Welcome to the Mayfield Festival Choir Society website...

What an exciting and fulfilling conclusion to the year. You will see from Graham's comments that the standard of the Choir continues to rise although I am sure that the areas for continued improvement will be clear in our Music Director's mind. As well as expanding our repertoire and our horizons generally we have achieved something special in the final rehearsal for Robin's concert when we were told we were sharp; a first!

How typical of Robin and Sheila; instead of sitting back and allowing others to organise the celebration of their Golden Wedding Anniversary, they set up a concert to raise money for the CLICSargent Cancer Fund. I need not point out the problems in getting together three choirs, rehearsing a demanding programme, as well as all the detailed organisation that goes into delivering such an ambitious scheme. The upshot is that a great many people enjoyed an uplifting and stimulating evening and the magnificent sum of £4,632.41 was raised.

On the subject of funds, you will see an important notice from our Treasurer. At the AGM we are going to ask for a modest increase in our subscriptions; another first as they have remained unchanged since we re-formed. In order to save a great deal of time and effort we are going to ask that where possible subs are paid by direct debit or standing order.

As you will realise, 2008 is a Mayfield Festival year. The Festival Committee have maintained the wonderful standard of quality and variety; the Festival brochure will be published shortly. I am sorry to have to report that as the result of a variety of difficulties, the Festival Committee has decided to cancel the performance of the rock opera "Exodus".

On a more positive note I hope that you are looking forward as much as I am to the start of rehearsals for the Monteverdi "Vespers (1610)". As you probably are aware, we will be performing with an early music group. This promises to be an especially exciting concert.

I very much look forward to seeing you in the New Year. Every good wish.

David

General Financial picture

As we finish the financial year for 2007, funds are looking healthy, entirely due to the outstanding successes of ticket sales for both concerts under the wonderful management of Len. Furthermore, we are enormously grateful to Sheila Humphries, long-standing supporter of the choir, for her generous donation towards 2008 of £1,000. However, we are constantly aware that without concerts that are a complete sell-out we could find insufficient funds to finance our performances. We are also faced with ever increasing costs to ensure that we continue to have the best professional colleagues to support us. We have not asked for increases in subscriptions in four years, so we hope you will understand the following.

Increase in subscriptions - sorry!

The Committee has been reviewing costs and comparative subscriptions of other choirs and intends to recommend the following increases at the AGM on 14th February for 2008:
Annual sub (currently £75 if paid in one go)
£80 if paid by Standing Order, Direct Debit, or by cheque, before 31st March.
£85 if paid by cheque after the 31st March.

Two payments (currently £40 each)

Still £40 if paid by Standing Order or Direct Debit, see above.
£42.50 if paid by cheque or cash.
Standing Order or Direct Debit forms will be handed out on 14th February. It would make life much easier for all those involved in chasing and checking off subscriptions if members could be persuaded to opt either for a Standing Order or a Direct Debit.

Please don't make any payments before the AGM!

Chris

Dear All,
Well, it's been quite a term. For those of you who sang in both the Remembrance Day concert and the Charity concert last Saturday, organised by Robin, during the course of this term we have performed music by Bach, Handel, Mozart, Berlioz, Elgar, John Rutter and Arvo Pärt plus arrangements by Vaughan Williams and David Willcocks! A pretty good spread of repertoire for any choir over a four-month period.

Your performance of Mozart's Requiem had a wide expressive range and plenty of contrast. It was certainly an excitingly dramatic presentation! The singing was generally rhythmically incisive and even more settled in intonation than in previous concerts. Elgar's "They are at rest" and Arvo Pärt's "Littlemore Tractus" provided us with fresh challenges - unaccompanied "part-song style" and slow, sustained singing. I thought that the Choir performed these very successfully and many members of the audience commented favourably on the inclusion of the Estonian's setting of Cardinal Newman. It was good, too, to be able to include a short, purely orchestral item, and this added yet another dimension to an already varied concert.

I am pleased that over the past few years we have now sung works by significant contemporary composers - John Tavener, James MacMillan and Arvo Pärt. We must continue to 'celebrate the present day' from time to time as well as valuing and presenting the huge achievements of the past. Well done, everyone!

The recent charity concert was a memorable experience for many reasons. Not only did we help to raise a significant amount of money for a good cause, but we also collaborated with two other choirs - Skippers Hill and St. Leonard's Mayfield (and got the audience singing too!), performing a satisfyingly wide range of Carols and Chorales. Huge thanks to Robin for organising this and to all the extra singers who joined MFC; the tenor line was the envy of many other local choirs!

It has been good to welcome a number of new members into the ranks this term. Isn't it better to be rehearsing somewhere where the lighting is more helpful?

Monteverdi's Vespers will be an exciting journey of discovery - from Mantua to Mayfield - Vespers dedicated to the Virgin Mary brought to you via Venezia! We shall have six RCM postgraduate soloists singing in the performance - 2 sopranos, 2 tenors and 2 baritone/basses (one of the baritones will be also acting as third Seraphim in the tenor trio), plus a plethora of unusual instruments 3 cornetts, 3 sackbuts, 2 baroque violins, 2 baroque violas, bass violin, violone, chitarrone and organ (14 players in all, 2 or whom will double on recorder). I have directed performances of the Vespers twice in the past seven years, once in Wells Cathedral with His Majesty's Sagbutts and Cornetts and once in St. Martin-in-the-Fields with Canzona, the ensemble who will be playing for us. It is such an exciting piece and quite distinctive from any other choral work - just extraordinarily wonderful music.

Plans for future programmes are under way - on 23rd November, 2008 we shall be performing works by Vaughan Williams, marking the 50th Anniversary of his death, coupled with another major choral work (yet to be finalised) with London Primavera.

So many thanks for all your hard work and congratulations. Have a great Chistmas and New Year and I look forward to seeing you in February.

Best wishes.

Graham

The Festival Choir will sing the Monteverdi Vespers in St. Dunstan's Church on Sunday, 11th May, 2008, the closing concert of the 2008 Mayfield Festival. As a result of the now cancelled "Exodus" we can have a bit of a breather in the New Year and will not need to start rehearsals for the Monteverdi until early February. The planned rehearsal dates through to the performance are:
Thursday, February 7th, 14th, 21st, 28th
Thursday, March 6th, 13th
Thursday, April 3rd, 10th, 17th, 24th
Thursday May 1st, Wednesday May 7th
Final rehearsal, Saturday May 10th in St Dunstan's

The AGM will be held at the start of the rehearsal on Thursday 14th February - St Valentine's Day! There will be no rehearsals on 20th March (Maundy Thursday) and 27th March (Easter week). The rehearsal on Wednesday 7th May has been brought forward by one day to avoid a clash with the festival concert on 8th May by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies. The early part of the rehearsal programme will mainly be taken by Andrew, with Graham taking over later on. All evening rehearsals will be at Mayfield C of E Primary School from 7.30 pm to 9.30 pm. The rehearsal schedule is attached to this Newsletter as a separate page for ease of reference.

Neil Wade

Dan Powell of this children's cancer charity has asked that we convey to the Choir and all those involved in the Concert held in St. Dunstan's Church on Saturday, 8th December the grateful thanks of the Fund for such a marvellous donation and to say how much he himself had enjoyed the evening.