About this Event
In December 2026 Red Events presents George Frideric Handel’s Messiah — the most beloved oratorio ever written — in four magnificent venues across England, performed on period instruments by the Brandenburg Baroque Soloists with a hand-picked professional chamber choir and an outstanding quartet of soloists, conducted by Ralph Allwood MBE DMus.
Composed in just twenty-four days in 1741 and premiered in Dublin the following spring, Messiah has never left the stage since. From the tenderness of «Comfort ye» to the blaze of the «Hallelujah» chorus and the serene certainty of «I know that my Redeemer liveth», Handel’s masterpiece traces the story of the Nativity, Passion and Redemption in music of irresistible drama and joy — the sound of the festive season itself.
Ralph Allwood MBE DMus is one of Britain’s most distinguished choral conductors: for twenty-six years Director of Music at Eton College, founder of the Rodolfus Choir and of the Eton Choral Courses that have shaped generations of British singers. Under his direction, a hand-picked professional chamber choir joins the period instruments of the Brandenburg Baroque Soloists — the London ensemble whose players are drawn from the same pool as the Academy of Ancient Music and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment — under the musical supervision of Brandenburg Artistic Director Bob Porter.
The solo quartet features soprano Josephine Shaw, countertenor Gleb Zakharov and tenor Gareth Davies, with the bass soloist to be announced.
Experience Messiah as Handel’s own audiences did — vivid, intimate and alive — in the festive grandeur of England’s great halls and churches this Christmas.
Performers
Musical Direction
Ralph Allwood MBE DMus (Conductor)
For 26 years Director of Music at Eton College, Ralph Allwood is one of the UK’s most celebrated choral directors, known for his transformative work with generations of singers. He is the founder of the Rodolfus Choral Courses and co-founder of the Junior Choral Courses, with over 14,000 alumni worldwide. Ralph has conducted more than 50 broadcasts for BBC Radio 3, founded the Rodolfus Choir (with over 22 acclaimed recordings), and led choirs in performances from Cambridge to Shanghai. His contributions to music and worship were recognised with the Thomas Cranmer Award, presented by the Archbishop of Canterbury in 2017. Web: ralphallwood.com
Bob Porter Musical (Supervisor)
Bob Porter is Artistic Director of the Brandenburgs — bassoonist, conductor, teacher and concert promoter. He founded the Brandenburg Sinfonia in the early 1980s, the first of a family of orchestras under his artistic direction that now also includes the Brandenburg Brass and the Brandenburg Baroque Soloists, and he created the Brandenburg Choral Festival — today the largest annual choral festival in the United Kingdom, with more than seventy choirs performing each year in some of London’s most beautiful churches.
Accepted at fourteen as a Junior Exhibitioner at the Royal Academy of Music and a veteran of the National Youth Orchestra, Bob studied at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, where he has been Head of Wind and Percussion of the Junior Department since 1985 and of which he is a Fellow. As a performer he plays regularly with the London Mozart Players and has worked with every major professional orchestra in London. In 1991 he was made a Freeman of the City of London for services to music — an honour which, as he likes to point out, entitles him to drive a flock of sheep over London Bridge.
In his spare time he is passionate about cricket (playing), rugby (watching), red wine (drinking) and jazz (listening) — although not necessarily in that order.
Soloists
Josephine Shaw (Soprano)
Josephine Shaw is a Frederick and Phyllis Treby Scholar at the Royal College of Music, studying under Veronica Veysey Campbell. Roles include Julie Jordan in Carousel (NYMT), Frog in The Cunning Little Vixen (Royal College of Music), and Aldimira in Erismena (RCM Opera Scenes). In 2024, she was a young artist at the Académie Ravel in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, France, and this summer, toured Italy as the soprano soloist with the RCM Baroque ensemble. Josephine has been featured on BBC Click and BBC Radio London and is passionate about bringing classical music to a wider audience on her social media @josephineshawofficial, collaborating with organisations like Decca Classics, Aurora Orchestra and the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields.
