Experience George Frideric Handel’s glorious Messiah performed by the world-renowned Choir of York Minster in the cathedral’s awe-inspiring Nave, alongside an accomplished orchestra and celebrated soloists.

From the sorrowful tones of ‘He Was Despised’ to the jubilant culmination of God’s triumph in the ‘Hallelujah’ chorus, Handel’s Messiah narrates Christ’s Passion, Crucifixion and Resurrection through spectacular choral and orchestral music.

Considered by many to be the most beautiful musical representation of the great Easter story that allows us to walk with Christ to the cross, Handel’s Messiah offers contrasting episodes of deep contemplation and exultation, and has quickly become a tradition in the concert calendar of the city of York.

Tickets: 

Reserved seating in the Nave can be booked HERE. Tickets cost £32 for the Front Nave and £20 for the Rear Nave.

Unreserved seating in the Nave Side Aisles can be booked HERE. Tickets cost £15 with a concessionary price of £7.50 available for students and those aged 27 and under.

Tickets can also be booked by calling York Minster’s Bookings Team on 01904 557200.

Soloists: 

Amy Carson – Soprano

Born in Bristol, Amy was the youngest of the first girl choristers at Salisbury Cathedral. Since graduating from Trinity College Cambridge, Amy went on to study at the Royal Academy. She has appeared as a soloist in venues such as the Royal Albert Hall, Versailles and the Concertgebow (Monteverdi Choir) Champs Elysees and Wigmore Hall (Early Opera Company), the Barbican (Bach’s Matthew Passion), St John’s Smith Square (La Nuova Musica and Gabrieli Consort) She features on recordings with Solomon’s Knot (Sony) London Mozart Players (Convivium) and on Nick Cave’s album Carnage.

Highlights of Amy’s career include Pamina (in a film of W.A. Mozart’s The Magic Flute directed by Kenneth Branagh), Title Role in The Cumnor Affair (Tete a Tete Opera), Musetta in La Boheme (conducted by Nick Collon), The Spirit in Dido and Aeneas alongside Magdalena Kožená (Northern Sinfonia and Nicholas Kraemer) and Newspaper Seller and Strolling Girl in Death in Venice (The Queen Elizabeth Hall conducted by Richard Hickox).

Amy enjoys performing throughout the UK and Europe, and has recently established a vocal ensemble The Echoing Air in her hometown Bruton, Somerset. With The Echoing Air, Amy has performed the title roles and co-directed Handel’s Acis and Galatea and Purcell’s Fairy Queen. She recently appeared as Second Woman in Somerset Opera’s production of Dido and Aeneas in Taunton Museum and as Soloist in Matthew Coleridge’s Requiem in Gloucester Cathedral.

Upcoming performances include soprano soloist in Bach John Passion in Denmark with Ensemble Passio, appearing as a soloist with The Bach Choir in the Royal Festival Hall conducted by David Hill, and singing with The Sixteen conducted by Harry Christophers in the Tanglewood Festival, Massachusetts.

Kathryn Rudge – Mezzo-Soprano

Kathryn was born in Liverpool and studied at the RNCM. Featured as The Times Rising Star of Classical Music in 2012 she was an ENO Young Artist, a YCAT artist and a BBC New Generation artist. She has won numerous prizes and awards including MBF Sybil Tutton Award, Susan Chilcott Scholarship and is a Samling Scholar.

Recent and future concert engagements include performances with the RLPO, Dresden Philharmonic, Philharmonia, Manchester Camerata, Hamburg Symphony, BBC Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic, Rheinische Philharmonie, Britten Sinfonia under Sir Mark Elder, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, City of London Choir, and Huddersfield Choral Society. She has sung in the world premiere of Nyman’s Hillsborough Symphony with the RLPO and has made recordings and given concerts with Opera Rara. She made her début as well at the BBC Proms in 2016 and returned in 2019. Sought after as a recitalist her recent and future recitals include engagements at the Wigmore Hall, the Brighton, City of London, Ryedale, Chiltern Arts, Leeds Lieder, Aldeburgh, Oxford Lieder and Cheltenham Festivals.

Operatic engagements include Cherubino with Glyndebourne Touring Opera, Annio /La Clemenza di Tito, Hermia A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Zerlina / Don Giovanni for Opera North, Dorabella (Cosi fan tutte) for Garsington, Rosina (Barber of Seville) for ENO and Nancy / Albert Herring for the Buxton Festival.

