Ding-dong merrily on high – the Christmas season has started and so has the Christmas singing. We’ve just had the our first Christmas concert of the year returning to an old favourite – St John’s at Donegore. A small but perfectly formed building that the choir loves to sing in.

Have you ever heard the saying an army marches on its stomach? Well that rings true for the Phoenix Choir also. As you can see the choir were fortified at the event with tea, sandwiches and of course, mince pies!

But how did it go? Well for once we’re going to allow an audience member to answer that question. This is an email our secretary received the next day.

“Just a note to say how much we all enjoyed the Phoenix Choir on Tuesday evening. Everybody was impressed with the Choir and are still singing their praises!
The Rev Jeremy was so impressed and inspired that he preached to us on Wednesday morning at our mid-week Holy Communion, about the whole evening! That’s praise indeed!!

Have a wonderful Christmas and all the best for 2020, I’m sure you are going to be busy with the Phoenix!!
Love and best wishes,
Ps… Please thank and congratulate the Choir on my behalf”

We’re absolutely delighted with such high praise. We enjoy the singing as much as our audiences (hopefully) enjoy listening to us so feeback is lovely. The Belfast Pheonix Choir would like to thank the church and parish of St John’s Donegore for having us.

But there’s more! Visit our events page to find out about our other two concerts, including our own at Dublin Road Reformed Presbyterian Church on December 10^th. See you there!

And the Phoenix Choir has not one but three concerts for the festive season this year.

But the big one is our own concert at the Shaftsbury Square Reformed Presbyterian Church on Belfast’s Dublin Road. We’ll be singing all of our favourite seasonal music and there might even be a cup of tea and a mince pie afterwards.

The concert is at 7.30pm on Tuesday, December 10th, it’s free and absolutely everyone is welcome.

Merry Christmas!

It’s been a term of repeat visits for the Belfast Phoenix Choir this autumn.

Following the performance at St John’s Church in Newcastle, this time the choir returned to Helen’s Bay to sing for the Percy French Society at their annual dinner.

The evening’s short programme included favourites Moon River and Cheek to Cheek but also sacred pieces Non Nobis with And The Glory of the Lord from Handel’s Messiah.

On this occasion the choir were joined by long-term collaborator, baritone Wilson Graham. Accompanied by Phoenix Musical Director Mark McGrath, Wilson treated the audience to some gorgeous opera pieces including Carmen’s Toreador and of course, The Hippopotamus Song by Flanders & Swann (click here to hear another version).

To round of the musical programme Musical Director Mark played old favourite Misty, bringing a few misty eyes to the audience.

As always we received a warm welcome from The Percy French Society – and found a few old friends in the audience too.

December is due to be a busy month for the Belfast Phoenix Choir as we have not one but three Christmas concerts coming up. Details are on our Events page but don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and Twitter for regular updates.

The autumn term of 2019 got off to a fantastic start for the choir recently.

The Phoenix returned to one of their favourite venues on October 18 – St John’s Church in Newcastle.

As always the choir was given a very warm welcome from a full crowd at this lovely church – not to mention some lovely refreshments during the interval. There was even a cheeky glass of wine for those who fancied it.

The concert kicked off with The Lord Is My Shepherd and featured choir favourites such as Cheek to Cheek. Choir leader Mark McGrath also treated the audience to some gorgeous piano pieces. The whole evening was wrapped up with We’ll Gather Lilacs – and at least one or two singers got a little misty-eyed!

As always the Belfast Phoenix Choir would like to thank St John’s Church and the congregation and hope to visit again soon.