Manchester Camerata orchestra announces Christmas concerts among its final appearances of 2021

A Manchester music group has announced the concerts with which it will round off its 2021 programme - including what promise to be a couple of Christmas crackers.

Chamber orchestra the Manchester Camerata is bringing the curtain down on the year in style with a couple of festive favourites and a visit to the city from one of classical music’s most acclaimed soloists.

So from cutting-edge contemporary music and popular modern concerts to sounds that have defined Christmas for generations of music-lovers, read on to find out how the group is planning to finish 2021 with a flourish.

What are the Camerata’s Christmas concerts?

The Manchester Camerata is putting on two concerts in its hometown seasonal good tidings and winter warmth for the festive season.

Firstly, on Sunday 28 November the ensemble is teaming up with Nevill Holt Opera to put on Handel’s Messiah in its home venue of The Monastery in Gorton.

This is a piece that has proved perennially popular with classical music lovers since its premiere in 1742 and has particularly become associated with the run-up to Christmas.

Pieces like the majestic Hallelujah chorus, For Unto Us A Child Is Born, He Was Despised and many others will ring around the beautiful surroundings of the venue’s Great Nave.

To get the full festive experience the performance, conducted by Nicholas Chalmers, will take place by candlelight.

Then, on Sunday 12 December, the Camerata will once more team up with leading gospel choir AMC for a partnership which has become extremely popular with music lovers in the city.

Having performed at Hacienda Classical and at previous Festive Happenings, the Camerata is delighted to be joining forces once again with renowned choir director Audrey Mattis and her talented group of singers for a rousing afternoon of festive and spiritual gospel favourites

Formed in 1993, AMC has appeared on Songs of Praise, reached the semi-finals of BBC One’s Last Choir Standing and performed with the likes of Robbie Williams. Beverley Knight and Russell Watson.

What else is the Camerata performing to finish the year?

As well as the festive fun the Manchester Camerata is rounding out 2021 with a concert teaming up with the exciting and critically-lauded violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja.

She will make her North West debut at Stoller Hall on 3 December for a typically wide-ranging programme spanning more than three centuries.

A composition of Kopatchinskaja’s own will be on the programme alongside works by Baroque master Heinrich Biber and 20th century composer Gyorgy Ligeti whose music became known to many cinema fans after being used by Stanley Kubrick.

The performance will be rounded off with a performance of Haydn’s Symphony No 45 in F-sharp minor, the Farewell, which has an intriguing and unusual bit of theatre in its final movement.

The Camerata and Kopatchinskaja will travel across the Pennines for a concert at the Leeds International Concert Season at Leeds College of Music the day after the Manchester show.

Looking both back and forward at the end of the year

This trio of concerts marks the end of a year which has seen the Manchester Camerata make a major move into its Gorton home.

The Monastery became derelict in the 1970s before being repaired by a group of volunteers over 20 years.

The ensemble is determined to become part of the local community and has launched a music café offering free support for people living with dementia and their at-home carers.

The Camerata is also looking forward excitedly as 2022 marks the 50th anniversary of the orchestra.

How do I get tickets to see the group perform?

Tickets and more information about all the concerts the ensemble is playing are available from the official Manchester Camerata website.