This year's Music Services Winter Concert took place on a bitterly cold November night. Fortunately, there was plenty of warmth to be found in Wakefield Cathedral and a large audience were entertained by three of Wakefield's premiere ensembles. The evening was hosted by Yorkshire TV's Ian Clayton.

Kicking off the evening was the Fiddles and Flutes group. Formed in 2006, the group led by Graham Hall and Caroline Billington has enjoyed a lot of early success, having performed at the presigious National Festival for Youth Music at the Birmingham Conservatoire. Their mixture of traditional Scottish, Irish and English music was enthusiasticly received by the audience and was capped by an accomplished performance of the popular 'Sailor's Hornpipe'.

Following this was going to be a difficult task, but Wakefield Youth Choir were there to rise to the occasion with a varied programme which included such diverse items as the Latin American 'Gitika', 'Into the West' from 'The Lord of the Rings' movies and a spine tingling performance of 'Mad World'. Directed by Geraldine Gaunt and Phil Needham, a stand out feature of this ensemble is the quality of their soloists from within the choir and Zoe Dunphy, Beth Hambling, Bethany Rosamund, Charlotte Glover and Nicole Farmer all deserve special mention.

Following the interval, the Choir were joined by Wakefield Youth Symphony Orchestra for a performance of John Rutter's 'Distant Land'. Subtitled 'A Song of Freedom' and inspired by the release from prison of Nelson Mandela, the piece was written in 1991 and subsequently arranged for full orchestra. Following this, the choir left the stage and the orchestra finished the concert in fine style with Johann Strauss' 'Thunder and Lightning' Polka, Bizet's Carmen Suite and a blistering arrangement of themes from Bernstein's 'West Side Story'. Co-Directed by Graham Hall and Stephen Wood and led by Bernadette Dales, the orchestra provided a fine finish to the evening.