Review of 29th November 2025 Concert. 

Glorious Music at St Michael’s, Helston.

The Helston Chamber Choir and Orchestra opened their concert in St Michael’s Church, Helston on 29th November with a powerful rendition of the Gloria from Mozart’s Coronation Mass. This bold, lively opening with precise singing and playing presaged more glorious music to come, as they presented a “Mozartfest” to a capacity audience.  In complete contrast they followed with the well-known motet Ave Verum Corpus with a silky smooth sound from the chorus to a sympathetic orchestral accompaniment, the high notes floating across the church. Soprano Kate Banfield Rickard stepped forward to sing Laudate Dominum from Vesperae Solennes de Confessore, a soaring melody, supported by the choir producing a homogenous sound as a foil to the top notes of the soloist.

In complete contrast, flautist Charlotte Osman performed Mozart’s 2nd Flute Concerto with the orchestra. A classic Mozartian orchestral introduction played with precise articulation by the orchestra introduced the flute, and we knew that we were in for a treat: accomplished playing faultlessly negotiating the tricky passages with ease.  The contrasting second movement ebbed and flowed, the orchestra getting out of the way and not overwhelming the flute in the delicate passages.  The flute entry to third movement was answered by the orchestra leading to a carefully managed musical conversation between sections of the orchestra and the soloist, with great rapport, ending with an effortless flute candenza. 

The headline work was Mozart’s Requiem beginning with the growing sound of the orchestra leading to the entry of the choir and timpani at full throttle. This segued into the Kyrie, a balanced and effective interplay of intertwining parts: a very cheerful “Lord have mercy”! This was an inspiring performance with attention to detail and many good moments: the light and soft Lacrimosa by the chorus, the well-balanced Recordare from the soloists, Kate Banfield Rickard, Ben Hoadley, Harry Hoyland and Elodie Lawry, Mezzo-soprano Elodie Lawry’s confident opening to the Benedictus, and the contrasting calm of the chorus singing the Agnus Dei. This was a controlled but full-hearted performance and the spontaneous standing ovation from the audience as the Lux Aeterna reached its climax, was well deserved by all the musicians. Conductor Martin Palmer had delivered a memorable performance of exceptional quality: as one audience member said to me “I could have been in the Royal Festival Hall”. It is impressive that a performance of this standard can be enjoyed by a sold-out audience in a small town in West Cornwall.

Michael Thorn

Review of 28th June Concert by Michael’s Thorn.

Fanfare and Fireworks from Helston Chamber Choir

The Helston Chamber Choir concert in St Michael’s Church Helston on 28th June literally began with a bang as the crash of drum was answered by organ chords.  This was Aaron Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man”, originally composed in 1942 for brass and percussion as a tribute to those engaged in World War II.  In this arrangement for percussion and organ, Jeremy Wan of Truro Cathedral conjured a whole brass band out of the St Michael’s organ to stunning effect. This was an auspicious start to a concert of “modern” choral music.

Composer Russell Pascoe, a “Helston Boy”, introduced his Salmow Kernewek (Cornish Psalms)composed in 2006, noting that this was its first performance in Helston.  It began with deep organ notes, felt as much as heard, as Out of the Depths emerged the choir, rising and growing in sound to a stormy climax with flashes of lightning from the organ.  The choir moved on to a joyful rendition of “I will lift up mine eyes”, in glorious and complex harmonies, offset (but not off put) by interjections from the percussion, sinking back to calm with an organ peroration.  The final psalm “Praise the Lord” was acomplex paean of praise for organ, percussion and choir, ably and confidently navigated by the choir to spectacular effect.  In the St Michael’s acoustic, we could have been in the Royal Albert Hall!

