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About the Choir and Musical Director
	The Choir. The choir was originally founded to keep alive the Anglican Choral Tradition in churches where there are no longer choirs. For 27 years this has been the core workload of the choir, undertaking 8-12 visits a year to Rural churches and also to Cathedrals when the resident choir is on holiday. In this time we have also sung festal services for the major Northern festivals. We have about 26 members who come from all over Yorkshire (and even Lancashire and Lincolnshire). However, new sight reading members are always welcome. There is no weekly commitment as practices are only held when needed. Our repertoire is Anglican Church Music from Tudor Times to the present day and includes composers such as Tallis, Gibbons, Pawley, Randall-Thompson and Knight. The choir is also available for Weddings and Concerts. This is a really friendly choir One of our newer members	The Musical Director Tim Knight was born in Northallerton and became a chorister at York Minster under the direction of Dr Francis Jackson CBE, He then studied Choral conducting with the late John Coates. He presently directs Vocalis a Harrogate based Chamber Choir and Thornton Vocal union a large Mixed voice choir in Bradford, and his enthusiastic and dynamic style together with a reputation for his knowledge of the Choral repertoire and imaginative programming have made him a popular guest conductor. Tim's first love is composing and creating new music and whatever text, story, picture or request he is presented with he delights in the challenge of creating melodic and appealing music that will delight both performers in performing it and listeners in listening to it. He has written for choirs, instrumentalists, orchestras and non-musicians, which have included a Flute and Piano Suite, a Flute Choir Suite, Wedding Anthems, Christmas Carols, pieces for Birthdays, Anniversaries and Retirements, Choral Works and large-scale works for Organ. Tim’s portfolio of music ranges from small beginner pieces for woodwind ensembles to large-scale choral and orchestral works, but by far the largest part of Tim's output is choral music and he has a special interest in music for the smaller choir which has led to the creation of a hugely successful Accessible Choral Library imprint for these works which also includes other composers in the series. Latterly, due to increased demand, he have added several new titles to his range of Organ Music. Tim's music has found its way onto exam lists (including Trinity College and Victoria College) and festival programmes and has won many accolades and awards, including from the Royal School of Church Music, the British Academy of Songwriters, The Masterworks Prize 2006 and other bodies including the Oare String Composers' competition. His piece, 'Elegy for an English Summer' was recorded on Volume 11 of the "Masterworks of a New Era CD Series" and received widespread radio play and, for this piece, Tim was nominated again in 2020 for an amazing 8th time in the Classic FM 'Hall of Fame' in amongst some very illustrious company! Tim's music has found its way onto exam lists (including Trinity College and Victoria College) and festival programmes and has won many accolades and awards, i ncluding from the Royal School of Church Music, the British Academy of Songwriters, The Masterworks Prize 2006 and other bodies including the Oare String Composers' competition. His piece, 'Elegy for an English Summer' was recorded on Volume 11 of the "Masterworks of a New Era CD Series" and received widespread radio play and, for this piece, Tim was nominated again in 2020 for an amazing 8th time in the Classic FM 'Hall of Fame' in amongst some very illustrious company! His work has been performed in concert halls, (indeed, for the opening of the new concert hall in Lieden, Holland) schools and Cathedrals within the UK, Europe and America. He has undertaken a "Composer in Residence" visit to Clarke University Dubuque in Iowa for the premiere of his Requiem Aeternam (several movements can be heard on our Youtube Channel and an extract is currently being recorded by Ablaze Records in America for their next CD release in 2020) and also at the Royal Canadian College of Organists Conference in Prince Edward Island, which inspired Tim to write 'Miramichi Dawn' for String Orchestra. 2018 saw a premiere performance of an organ tone poem, 'Atlantic Rhapsody', (a commission piece written to chart a journey across the Atlantic). Tim's recent commissions on the table have included writing music for a wedding, a retirement, birthdays, piano studies, anniversaries and a special commission for a choral festival in his home town of Leeds and has also had a piece selected for inclusion in the London Festival of Contemporary Church Music. Tim regularly releases new pieces with Spartan Press (see below), and three pieces have been accepted for distribution by Paraclete Press in the USA and a new Woodwind Suite in the UK for Forton Music, 'East Coast Pictures' which received an honourable mention. Tim takes a keen interest in the next generation of (or indeed any) budding composers and offers a range of online music services to pass on his wealth of knowledge and experience in the hope of inspiring new talent to be discovered. Tim’s music is published in the UK by Tim Knight Music and distributed by the Highlands-based music hub Spartan Press. Other publishers of Tim's music are Animus Music, Forton Music and Corda Music Publications in the UK; Paraclete Press and CanticaNova in the USA; PH Publishing in Germany and Orpheus Music in Australia. As Conductor and Choral Director, Tim has worked with choirs large and small and held posts with Wakefield Festival Chorus, Vocalis, The York Rose Singers, Thornton Vocal Union, and provided choral workshops for many other choirs and choral organisations. He recently stood in as Guest Conductor at Horsforth Choral Society for their Spring term to cover sabbatical leave. He is currently Choral Director for Leeds Male Voice Choir and for the two choirs he founded based in Leeds: The Heritage Singers and Masterworks Chorale. The Heritage Singers have sung choral evensong and other services throughout Yorkshire and proudly celebrated their 27th year in 2021. They work to maintain and restore the Anglican choral tradition in areas without access to a regular choir and have provided services in the great English Cathedrals and also the smallest of village churches. Touring has also formed a major part of the choir's activities and, to date, have visited Ireland, Holland, Norway, Hungary and the USA. Masterworks Chorale was founded in 2009 to provide concerts in venues that do not have access to choral music and to tour internationally. Drawing its members from all over Yorkshire, it has already performed at the Menin Gate in Belgium, St Patrick's Cathedral and other venues in New York. The choir is presently on a 5-year touring plan taking the composers' music back to their own churches and in November 2015 this resulted in singing Faure’s Requiem to a full house in Le Madeleine Church in Paris, with subsequent visits taking the choir to New York, Venice and Vaduz in Liechtenstein singing to Royalty. Last year's tour saw the choir in Prague with the music of Dvorak, as well as a full programme of events in the North of England. Masterworks Chorale celebrated its 10th birthday in 2019 with a tour to Scotland. Tim became Musical Director of Leeds Male Voice Choir in January 2014 and he quickly re-established the choir as a popular feature on the local music scene with innovative and diverse concert programming. This has led to expanding audiences and a continued growth in membership and resulted in one of the most exciting periods in the choir’s 99-year history. In 2016, the choir celebrated 100 years of their history with a spectacular concert in Leeds Town Hall. In 2017, they went on their first international tour in over 30 years to Belgium, performing in a variety of locations, including the Menin Gate at the Last Post Ceremony, which has taken place every day since 1928.

