Cambridge Edition rounds up the best of this year’s carol concerts for your convenience!
Carols by Candlelight
The Apex, Bury St Edmunds, 15 December
Popular touring group The Locrian Ensemble will perform a lavish concert, in period costume, at The Apex in Bury St Edmunds. Expect festive favourites like White Christmas and Walking in the Air alongside Handel’s Messiah, sung by West End soprano Jill Washington.
Take your seats for 7.30pm; tickets cost £19.
Sing We Yule!
Great St Mary’s Church, 18 December
Soak up the sound of Christmases gone by at Cambridge Early Music’s effervescent concert in Cambridge. The programme contains traditional carols, lullabies and Celtic dance tunes, played on fiddle, harp, bells and bagpipes.
The concert starts at 7.30pm; tickets are £20 (£15 concessions).
A Christmas Celebration
Church of St Peter and St Paul, Lavenham, 19 December
Start the season with a celebration of Christmas music at the beautiful parish church in Lavenham. The historic village, featured in the seventh Harry Potter film, is always worth a visit at this time of the year. The concert itself, performed by the Bury Bach Choir, will include seasonal favourites with some lesser-known pieces, plus readings. It starts at 7.30pm, with mince pies before the show. Tickets are £12.
Carols by Candlelight
Leper Chapel, 20 December
Escape the commerce of Christmas and cluster into the Leper Chapel, off Newmarket Road. This humble, ancient building is the oldest in town and the Rev Dr Roger Williams will be joined by the Cottenham Brass Band for this cosy Christmas singalong – with mince pies and mulled wine. Free (donations welcome), it starts at 6.30pm.
Hark the Herald
Ely Cathedral, 23 December
Take your seat under the 30ft Christmas tree and hear the Cathedral Choir, accompanied by Prime Brass, perform a programme of traditional carols in this spectacular setting. While the choir will be demonstrating their skills, there will be carols you can join in with too. It starts at 7.30pm; tickets are £10-£20.
A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols
King’s College Chapel, 24 December
A famously magical Christmas treat to do at least once is to take your place under the fan-vaulted ceiling of King’s College Chapel and hear some of the finest choral voices in the country sing soaring carols at A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols. This event is free and open to the public, but an early start is essential. Another, private concert at King’s is recorded earlier in December for the TV broadcast on Christmas Eve, while this one will be broadcast live on Radio 4.
www.kings.cam.ac.uk/events/chapel-services/nine-lessons.html
