The Purcell Singers

The Purcell Singers are coming to The Corn Exchange at Brighton Dome on Sunday 29 November, with a programme of Christmas music from across the centuries. The whole evening is built around Benjamin Britten's A Ceremony of Carols, which he wrote in 1942 for choir and solo harp, and the concert is performed by candlelight.

That's the core of it, but the set reaches further. Alongside the Britten, you'll hear I Saw Three Ships and Sussex Carol, Jonathan Dove's The Three Kings, Paul Fincham's Ring the Bells, and In the Bleak Midwinter. It's a mix of the well-known and the less-heard, with the harp running through it all.

The ensemble is one of London's leading chamber choirs, and they've played at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Southwark and St Paul's Cathedrals, as well as in Italy, Germany and Northern France. They've also recorded for the film industry. Musical director Benjamin Kirk studied choral conducting in Estonia under Tõnu Kaljuste and took third prize in the 2019 World Choral Conducting Competition in Hong Kong. The harp is played by Eleanor Medcalf, a Guildhall and Queens' College Cambridge graduate who performed as Principal Harpist under Marin Alsop with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain.

It's a Sunday night, so it's a good one to keep in mind for a late November evening. The concert starts at 7.30pm, with doors open from 6.45pm. Tickets are £28, £24 for concessions, and Brighton Dome & Brighton Festival members save £2 on full-price tickets.