About the Choir and Musical Director

The Choir.

The choir was originally founded to keep alive the Anglican Choral Tradition in churches where there are no longer choirs. For 27 years this has been the core workload of the choir, undertaking 8-12 visits a year to Rural churches and also to Cathedrals when the resident choir is on holiday. In this time we have also sung festal services for the major Northern festivals.
We have about 26 members who come from all over Yorkshire (and even Lancashire and Lincolnshire). However, new sight reading members are always welcome. There is no weekly commitment as practices are only held when needed.
Our repertoire is Anglican Church Music from Tudor Times to the present day and includes composers such as Tallis, Gibbons, Pawley, Randall-Thompson and Knight.
The choir is also available for Weddings and Concerts.

This is a really friendly choir
One of our newer members

The Musical Director

Tim Knight was born in Northallerton and became a chorister at York Minster under the direction of Dr Francis Jackson CBE, He then studied Choral conducting with the late John Coates. He presently directs Vocalis a Harrogate based Chamber Choir and Thornton Vocal union a large Mixed voice choir in Bradford, and his enthusiastic and dynamic style together with a reputation for his knowledge of the Choral repertoire and imaginative programming have made him a popular guest conductor.

Tim's first love is composing and creating new music and whatever text, story, picture or request he is presented with he delights in the challenge of creating melodic and appealing music that will delight both performers in performing it and listeners in listening to it. He has written for choirs, instrumentalists, orchestras and non-musicians, which have included a Flute and Piano Suite, a Flute Choir Suite, Wedding Anthems, Christmas Carols, pieces for Birthdays, Anniversaries and Retirements, Choral Works and large-scale works for Organ.

Tim’s portfolio of music ranges from small beginner pieces for woodwind ensembles to large-scale choral and orchestral works, but by far the largest part of Tim's output is choral music and he has a special interest in music for the smaller choir which has led to the creation of a hugely successful Accessible Choral Library imprint for these works which also includes other composers in the series. Latterly, due to increased demand, he have added several new titles to his range of Organ Music.

Tim's music has found its way onto exam lists (including Trinity College and Victoria College) and festival programmes and has won many accolades and awards, including from the Royal School of Church Music, the British Academy of Songwriters, The Masterworks Prize 2006 and other bodies including the Oare String Composers' competition. His piece, 'Elegy for an English Summer' was recorded on Volume 11 of the "Masterworks of a New Era CD Series" and received widespread radio play and, for this piece, Tim was nominated again in 2020 for an amazing 8th time in the Classic FM 'Hall of Fame' in amongst some very illustrious company!

