Come and Sing with Sir John Rutter at The Royal Concert Hall

For our fifth year we were delighted to be able to host this event under the guidance and direction of Sir John Rutter and were stunned to learn that it was sold out, with 850 singers, two weeks prior to the day. On top of this, there were over 100 observers present!

We were excited and very privileged that Sir John chose our event to unveil a new choral composition he had completed on Christmas Day called, I'll make me a world. It will receive its official concert premiere in St Paul's Cathedral in November this year, celebrating Sir John’s 80th. birthday. However, Sir John agreed to allow a pre-release workshop performance which was rehearsed during the afternoon, followed by a complete sing-through of this 20-minute work at the end.

We also had two wonderful professional soloists; Melanie Marshall, making a welcome return to Nottingham and Jonathan Brown, who had been given special leave of absence for the day from the choir of Westminster Abbey. Neil Taylor was, as in previous years, the accompanist on piano and organ.

It was just stunning from early morning onwards, starting with a long queue of people waiting to collect their scores when the doors opened at 10am! It was amazing to see so many people buzzing with excitement, anticipation and joy. To then to see how a piece of music develops is fabulous. What an exhilarating afternoon of singing!

Incidentally, Sir John’s office has told us that he really enjoys coming to Nottingham for what we understand is the largest Come and Sing that he does anywhere in the world! One of the first groups to collect their scores had come from a choir in Germany, a couple from California and others from the USA and other places overseas.

Before the second half began, Mahboobeh, a client of the Nottingham Refugee Forum, spoke from the stage about why she fled her homeland and how the Refugee Forum, and other local organisations, had helped her since coming to Nottingham.

We’d had the idea of doing a special thank you to Sir John at the end, with the audience singing Thank You For The Music, it sounded fantastic from where we stood at the side of the stage and dear Sir John appeared to be quite touched by it. The audience certainly gave it all they had.

It was a wonderful and glorious afternoon, not least because one of our Gang of Four had a kidney removed on the Thursday before but was determined to make the end bit of the Come and Sing. That was the icing on the cake.

We send our eternal thanks to: Sir John Rutter, Neil, Melanie and Jonathan; all the fabulous singers and observers; The Royal Concert Hall and its staff; and our faithful band of volunteers on the day - doing all the important tasks behind the scenes. Thank you one and all.

Come and Sing with Sir John Rutter took place at The Royal Concert Hall on Sunday 26 January 2025.

All proceeds from the concert go to the Nottingham Refugee Forum