Then something completely different – a set of seven African-American spirituals exquisitely arrangedfor mezzo-soprano soloist, choir and orchestra by John Rutter in 2001 as “Feel the Spirit”.  Opening with “Joshua fit the battle of Jericho”, the choir sang with brashness and enthusiasm, faultlessly moving through changes of key.  In complete contrast, soloist Elodie Lawry calmly introduced “Steal away” with flute decorations from Kate Banfield Rickard and sensitive accompaniment by the orchestra.  “I got a robe” was sung with feeling and joy as a conversation between soloist and chorus, and then the mood changed again as a mysterious introduction opened into “Sometimes I feel like a motherless child”, sungby Elodie Lawry with great feeling to a controlled choir accompaniment.

A soulful clarinet introduction from Jacob Perry to “Ev’ry time I feel the spirit” was picked up by the choir as a swing rhythm with sparkling clarinet decorations, and built to full-throated joy led by the soloist and the musicians, ending in spontaneous applause from the audience.  “Deep river” drew an appropriately silky sound from the choir with fluent flute accompaniment from Kate Banfield Rickard.  The final climax “When the saints go marching in” was sung with joy and verve including changes of pace and mood, shifts of key and a virtuoso clarinet line from Jacob Perry.  The audience joined in the last verse for a fantastically triumphant ending.

The choir and musicians under direction of conductor Martin Palmer succeeded in delivering a hugely enjoyable concert of “modern” and accessible choral music, successfully navigating the many changes of pace, key, rhythm and mood both within and between items.  This was music-making of the highest quality and enjoyment.

Michael Thorn

1 July 2025

Review of April 12th Concert by Ian Jones

Helston Chamber Choir’s confident voices fill St Michael’s Church in stirring Spring concert

There are some evenings where music transcends expectation—and Saturday night at St Michael’s was just such a night. With a sell-out audience, a brilliantly varied programme, and performances that ranged from the reflective to the joyous, Helston’s musical talent was on full display.

In a superbly balanced programme, Helston Chamber Choir delivered a confident and uplifting evening of music at St Michael’s Church on Saturday, delighting a sell-out audience under the musical directorship of Martin Palmer.

Local professional orchestral musicians, performing together as the Helston Chamber Orchestra, opened the concert with a virtuosic performance of Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 6. The two solo viola players, Philip Montgomery-Smith and Ricarda Schmidt, created a warmth of tone that set the scene for the entire evening. The acoustic of St Michael’s, combined with the rounded string sound—replacing violins with violas—and subtle organ playing by Michael Höeg, created an ideal sonic backdrop for what followed, though the audience was in for some unexpected turns.

The first surprise of the evening came with the choir’s accomplished singing of the 8-part polyphony in Antonio Lotti’s Crucifixus. Many amateur choirs struggle to recruit sufficient tenors and basses, but here all voice parts were confidently filled. The subtle inclusion of some female voices into the tenor line created a surprisingly effective blend, with the lower ranges sounding both assured and well-balanced. It was a thoughtful and technically impressive performance of this short, intricately woven work.

The second surprise followed swiftly as the orchestra gave way to a deft jazz trio—piano, pizzicato bass, and drums—for Bob Chilcott’s Little Jazz Mass. This striking stylistic shift was handled with impressive confidence. The close harmony and syncopation were cleanly delivered, with the choir showing a clear sense of enjoyment and an expressive dynamic range. While jazz relies heavily on rhythmic accents and groove, which occasionally needed a touch more punch to lift the syncopation fully, the choir’s growing confidence in this genre was unmistakable. It’s exciting to imagine how this piece might develop even further with future outings.

After the interval came the headline work of the evening: Fauré’s much-loved Requiem. This sublime and emotionally rich performance brought together all the evening’s musical threads. The warmth introduced by the Brandenburg Concerto remained present throughout, imbuing the church with a rich, enveloping sound. The transcendent setting was beautifully captured, with moving solos from baritone Harry Hoyland and soprano Kate Banfield-Rickard. The celestial In Paradisumfaded into several seconds of radiant silence—a moment of collective stillness—before the audience erupted in a well-deserved ovation.

