Wednesday 18th December  --  7.30pm -- St Michaels at the North Gate, Cornmarket Street

Rising Voices Community Choir host an evening of local folk artists to raise money for Folk Weekend 2014 - featuring Jackie Oates, James Bell, and Sue Brown and Lorraine Irwing - from luscious lullabies to foot-stomping carols, this should be a night to remember!

Rising Voices Community Choir is a community choir in the truest sense of the word.The choir was founded from scratch by Folk Weekend director Cat Kelly, and over the years Rising Voices has gone from strength to strength, flourishing in to a strong group of singers with a real sense of community and cohesion.

"The enjoyment of all those involved is clear and radiates out to make the audience smile too." - Bright Young Folk review of Oxford Folk Festival 2010.

Jackie Oates is a singer and fiddle player hailing from Staffordshire and now living in Oxford. Her unique treatment of English ballads and songs, and pure, haunting singing style has attracted increasing attention.

We're very proud to have Jackie as patron of Folk Weekend and very grateful that she has taken the time to play an active role in supporting the festival.

James Bell is a popular local singer-songwriter with a lively repertoire including songs about jealous lovers, devious doctors, lethal mermaids, and transvestite highwaywomen! He'll be singing something a bit more seasonal this evening but who knows where it could take us!

Local singers Sue Brown and Lorraine Irwing base their repertoire firmly in English traditional song, drawing from time to time on contemporary material and songs from other traditions. Unaccompanied vocal harmonies form the core of their performance, with occasional sensitive accompaniment on guitar, shruti box, Appalachian dulcimer and English concertina.