Choir stays on for church's centenary.

Byline: By Richard Yates

One of Britain's most famous choirs have arranged an extra date in their busy schedule to help a Tyneside health charity.

The Glasgow Phoenix Choir have been visiting Newcastle for more than half a century to present an annual concert at the City Hall, and this year is no exception.

They will be at the venue on Saturday, March 19, and will be sure to perform songs from their popular CD Songs of Praise & Inspiration, recorded in Iona Abbey. There will also be displays by the Newcastle branch of the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society.

But the choir will not be heading back over the border immediately. The following day they will be singing at the Sunday service at the Robert Stewart Memorial Presbyterian Church in the city.

The church, in Wingrove Road, Fenham, is celebrating its centenary this year and a member of its congregation is Gordon Taylor, one of the prime organisers of the choir's annual visits to Tyneside.

He said: "It's a great honour for the choir to attend the church. It'll be a bit of a squeeze, but we'll manage ( and everyone is welcome to attend". Contributions from the congregation at this Songs of Praise-style service, starting at 10.45am, will be donated to Newcastle General Hospital's Bubble Appeal for the specialised unit for children with immune deficiencies.

Tickets for the Glasgow Phoenix Choir's City Hall concert, which starts at 7pm on March 19, are available from the City Hall box office [phone] or from Pauline White on [phone].

THE Northern Sinfonia will be joined by the Sinfonia Chorus and a host of highly acclaimed soloists at The Sage Gateshead's Hall One next Thursday for one of the orchestra's highlights of the season.

Thomas Zehetmair will conduct the not-often-performed one-movement Symphony No 7 by Sibelius before the ensembles combine for a performance of Tippett's riveting oratorio A Child of Our Time, a work which combines classical structures with gospel, blues and jazz influences.

The guests soloists for this work are the American soprano Cynthia Haymon, mezzo-soprano Jean Rigby, tenor Daniel Norman and bass Neal Davies. The concert starts at 7.30pm.

Meanwhile, in The Sage's Hall Two this Sunday at 3pm The Lindsays continue their mini-season of the Beethoven string quartets, coupled to the quartets of Tippett in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the latter composer's birth.

On this occasion the works are Beethoven's Opus18, No 6 in B flat and Opus 131 in C sharp minor, plus Tippett's Quartet No 1.

Next Wednesday at 7.30pm The Lindsays play Beethoven's Opus 18, No 4 in C minor and Opus 127 in E flat, plus Tippett's second quartet.

For ticket details of the above concerts see the classical listings on this page.