Hospital School, and in 2011 moved to Tallinn, Estonia, to begin studying choral conducting under Tõnu Kaljuste. Thus began a love affair with Baltic, Nordic and Russian choral music that he is committed to share with audiences around the world.
Benjamin's career as a choral conductor began in Estonia in 2016. He won 3rd prize at the World Conducting Competition in Hong Kong in 2019, and has worked with choirs across Europe, as well as preparing numerous choruses for performance.
He is currently also Musical Director of the Lea Singers in Harpenden,
the Clerkes of All Saints in York and the Orlando Singers in Cambridge, as well as Conductor with The Purcell Singers in London. Further afield, Benjamin has been Guest Conductor with the National Forum of Music Choir in Wrocław, Poland since 2021.
Outside of conducting, Benjamin enjoys playing chess, watching stand-up comedy and reading.
benjamintheophilus.com
OUR SINGERS IN THE 2024-25 SEASON: (not all performing today)
Soprano:
Sara Caine
Emily Clarke
Alexis Cooling
Orlen Crawford
Mel Dodds
Kristýna Farag
Lizzie Fry
Charley Hellier
Claire Osborne
Eve Ridgeway
Elodie Smith
Sophie Swinson
Catherine Whatmough
Anna Williams
Alto:
Laura Barker-Bey
Amy Barwick
Milena Büchs
Vicky Hands
Enson Lee
Ally Martin
Myriam Mitchell
Mary Seeds
Ruby Thomas
Cassie White
Claire White-McKay
Katie Woollam
Tenor:
Peter Coltman
Chris Cunliffe
Andrew Downs
Angus McAllister
Matthew Oglesby
Nick Salmon
John Scholey
Ellis Soothill
David Williams
Bass:
David Bowman
Martin Coombes
Robbie Curtis
David Green
David Hargreaves
David Jackson
Matt Knowles
Lindsay Robertshaw
Aidan Sadgrove
Ali Wood
FUNDRAISING FOR A NEW CHORAL COMMISSION
LGS has commissioned a new choral work by an award-winning composer, in memory of David Eaves. A much-loved friend and former bass singer in the Guild, David (pictured) died of cancer in 2020 aged just 45. He kindly left a small legacy to the choir, which we are putting towards this commission in his memory.
David was a kind, thoughtful, generous and talented person, a proud Scot who touched the lives of so many people. Singing and music were always a big part of his life. We have selected the York-based (but Scotland-born) composer, Martin Suckling, to produce a work of several movements that reflect David’s Scottish heritage and his Christian faith.
We are excited to collaborate with Martin to bring a new composition into the contemporary choral repertoire, and we will perform its premiere on 8 November 2025 (more details below). In addition to David’s legacy, some financing will come from LGS charity reserves, and we have received some grant funding. But we would be very grateful to receive donations of any size from supporters of the Guild. If you would like to contribute to the creation of this enduring work, visit our website and follow the link to our Just Giving page (justgiving.com/campaign/davideavescommission)
UPCOMING CONCERTS
Saturday 8 November 2025, 3pm, Holy Trinity Church, Boar Lane, Leeds, LS1 6HW – “Songs of Sleep and Prophecy”, including the premiere performance of new work by Martin Suckling commissioned by Leeds Guild of Singers in memory of David Eaves.
Sunday 7 December 2025, 3pm, Adel Parish Church, LS16 8DE – our traditional Christmas concert in this beautiful village church, followed by seasonal refreshments.
Saturday 13 December 2025, 3pm, St. Michael’s Church, Headingley, LS6 3AW – “Sankta Lucia: a Festival of Light”, a celebration of Christmas music from Scandinavia and the Baltics, in conjunction with the Lutheran Church of Leeds.
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© Leeds Guild of Singers 2025 | Registered Charity No. 1183125 | A member of Making Music