Helston Chamber Choir more than earned the capacity audience it attracted with this carefully crafted and confident programme. Their continued growth in both ambition and musical quality confirms that Helston is fast becoming a cultural hub for high-calibre amateur music-making. If future concerts are anything like this one, you’ll want to book early.

Ian Jones 13/4/2025

Review of 30th November 2024 Messiah Performance by Michael Thorn.

The Helston Chamber Choir, directed by Martin Palmer, opened the Christmas season on 30th November in St Michael’s church, Helston with a fine performance of Handel’s “Messiah.” An atmosphere of buzzing anticipation amongst the large audience was rewarded by a confident introduction from the orchestra, led by Molly Leigh.  Then a surprise! tenor, Ben Hoadley rose from his orchestral cello to sing the opening recitative, “Comfort ye, comfort ye My people” with bold assurance and clear articulation.  This revealed a strong sense of ensemble between the orchestra, chorus, soloists and organ, played by Michael Hoeg, which characterised the whole performance. It was powerfully answered by the first entry of the chorus, “And the glory of God shall be revealed”.

Another surprise!  Oboist, Elodie Lawry came forward from the orchestra to sing the complex and challenging contralto aria, “But who may abide the day of His coming?” effortlessly with a beautifully warm and mellow sound.  And after a bold and confident response from the choir, she conjured up a contrasting calm, “Behold a virgin shall conceive – O thou that tellest good tidings” in perfect balance with the chorus and orchestra.  Jacob Dennison, bass soloist, boldy proclaimed the hopeful aria, “The people that walked in darkness”, underpinned by the orchestra with the organ singing through, and the well-known chorus, “For unto us a child is born” was proclaimed with joyous panache by the chorus.  Soprano soloist, Kate Banfield-Rickard brought the first part to an end with some fine singing of the challenging aria “Rejoice greatly” with empathetic accompaniment from the orchestra and organ.  

The second part delivered many more memorable moments.  The musical cross-currents of choral voices in, “And with His stripes – All we like sheep” were a delight and the tenor recitative, “Thy rebuke hath broken his heart” was delivered with a feeling of pathos and gentleness. In contrast, the bass aria, “Why do the nations so furiously rage together?” was powerfully projected, with an insistent, driving accompaniment from the orchestra.  A rousing, “Hallelujah” chorus, was accompanied by fine trumpet playing, with the audience appreciatively on its feet, as is the tradition. Followed by a confident but delicate trio of soprano, cello and violin, “I know that my Redeemer liveth”.  And the trumpet did indeed sound with mellow accuracy in the bass aria, “The trumpet shall sound”.  The chorus, “Worthy is the lamb…to receive power and riches” and a great, “Amen” brought the Oratorio to a spectacular ending.  Power and riches indeed!

This was a fresh and joyful, “Messiah”, performed at an ever forward-leading tempo, well managed by music director, Martin Palmer. There was an electric atmosphere of concentration and participation in the audience, and the full 5 minutes of applause and standing ovation at its conclusion was a well merited response to him and all the musicians without exception.

November 30th 2024

JUNE 2024 Concert – Rossini Petit Messe Solennelle

A romantic concert of Rossini’s playful and entertaining music with some outstanding solo performances by Katherine Gregory – Soprano, Celia Stoddart – Alto, Mark Houndsell – Tenor, David Caroe – Bass with thanks to Michael Hoeg for Organ and Paul Comeau – Piano.

MARCH 2024 Our Joint Concert

We had a great evening! The instrumentalists from Helston Community College were superb; brass and strings playing Gabrieli, and a brilliant young clarinettist playing Mozart. Some of the instrumentalists also joined us in two choral pieces, by Monteverdi and Pergolesi, together with four impressive choristers from Truro Cathedral who sang the tenor and bass solo parts. Soprano and alto solo parts were sung by our own Sarah, Kate, and Ruth. The choir’s stand alone piece, And I saw a New Heaven, by Edgar Bainton, was accompanied by our great friend and virtuoso organist, Michael Høeg.