Tim's music has found its way onto exam lists (including Trinity College and Victoria College) and festival programmes and has won many accolades and awards, i ncluding from the Royal School of Church Music, the British Academy of Songwriters, The Masterworks Prize 2006 and other bodies including the Oare String Composers' competition. His piece, 'Elegy for an English Summer' was recorded on Volume 11 of the "Masterworks of a New Era CD Series" and received widespread radio play and, for this piece, Tim was nominated again in 2020 for an amazing 8th time in the Classic FM 'Hall of Fame' in amongst some very illustrious company!

His work has been performed in concert halls, (indeed, for the opening of the new concert hall in Lieden, Holland) schools and Cathedrals within the UK, Europe and America. He has undertaken a "Composer in Residence" visit to Clarke University Dubuque in Iowa for the premiere of his Requiem Aeternam (several movements can be heard on our Youtube Channel and an extract is currently being recorded by Ablaze Records in America for their next CD release in 2020) and also at the Royal Canadian College of Organists Conference in Prince Edward Island, which inspired Tim to write 'Miramichi Dawn' for String Orchestra. 2018 saw a premiere performance of an organ tone poem, 'Atlantic Rhapsody', (a commission piece written to chart a journey across the Atlantic).

Tim's recent commissions on the table have included writing music for a wedding, a retirement, birthdays, piano studies, anniversaries and a special commission for a choral festival in his home town of Leeds and has also had a piece selected for inclusion in the London Festival of Contemporary Church Music. Tim regularly releases new pieces with Spartan Press (see below), and three pieces have been accepted for distribution by Paraclete Press in the USA and a new Woodwind Suite in the UK for Forton Music, 'East Coast Pictures' which received an honourable mention.

Tim takes a keen interest in the next generation of (or indeed any) budding composers and offers a range of online music services to pass on his wealth of knowledge and experience in the hope of inspiring new talent to be discovered. Tim’s music is published in the UK by Tim Knight Music and distributed by the Highlands-based music hub Spartan Press. Other publishers of Tim's music are Animus Music, Forton Music and Corda Music Publications in the UK; Paraclete Press and CanticaNova in the USA; PH Publishing in Germany and Orpheus Music in Australia. As Conductor and Choral Director, Tim has worked with choirs large and small and held posts with Wakefield Festival Chorus, Vocalis, The York Rose Singers, Thornton Vocal Union, and provided choral workshops for many other choirs and choral organisations. He recently stood in as Guest Conductor at Horsforth Choral Society for their Spring term to cover sabbatical leave. He is currently Choral Director for Leeds Male Voice Choir and for the two choirs he founded based in Leeds: The Heritage Singers and Masterworks Chorale.

The Heritage Singers have sung choral evensong and other services throughout Yorkshire and proudly celebrated their 27th year in 2021. They work to maintain and restore the Anglican choral tradition in areas without access to a regular choir and have provided services in the great English Cathedrals and also the smallest of village churches. Touring has also formed a major part of the choir's activities and, to date, have visited Ireland, Holland, Norway, Hungary and the USA. Masterworks Chorale was founded in 2009 to provide concerts in venues that do not have access to choral music and to tour internationally. Drawing its members from all over Yorkshire, it has already performed at the Menin Gate in Belgium, St Patrick's Cathedral and other venues in New York. The choir is presently on a 5-year touring plan taking the composers' music back to their own churches and in November 2015 this resulted in singing Faure’s Requiem to a full house in Le Madeleine Church in Paris, with subsequent visits taking the choir to New York, Venice and Vaduz in Liechtenstein singing to Royalty. Last year's tour saw the choir in Prague with the music of Dvorak, as well as a full programme of events in the North of England. Masterworks Chorale celebrated its 10th birthday in 2019 with a tour to Scotland.

Tim became Musical Director of Leeds Male Voice Choir in January 2014 and he quickly re-established the choir as a popular feature on the local music scene with innovative and diverse concert programming. This has led to expanding audiences and a continued growth in membership and resulted in one of the most exciting periods in the choir’s 99-year history. In 2016, the choir celebrated 100 years of their history with a spectacular concert in Leeds Town Hall. In 2017, they went on their first international tour in over 30 years to Belgium, performing in a variety of locations, including the Menin Gate at the Last Post Ceremony, which has taken place every day since 1928.