Gleb Zakharov (Countertenor)
Gleb Zakharov is a London-based countertenor currently continuing his artistic development at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where he works with Marcus van den Akker and Raymond Connell, alongside his long-standing mentor Patricia Rozario, OBE.
Gleb has further refined his artistry through studies with Professor Faltin at the Hanns Eisler Hochschule in Berlin and through masterclasses with Sonia Prina, Carmen Santoro, Ailish Tynan, Ashley Stafford, and other leading artists and coaches.
His operatic roles include Pisandro in Monteverdi’s Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria and the title role in Handel’s Giulio Cesare in Egitto, which he performed in Trieste in the summer of 2026. He regularly appears in concerts and productions across Europe and recently performed a series of Stabat Mater concerts in five different countries.
Gleb performs a wide range of repertoire spanning Baroque, Romantic, and contemporary music. His concert appearances have taken him throughout the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium and Italy.
With his warm, dark timbre and instinctive sensitivity to sacred repertoire, Gleb brings profound emotional depth to every performance, staying true to each composer’s original intention.
Beyond the stage, Gleb maintains a strong digital presence with over 50k followers on Instagram, where he collaborates with major cultural institutions and brands, including Decca Classics and Medici TV, creating engaging educational content that introduces classical music and opera to new audiences.
Gareth Davies (Tenor)
Gareth Davies is a British tenor trained at the Royal Academy of Music in London, appearing in oratorio and concert repertoire across the United Kingdom.
Alex Jones (Bass)
Alex is a Reading-based baritone who divides his time between education, consort singing, solo work and operatic roles. He has been involved with some of the country's top vocal training programmes including The National Children's Choir, The Rodolfus Choral courses (formerly the Eton Choral Courses) and the Junior department of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. His consort work has seen him perform with the Tallis Scholars, Britten Sinfonia and the Armonico Consort, the last of whom he has performed internationally with as a soloist. As a soloist he has worked all over the country and in Europe, especially in Western England, having performed with Bristol, Leominster and Gloucester choral societies on many occasions, as well as at the Three Choirs Festival in 2024 singing Elgar's The Kingdom and again in 2026 in Mozart's Requiem. In March 2027 he will perform the premiere of Susie Self's "Song of the Golden Flower", firstly in Norwich and then at the Cadogan Hall in London. Operatically he has mainly worked in a comedic vein, including Dr. Dulcamara for Wild Arts, the title role in Don Pasquale for Longhope Opera and Leporello with the CoOpera Company, as well as most recently the title role in The Barber of Seville internationally with Opera Kipling.
Ensemble
The Ralph Allwood Singers (Choir, 16 voices)
Formed especially for this performance, The Ralph Allwood Singers сhoir brings together highly accomplished professional singers, many of whom are members of leading UK ensembles and internationally award-winning choirs. Known for their precision, blend, and expressive power, they embody the very best of the British choral tradition.
Brandenburg Baroque Soloists (Orchestra · period instruments)
The Brandenburg Baroque Soloists are a group of exceptional instrumentalists performing on period instruments — the period-instrument partner orchestra of London’s Brandenburg Sinfonia. Born in 2004 out of a performance of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, the ensemble unites Sinfonia players who perform on both modern and original instruments with some of the finest period-instrument specialists in Britain, drawn from the same pool as the Academy of Ancient Music, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the Gabrieli Consort.
Specialising in the Baroque choral repertoire and Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos, the Soloists have created a unique soundscape that brings the great works of the Baroque vividly to life, with a regular concerto series at St Martin-in-the-Fields in the heart of London.
Dynamic, agile and stylish — audiences never leave without a smile on their faces.
Event venue & nearby stays
Guildford Cathedral, Stag Hill, Guildford, United Kingdom
Concerts, fests, parties, meetups — all the happenings, one place.