Our Newsletter

The end of the summer term is approaching rapidly as we focus on joining  the Willow Orchestrea at St Barnabas Church, Kensington for the Made New Concert to celebrate the refurbishment of the organ on the evening of  4 July 2026.

'Our summer concert took place on th afternoon of Sunday 21st June - not only was it the longest day of the year but also one of the hottest during the current heatwave.. Great credit must lie with James Slimings (Director of the Synagogue Choir) who describes himself as a Tenor, Conductor and Lego Enthiusiast! He became Captain Noah in most respects during the performance and his singing of the Stanford songs was magnificient. Thanks and compliments also go to the choir soloists and poetry readers. It was a lovely evening. As for the choir - we more than played our part!


As summed up by our Music Directoir, Alison Smart Fisher,:
'It was a super concert this afternoon and I was very happy with everything - well done, including looking after yourselves in the heat. What a great team effort. Special thanks must go to James whose beautiful voice resounded around the hall and to all the solists.
Bravi tutti!!
The Stanford sailed in style through the 5 movements and the Noah was truly characterful.  I didn't want it to end!
The Concert was a  lively, mixed programme of songs  based around the theme of water. Alyth Youth Singers joined us and the programme includes Stanford Songs of the Fleet and Captain Noah. '


The term ended after the concert except for those singing at St Barnabas on 4th July

 The Autumn term begins on Tuesday 8th September 2026 when we start rehearsing Mendellssohn's Elijah for our winter concert on Sunday 13th December 2026.  We will be using the most up-to-date edition so please make sure you have the correct score. (New Novello Choral Edition in English).

 

Other concert dates for your diary are Sunday April 4th 2027 and Sunday June 20th 2027 when we will be continuing our 'Elements' series with music associated with Air and Fire.
Our AGM is scheduled for Sunday 11th October 2026.







 

The Autumn Term has flown past as we moved from relatively warm weather to the recent cold snap. Winter has arrived!

Rehearsals for the Brahms Requiem on Sunday 7th December are progressing well, and we should be a large choir of 40 participants accompanying our two pianists. Do book tickets - this should be a wonderful performance!



St Albans Cathedral Interfaith Event 17^th November 2025
For the first time, ACS sent two representatives to the St Albans Cathedral Interfaith event on 17th November - our Chair and Music Directly ably represented ACS.

Comments from Alison, our Music Director:
On 17th November ACS was present at an evening interfaith event in St Albans Abbey with over 100 representatives of many different faith groups from Hertfordshire,, Bedfordshire and a few from Barnet.
Our photo shows ACS Chair Sarah Ledermann (left) and Musical Director Alison Smart Fisher) with the display board created by Sarah and Gill Epstein.
This event was a great opportunity to let people know of the interfaith dialogue at Alyth Synagogue and also at St Mary-at-Finchley where Alison is Director of Music.
There were plentiful opportunities to meet people and make new friends, and we all discussed what our most important values are/should be:   Honesty, Humility, Compassion
 

Dear Members and Friends of ACS

A new term beckons and it will be good to meet with friends again after the summer break.
Rehearsals start at 7pm on Tuesday 7th September at NWR Synagogue.

We shall focus on preparing the delivery of the wonderful  Brahms Requiem which will be sung in German with the guidance and support of Alison Smart-Fisher and Tim Hooper - our Music Team.
If you are short of a copy of the music then please ask Liz at the next meeting.

Equally topical, our new website is live and usernames and passwords have been issued to all members. We shall be working on the 'groups' (such as Friends) to allow modified access to other parts of the website in the coming weeks.  The new site gives us the ability to run all the ACS activities from a central hub - to include finances and other organisational needs. This is important so that those running ACS can share the workload and cross cover when necessary.

Members will have access to ACS documents - some of these are already posted. They include our policies in respect of finances, social media, bullying and harassment and others to meet the governance requirements for the organisation which is a Registered Charity. Please do take a look.

Tickets can be booked online via the website as of 8th September - please do encourage your friends to come and enjoy what we hope, will be a great evening.

As we approach the season of mellow fruitfulness, I wish everyone at ACS a very happy term.

Regards

Liz

Liz Nyholm on behalf of ACS Committee
 

Dear Members and Friends of ACS

We are delighted to welcome you to out new Alyth Choral Society website which is hosted by the Making Music Platform. 

Times change and we need to adapt to and adopt the new technologies that, we hope, will provide our members and the Public with an enriched experience.

We very much hope that by joining the MMPlatform we will benefit from the extra resources that we are able to access. These include a more personalised approach to running the Society with an integrated database to better look after our incidividual and choir finances and fundraising activity. 

We welcome your comments and suggestions. If you might be interested to join the Choir then plese do contact us we are always keen to welcome new member s - no trial is required, just contact us nd you will be invited to a rehearsal at 7pm on a Tuesday evening. 

If you are interested in becoming more involved in the organisatioanl aspect of delivering Alyth Choral Society then please contact Liz@nyholms.com. We need our members to be part of the day to day organisaiton and welcome everyone who might be interested to participate in the activities. Meet new friends and learn new skills!!