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As part of the York Viking Festival – Meet the Vikings!
10.00am
FREE (Standard admission applies)
Tuesday 21st, Wednesday 22nd and Thursday 23rd, 10am-3pm, at York Minster.
Handle authentic and replica Viking artefacts, learn how to play a Viking board game, and discover more about the mystery that is York Minster during the Viking period.
Find out more about Vikings and their relationship with Christianity at one of our short spotlight talks, at 12:00 and 14:00.
Discover Viking stories with exciting storytelling at 11:00 and 13:00.
Activities above are free with standard admission.Admission ticket lasts for 12 months. Family 12-month ticket from £10 (valid for up to 4 children visiting the Minster with 1 adult). FREE admission to Minster for York residents with York card.
Wednesday 22nd 10am-3pm
Make a Viking Long Boat!
Suitable for ages 5+. £2.50 per participant. Standard admission charges apply.
Classical guitar music in the Chapter House
13:00
Usual daily admission fees
Folk-influenced classical guitar music from Argentina, Chile and Ecuador
Born in Saint Petersburg, Russia, Diego Galárraga Sougoniaev is an Ecuadorian MA Music student at the University of York. He started learning classical guitar after finishing his BA degree in Jazz Performance from Universidad San Francisco de Quito. His current research project focuses on the implementation of techniques and musical elements from Latin American and Spanish folkloric traditions in classical guitar performance.
18th January 2017
7:00pm
Free
Gamelan Sekar Petak first assembled at the University of York in 1981.
The orchestra of gongs and metallophones (as well as other instruments) originates from the islands of Bali and Java and was named “Sekar Petak” (“white rose”) in honour of York’s white flower symbol.
The ensemble is the first purpose-built gamelan in a British university, and often serves an educational role in the department as well as in schools in the York community. The group has toured the country extensively and made appearances for children’s programmes on BBC TV and ITV.
On Wednesday 18 January Gamelan Sekar Petak returns to the Minster for another spectacular promenade performance which will involve singers and other instrumentalists as well as the magical sounds of the gamelan itself.
Tickets for the event are FREE and the event is two and a half hours long so please pop in during night and sample some of the great sounds on offer.
This is a performance supported by the Arts Council.
19.00
York Minster
The York Minster Choir will be joined by internationally renowned soloists this Christmas for a special performance of Handel’s Messiah in the beautiful setting of York Minster’s Nave. The famous work was first performed in Dublin in 1742 and has since become one of the best-known and most popular English oratorios. What better way to celebrate Christmas than to experience the story of Christ through this moving and poignant choral performance?
The soloists for the performance are:
Tickets are priced at: Front Nave: £25 Rear Nave: £18 Side Aisles: £12
When? 10 Dec 16 at 7pm
Where? York Minster
How much? £12-£25
Music – Choir Concert,
Fri 9 Dec 2016,
In collaboration with York Anglo-Scandinavian Society, York Minster hosts Swedish festival of light
A traditional Swedish service celebrating the bringer of light during the long darkness of winter will take place at York Minster on Friday 9 December.
Now in its fourth year, the atmospheric Sankta Lucia service features a candlelit procession and carols for all the family in celebration of St Lucy, a young Sicilian girl who was martyred for her Christian faith in the early fourth century. The service includes a procession led by a young girl wearing a crown of candles and is followed by traditional Swedish carols and songs. The crown of candles may symbolise a halo and the red sash martyrdom.
The procession will this year be led by the Swedish choir Järfälla kammarkör from a community just northwest of Stockholm and, as each year, they will be joined by girls from York Anglo-Scandinavian Society.
Sankta Lucia, Festival of Light, starts at 7.30pm on Friday 9 December (doors open at 7.00pm) and lasts for about an hour. Admission is free and no booking is required. There will be a collection during the service.
Great Peter of York (1927): A choir sings on the steps of York Minster, witnessing the rare event of the St Peter hour bell, the third largest in the country, being unloaded from the back of an early heavy lorry. The huge bell is manually eased off on sturdy beams of timber, replacing the old one which was nearly a hundred years old.
York Minster has a total of 35 bells, including the heaviest bell in the country still rung by hand. Records of them start in the 14th Century.
The Carillon (the traditional call to prayer) will continue. York Minster became the first cathedral in England to have a carillon of bells with the arrival of twenty-four small bells on 4 April 2008.The carillon bells are hung above the main ringing peal area. Unlike the ringing peal, these bells are attached to a keyboard in the ringing chamber – klavier – which only requires one person to operate it. Rather than swinging full-circle to make a sound, the clappers are hit against the side of the bell as the carilloner plays. The allows hymn tunes and melodies to be chimed.
NB The two west towers of the minster hold the bells, clock chimes and the concert carillon. The north-west tower contains Great Peter (216 cwt or 10.8 tons) and the six clock bells (the largest weighing just over 60 cwt or 3 tons). The south-west tower holds 14 bells (tenor 59 cwt or 3 tons) hung and rung for change ringing and 22 carillon bells.
The clock bells ring every quarter of an hour during the daytime and Great Peter strikes the hour. The change ringing bells are normally rung regularly on Sundays before church services. These are added to the existing “Nelson Chime” which is chimed to announce Evensong around 5.00 pm each day, giving a carillon of 35 bells in total (three chromatic octaves). The bells were cast at the Loughborough Bell Foundry of Taylors, Eayre & Smith.
Click here to book tickets
Once again, York Minster is pleased to host a week of Big Draw activity during the Autumn half term break (Monday October 26th – Friday October 30th inclusive).
This year’s Big Draw theme – Every Drawing Tells a Story – could hardly be more appropriate in a building whose wealth of medieval carving, stained glass and people have been telling stories for centuries!
The daily sessions will run from 10.00 until 16.00, with the last issue of materials at 15.30.
The drawing station will be in the North transept, below the Five Sisters’ Window, but participants will be free to work throughout the cathedral. There is no charge for materials or to take part, but normal admissions apply.
These sessions are open to anyone of whatever age or experience, and participants may take their drawings away with them our leave them for possible inclusion in the accompanying exhibition.
