Royal Northern Sinfonia's string players give a candlelit concert at St George's Church, Cullercoats, at 7.30pm on 3 December. Tickets cost £5 to £25.

Royal Northern Sinfonia’s string players will give a candlelit concert at St George’s Church in Cullercoats at 7.30pm on Thursday 3 December, the last night of the orchestra’s 2026 Winter Tour.

Tickets for the Cullercoats concert cost from £5 to £25 on The Glasshouse’s listing, checked on 11 November: £20 to £25 for adults and £5 for children. Under-14s must be with an adult.

Who is playing

The concert is directed from the violin by Maria Włoszczowska, Artistic Partner at The Glasshouse International Centre for Music in Gateshead, which is the orchestra’s home. The Glasshouse says the programme is “inspired by Nordic landscapes and folk traditions” and is played by the orchestra’s string section alone.

Its listing describes the tour as “luminous, shimmering, candlelit moments”: pieces “carefully chosen to make you feel warm from the inside out on a cold winter’s night, all performed in the flickering glow of candlelight.”

What they are playing

The Glasshouse lists this programme for Cullercoats and six other dates:

  • Jean Sibelius: Rakastava (The Path of His Beloved), Valse Triste and Andante festivo
  • Edvard Grieg: Evening in the Mountains and At the Cradle from Lyric Pieces, Death of Åse from Peer Gynt, and Two Norwegian Melodies
  • Mieczysław Karłowicz: Serenade for Strings
  • Einojuhani Rautavaara: The Fiddlers
  • Fredrik Schøyen Sjölin: Naja’s Waltz and Shore
  • Danish String Quartet: Staedelil, plus their arrangements of the traditional tunes Hur Var Du I Aftes Så Sildig, The Dromer, Polska from Dorotea, and Now Found Is the Fairest of Roses
  • Wojciech Kilar: Orawa, which The Glasshouse calls “energetic” and which closes the evening

The orchestra recorded Purcell’s Chaconne from The Fairy Queen with Maria Włoszczowska in Hexham Abbey, one of the churches on this year’s tour. The Glasshouse uses it as the taster on its tour page.

Royal Northern Sinfonia and Maria Włoszczowska play Purcell's Chaconne from The Fairy Queen in Hexham Abbey. Video: Royal Northern Sinfonia

The rest of the Winter Tour

The tour takes musicians from The Glasshouse into churches and community venues across the North East, which the organisation says gives “audiences the opportunity to experience live orchestral music closer to home.” It runs over 14 concerts between 26 November and 3 December. The nearest dates with the same Nordic programme are:

  • St Gabriel’s Church, Heaton: Saturday 28 November, 7.30pm
  • St Michael’s Church, Alnwick: Thursday 26 November, 7.30pm
  • Hexham Abbey: Friday 27 November, 7.30pm

The other half of the tour, directed by Jonathan Stone, plays Mendelssohn, Walton, Purcell, Dvořák and Dorothy Howell. Its closest date is Sunday 29 November at 3pm at The Fire Station in Sunderland.

What it means for you

If you live in Whitley Bay, Tynemouth or North Shields, this is the chance to hear Royal Northern Sinfonia on the coast, without the trip to Gateshead. Book through The Glasshouse’s tour page, where the Cullercoats date is listed last. For more around the town this season, see what’s on in Whitley Bay this month.