North Yorkshire and beyond: Jervaulx Singers new season including Parry’s Songs of Farewell, Vierne’s Messe Solennelle and more

Jervaulx Abbey (Photo: Jervaulx Abbey)

Named for Jervaulx Abbey, the ruins of the once great Cistercian abbey in North Yorkshire, Jervaulx Singers is an eight-voiced ensemble of professional singers founded in 2021 by conductor Charlie Gower-Smith and Jenny Bianco. Their 2026/27 encompasses concerts in York, Leeds, Bristol, Ripon, and at the Haslemere Festival.

They open the season at the Unitarian Chapel in York with a programme centred around Parry’s Songs of Farewell, his haunting tribute for friends and students killed in the First War. Alongside this the group perform Judith Weir’s Love bade me welcome and Jonathan Dove’s Five Am’rous Sighs.

Charlie Gower-Smith, commented, “There are so many gems in our 2026-7 season. I’ve adored the musical language of Parry’s Songs of Farewell ever since singing them as a student. We have paired these with Jonathan Dove’s Five Am’rous Sighs, which I found so charming in their intimacy and honesty.”

The group’s debut disc, on Convivium Records, was Les Chansons des Roses which features Morten Lauridsen’s Les chansons des roses, Jonathan Dove’s The Passing of the Year and music by Ola Gjeilo, Francis Poulenc, Leonard Bernstein and more. There will be a chance to hear music from the disc at the ensemble’s concert at The Cryer, a new performing venue at The Grammar School at Leeds named for the late Barry Cryer (who was an alumnus of the school). And there will be music from their second disc, In the stillness (which was on Gramophone Magazine’s 2025 Christmas List) at two candlelit carol concerts in Leeds and Ripon.

Jervaulx Singers (Photo: Rhian Hughes)

Further afield, in geographic and repertoire terms, the group joins forces with Lucis Choir (led by conductor Francis Faux) for an evening of French liturgical music centred on Louis Vierne’s Messe Solennelle at St Mary’s Redcliffe, Bristol. Vierne’s mass is written for choir and two organs and was premiered at St Sulpice in Paris where his teacher, Charles-Marie Widor was organist. Vierne later recast the work for choir and one organ to make it more accessible.

Full details from the Jervaulx Singers’ website.