Huddersfield Choral Society Returns to ‘Elijah’ in Its 190th Year
Huddersfield Choral Society is 190 this year, but the town’s great chorus is not treating the anniversary as an exercise in dusting off a museum piece. On Saturday 31 October it returns to Mendelssohn’s Elijah — a work threaded deep into the Society’s own history — with a full-scale Town Hall line-up built for drama.
The concert brings the Choral together with Royal Northern Sinfonia under conductor Gregory Batsleer. Soloists Ava Dodd, Jess Dandy, Thomas Walker and Michael Mofidian complete the cast for an oratorio whose storms, confrontations, despair and blazing finish have always demanded rather more than polite background listening.
A work woven into Huddersfield history
Huddersfield Choral Society was founded in 1836 and remains one of the oldest established large choirs in the world. The Society first performed Elijah in 1859; during the later nineteenth century it became an almost annual fixture. That makes this performance more than a convenient revival: it is a new generation of Huddersfield singers taking possession of music their predecessors helped establish in the town.
The Society’s own history describes a choir with international reach but firm West Yorkshire roots. Its concert life is still centred on Huddersfield Town Hall, and its repertoire continues to put major classics beside newer work. You can read more on the official HCS history page.
Elijah suits that balance neatly. Mendelssohn’s score arrived in Birmingham in 1846 and quickly became a cornerstone of British choral life, but it survives because it works in the room: huge public choruses, sharply drawn solo roles and a story that moves with almost operatic pace.
A full-scale Town Hall line-up
Gregory Batsleer has built a career around choral and orchestral work, while Royal Northern Sinfonia supplies the orchestral muscle beneath the voices. The four soloists cover the soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor and bass roles, with Michael Mofidian taking the central title part.
For anybody who thinks an oratorio means two hours of solemn standing still, Elijah is a useful corrective. Its choruses can turn from whisper to thunder, and the best performances make the narrative feel immediate: drought, challenge, fire, fear and renewal, all pushed forward by an ensemble large enough to make the Town Hall earn its keep.
Monkey has already seen the Town Hall prove how well it can serve ambitious local ensemble music this autumn. Our recent Vivace preview brought together three Yorkshire bands; Elijah now puts one of Huddersfield’s oldest musical institutions back at the centre of the stage.
Why this one matters now
The Society’s motto is ‘to uphold and renew a proud tradition’. In its 190th year, that second verb matters. A tradition only stays alive if people continue to sing it, play it and hear it together — and if a hometown audience still turns up to meet it.
Huddersfield’s live-music story is often told through pubs, clubs and amplified stages, rightly so. But the same town also sustains a chorus capable of bringing a professional orchestra and four soloists into its civic hall for one of the grandest works in the repertoire. That is local music culture on a serious scale, and it deserves to be counted as part of the same living scene.
The practical bits
Huddersfield Choral Society performs Mendelssohn’s Elijah at Huddersfield Town Hall on Saturday 31 October 2026 at 7pm. Tickets start at £12. Full details and booking are available from the official Huddersfield Choral Society event page.
Cover photograph: Huddersfield Choral Society and orchestra performing at Huddersfield Town Hall. Image supplied on the Society’s official website; no individual photographer is credited.