We had a large and very appreciative audience – thank you to everyone who supported us all.

We were very pleased to welcome several new choir members this term, who sang with us in this concert for the first time.

JANUARY 2024 Upcoming concert with Helston Community College

We are delighted to announce our forthcoming concert with singers and instrumentalists from the Helston Community College Music Department.

The programme is still being developed, but will include Pergolesi’s Magnificat, Monteverdi’s Beatus Vir, a movement from Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto, and a Gabrieli piece.

DECEMBER 2023  Our new Music Director

On December 7th 2023, we had two major changes. The first, was our first rehearsal with our new MD, Martin Palmer. The second, is that our rehearsal night changed to Thursday from Tuesday.

We had a first look at two of the baroque pieces for our next concert which will be on March 23rd, 2024.
We are excited to share this performance with members of Helston College Choir – a first for both choirs.

OCTOBER 2023  Major announcement.

We are very sad to announce that our forthcoming concert on November 18th 2023 will be our last under the baton of our present Music Director, Nigel Wicken. Nigel took up the post in 2016, and we have had many successful and enjoyable concerts under his direction. We have enjoyed singing a wide range of music from Bach Cantatas and Passion to Holst arrangements of English Folk Songs, via many other genres, often including pieces by his favourite, Buxtehude. We greatly appreciate the time we have spent with him which has been challenging, satisfying, and fun!

From January 2024 we will have the privilege of being directed by Martin Palmer, who is well known in Cornish musical circles as a choral and orchestral director, and until his recent retirement, Head  of Music at Truro School. We look forward to welcoming him in the New Year. A concert programme is under construction and details will be released shortly.

MAY 2023

Following our concert of Music from across Europe, on Sat April 22nd, we begin rehearsing Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu Nostri on Tues, May 9th at 7.15pm for performance on Sat 15th July at 7.30pm

FEBRUARY 2022

Since our last update, we have made, and then had to alter, several of our plans. However, we are now able to announce the date of our next concert which will be on:

Saturday, June 11th at 7.30pm in St Michael’s Church, Helston

It’s an exciting programme of Psalm arrangements by many composers, including Vaughan Williams, Batten, Weelkes, Macmillan, Purcell and Britten.

UPDATE SEPTEMBER 2021: AT LAST SOME NEWS!

Here we are three quarters through our 50th anniversary year, with some good news on the horizon.
Our latest plan is that subject to the Local Enhanced Covid Measures which will be announced in the next few days,
we recommence rehearsals on Tuesday, Sept 21st from 7-9pm in St Michael’s Church, Helston.
This is to comply with social distancing requirements.
Our first concert will be on Saturday October 30th also in St Michael’s Church as usual, and will be Parts 1 & 2 of Haydn’s Creation.
We will also being singing in St Michael’s Advent Carol Service on Sunday, November 28th at 6.30pm
Please come and help us celebrate what’s left of our special year.

50th ANNIVERSARY YEAR 2021
This certainly hasn’t gone to plan! It looks as though we’ll squeeze in just the one concert this year, and our planned but rearranged Psalm Concert in 2022.

CHRISTMAS 2019

We are breaking with tradition this year, and will be holding our Winter Concert before Christmas, rather than in January the following year as we usually do. On Saturday, 14th December 2019, at 7.30pm in St Michael’s Church, Helston, we will be singing a rich selection of mostly less well-known Christmas music.
Buxtehude: Das Neugeborne Kindelein; Mendelssohn: two items from Christus op 97; Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on Christmas Carols; M. Haydn: Viderunt Omnes;
Charpentier: Messe de Minuit.
Do come and join us.

SUMMER CONCERT 2019

We look forward to another ambitious new venture with our next summer concert, on Saturday, June 22nd 2019, at 7.30pm in St Michael’s Church, Helston, when we will be performing  Henry Purcell’s semi-opera,  KING ARTHUR. The piece has a VERY cxomplicated plot, involving love, magic, quaffing, trumpets and flag-waving. Definitely not to be missed!

