Saturday 13th December, 2025 at 7:30pm
Chapel of St Cross, Winchester SO23 9SD
£20 (age 21 and under £10)

Buy tickets

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Proud to support:

Over the past few decades, a growing body of research has confirmed the profound benefits of music therapy across a wide range of developmental, behavioural, mental health and physical conditions.
For the therapists at Key Changes, these benefits are witnessed every day. In schools, music therapy helps children find their voice - encouraging self-expression, social interaction, and confidence within a supportive, creative space. Through shared music-making, children learn to listen, respond, and connect with others in ways that feel safe and natural. In sessions for those living with dementia, music often unlocks memories and emotions that words alone cannot reach. Group music therapy fosters a sense of togetherness and joy, helping participants connect through creating music. Music therapy also empowers care staff and group leaders, building their confidence to use music more freely and playfully in their daily routines.
Although not a statutory provision, music therapy is for many a life-line - a vital connection with others, a way out of isolation. 

In 1982 I was the first music therapist to arrive in Hampshire. In establishing Winchester-based Key Changes, 2008, and the Hampshire branch of the MusicSpace Trust which preceded it, 1996, I had 2 aims: to improve assess to music therapy for young and old who can benefit, and to support the therapists engaged on the work. This has been my privilege for the past 30 years. 
Thanks you for supporting Key Changes.

Beccy Read
Director
 

 

Our final concert of 2025 and this year's series
entitled: HOPE, FAITH, LIFE, LOVE.

It's been a great year and we've really enjoyed Jamal's fabulous choice of music - always interesting, fresh, exciting and challenging! and Christmas is no exception - Jamal brings his sprinkle of glitter to this very special Christmas programme taking us through the Nativity story on a magical journey - weaving around the four motets by Poulenc focussing on the virgin birth all the way through to the final proclamation of Christ's birth.

This year, we are thrilled to announce that the retiring charity collection will be for Winchester based Key Changes Music Therapy.

A word from our Musical Director...

Southern Voices are delighted to be returning, once again, to the stunning surroundings of the Hospital of St Cross, and very much looking forward to bringing you Christmas with Southern Voices from the beautiful Chapel.

This year’s programme is centred around Francis Poulenc’s Quatre motets pour le temps de Nöel, composed in 1952 and painting four very colourful scenes from the Nativity story. Southern Voices perform the motets in order whereby we journey from the awe and mystery of the birth proclaimed in the first motet through to the exclamations of joy in the fourth. Neatly fitting around these four motets, spread through the programme as they are, and continuing to tell the story are settings of more familiar texts set to music by a variety of composers. Some are firm favourites, including a nod to Winchester composer Malcolm Archer; other composers offer familiar melodies and texts but perhaps not quite in the harmonic or melodic language you might expect. We are delighted to further promote the work of young composer Lucy Walker, one of Classic FM’s rising stars. Appointed composer in residence with professional consort St. Martin’s Voices in 2024, she has won numerous high-profile commissions with groups such as the BBC Singers, VOCES8, The Sixteen and various UK Cathedral Choirs.

Christmas with Southern Voices promises to take you on a journey through the wonder of the Christmas story with beautiful music of some of our most loved composers at this time of year. Eric Whitacre, Bob Chilcott and Andrew Carter all feature and, coupled with the opportunity to sing your favourite carols, the evening promises to be a most special one to celebrate a special time of year.

Conductor: Jamal Sutton

Programme:
 

Audience	Once in Royal David's City
Choir	O magnum mysterium	Poulenc
	A maiden most gentle	Carter
	I sing of a maiden	Matthew Martin
Audience	O come, O come Emmanuel
Choir	Quem vidistis	Poulenc
	There is no rose	Lucy Walker
Organ	TBC
Audience	In the bleak midwinter
Choir	Tomorrow shall be my dancing day	Gardiner
~ Interval ~
Choir	Weihnachten	Mendelssohn
Audience	O little town of Bethlehem
Choir	Videntes stellam	Poulenc
	Sussex Carol	arr. Bob Chilcott
	Lux aurumque	Whitacre
Audience	O come all ye faithful
Organ	TBC
Choir	Hodie Christus natus est	Poulenc
Audience	Hark! The Herald Angels sing
Choir	Where do Christmas songs begin	Archer
	Shepherd’s Pipe Carol	Rutter