Her debut recital album Love’s Old Sweet Song was released in 2014. Other recent releases include a disc of Elgar orchestral songs with the BBC Concert Orchestra as well as a disc featuring songs by Coates, both on the Somm label, Elgar’s Sea Pictures and the Music Makers with the RLPO under Vasily Petrenko for Onyx. Future releases include a disc of Vaughan Williams for Albion Records.

Thomas Elwin – Tenor

Tenor Thomas Elwin studied at the Royal Academy of Music. An alumnus of the Solti Accademia Bel Canto and the Verbier Academy, he was a member of the opera studio at the Staatstheater Stuttgart and an Associate Artist of the Classical Opera Company.

Operatic engagements include Ferrando (Cosi Fan Tutte), Nathanael (Contes D’Hoffman), Kuska (Khovanshchina) and Borsa (Rigoletto) in Stuttgart, Jacquino (Fidelio) and Belmonte (Die Entufuhrung aus dem Serail) at the Vorarlberg Landestheater, Ferrando for Teatro Barocco and ETO, Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni) for ENO, Telemaco (Il Ritorno di Ulisse in Patria) for The Grange Festival, Rodolfo (La bohème), Gennaro (Lucretia Borgia) and staged performances of the St John Passion for ETO, Sam Kaplan (Street Scene) for Oper Köln and Oronte (Alcina) for the 2022 Glyndebourne Festival. In 2023-24 he sang and recorded his first Alfredo / La traviata for Opera Glass Works. The film was released on Sky Arts at the beginning of 2025.

Concert performances include Bach Passions (arias and as Evangelist) in the UK, Germany and Spain, Messiah throughout the UK and Europe, Britten Serenade in London and Leverkusen, Creation and Dvorak Mass in D at Winchester Cathedral, Verdi Requiem with the Royal Free Singers and performances of Messa di Gloria (Puccini), Jephtha (Handel), Nocturne (Britten), Elijah (Mendelssohn) and Mozart Requiem with the Munich Philharmonic under Barbara Hannigan. He recently performed Alfredo in The Mountebanks by Cellier in an acclaimed recording with the BBC Concert Orchestra.

As a recitalist Thomas has appeared at the Oxford Lieder Festival, Song in the City, Royal Academy Song circle and in the Masters series at the Gresham Centre. Recital plans include a recording of Bellini and Donizetti songs and a second recording featuring songs by Hahn, Duparc and Liszt.

Darren Jeffery – Baritone

Darren Jeffery has made over two hundred appearances at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden and has become well known for his performances at English National Opera which include Leporello/Don Giovanni, Donner/The Rheingold, Speaker/The Magic Flute, Mr. Flint/Billy Budd, Stǎrek/Jenufa and Hobson/Peter Grimes

He has appeared at the Salzburg and Aix-en-Provence festivals and with most of the UK’s festival opera companies.

He was a finalist in the Seattle International Wagner Competition in 2008 and has since sung the title role in Der Fliegende Holländer, Wotan, Fasolt and Donner/Der Ring des Nibelungen and Kothner/Die Meistersinger von Nűrnberg for companies such as Glyndebourne, Chicago Lyric Opera, Melbourne Opera and Nederlandse Reisopera. He recently gave a series of recitals in Victoria, Australia entitled ‘The Wanderer’ as part of a new Wagner festival.

Other roles outside the UK include Raimondo/Lucia di Lammermoor (New Israeli Opera), Mr. Flint/Billy Budd (Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow), Der Herrscher/Das Wunder der Heliane in the Netherlands, Trulove/The Rake’s Progress (La Monnaie) and a number of roles at Teatro Real, Madrid.

Concert appearances include Christus in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with Sir Mark Elder and the Hallé Orchestra, the BBC Proms (Elijah, Le Rossignol, Les Troyens, Serenade to Music, Peter Grimes, Billy Budd, Haydn’s Seven Last Words from the Cross) and the major choral works of Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Elgar, Handel, Haydn, Mendelssohn, Mozart and Verdi, among others.

He has appeared on several occasions with the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome and collaborated with many of the world’s leading conductors and orchestras. He has also contributed to recordings, two of which, with the London Symphony Orchestra, won Grammy awards.

Recent roles and future plans include Peter/Hansel & Gretel at the Royal Opera, Don Alfonso/Cosi fan Tutte in Malmö, Cardinal Beaton/Mary, Queen of Scots at ENO and the title role in Verdi’s Falstaff.