WINTER CONCERT 2019

Our next concert at 7.30pm on Saturday, January 26th 2019, in St Michael’s Church, Helston, conducted and directed as always by Nigel Wicken, has the title:
ANCIENT and MODERN.
The ANCIENT will be two pieces by W A Mozart: Little Sparrow Mass k220,
and the Lauretian Litany k195.
The MODERN consists of several pieces; James Macmillan’s Lux Aeterna, and New Song,
Judith Weir’s Two Human Hymns, and the first performance  (i.e. world premiere!)
of Evening Hymn, a piece for choir and organ by local composer, Pippa Drummond.
We are delighted that our guest organist will once again be Michael Hoeg, who has played so magnificently in several of our previous concerts.

SUMMER CONCERT 2018

The Helston Chamber Choir and Orchestra Summer Concert will take place on Saturday, June 30th, 7.30pm, in St Michael’s Church, Helston, when we will be presenting a semi-staged version of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas.
All the female soloists are members of the choir, and the male soloists have sung with us on several previous occasions.
Be prepared for courtiers, witches, and sailors, in quick succession!

Dido                            Jenny Oldfield
Aeneas                       Jesse Giuliani
Belinda                      Kate Banfield Rickard
Sorceress                  Ruth Williams
Second woman        Sarah Bayes
First Sailor               Michael White
Stage direction       Ben Oldfield
Conductor                Nigel Wicken

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Nicholas Hurndall Smith, tenor

We are delighted to announce that Nicholas will be singing the part of Evangelist in our performance of Bach’s St John Passion on March 17th 2018, at 7.30pm in St Michael’s Church, Helston.

Nicholas Hurndall Smith studied music as organ scholar at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, before training as a singer at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama under David Pollard. He has since been equally at home on the operatic and concert stages, in roles by Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Britten and Stravinsky and he appears all over the world with a variety of conductors and ensembles, with Monteverdi & Bach being special favourites.
He recently sang in the acclaimed Bach Weekend with the Feinstein Ensemble at Kings Place, performing Bach’s Cantata Ich armer Mensch, ich Sündenknecht and the B minor Mass. With the London Concert Choir he has sung Haydn’s The Seasons and the Mozart Requiem, and Britten’s St Nicolas with both the London Mozart Players and the English Chamber Orchestra. He has also appeared with Fretwork in a recital of Purcell and Dowland.
Nicholas has been a member of the solo voice ensemble I Fagiolini for the last thirty years, taking part in their innovative staged productions, films, recordings and tours. Last summer saw them in a revival of How like an Angel with Circa at the St. Olav Festival in Trondheim, and this year they have been touring their new Monteverdi recording ‘The Other Vespers’.
Nicholas also enjoys adding alpine and rock climbs to his repertoire. In June he completed a unique ‘double’, climbing the Old Man of Hoy and running the Hoy Half Marathon in one weekend.

Helston Chamber Choir is proud to announce our next concert :

Saturday, March 17th 2018 at 7.30pm, in St Michael’s Church, Helston

J S BACH

ST JOHN PASSION

Nicholas Hurndall Smith: Evangelist
Jesse Giuliani: Jesus       
Simeon Royle: Pilate
Kate Banfield Rickard: soprano    
Ruth Williams: alto
Michael White: tenor     
Michael Hoeg: organ
Helston Chamber Choir and Orchestra
Director and  conductor: Nigel Wicken

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Beth and Greg’s Wedding 4th November 2017
St Winwaloe Church
Gunwalloe Church Cove

We had the great pleasure and privilege of singing at the beautiful and moving marriage ceremony of our alto, Beth, with her fiance Greg, on a sunny winter’s afternoon.

Members of the choir, dressed in autumnal colours at the Bride’s request, preparing to sing the Theme from Terminator 2 at the entrance of the Bride, at the Groom’s request!

The very happy couple after the ceremony