Forthcoming concerts

Our biennial Christmas concert at St Michael’s Church in Lewes will take place on Sunday 22nd December 2024 at 6pm. More details on the blog…

In May 2024 we celebrated the twentieth anniversary of the choir with a tour to the Netherlands, giving a concert in Leiden and singing Evensong in The Hague.

Past concerts

On February 25 2024 we sang our concert ‘Seek Him that maketh the Seven Stars’ at St Saviour’s Church, Eastbourne. The concert featured many of the pieces we sang in Lewes in October 2023, and Hamish Dustagheer was once more be our organist.

On Saturday 14 October 2023, at St Michael’s church in Lewes, we presented ‘Seek Him that maketh the Seven Stars’, featuring a number of classic 20th and 21st century pieces by British composers including the eponymous anthem by Jonathan Dove. Our organ accompanist was Hamish Dustagheer who dazzled with his improvisations.

Our first concert back to full strength after the Covid years was the Christmas 2022 concert was called ‘Wonderland’ and featured carols, songs and motets from Byrd to Gjeilo. One of the highlights was singing Jonathan Dove’s ‘The Three Kings’ – exciting to sing and to listen to! We were very lucky to have a small group of players joining us, led by fabulous violinist Julia Bishop.  A bit more info on this blog post.

On the weekend on 29th – 30th July 2022 we gave a summer concert of madrigals and partsongs, at two venues – St Nicholas Church Iford and again at St Thomas’s in Lewes.

On Saturday February 26 2022 we gave our first full concert in quite a long time, at St Michael’s Church in Lewes – we called it the lake lay blue below the hill, which was the title of the very first concert we gave back in 2004. As well as a number of English madrigals and part songs, we sang Songs of Farewell by Hubert Parry.

Although 2020 – 21 wasn’t a great time for live music, we did manage a small Christmas Concert in Lewes in 2020, with just 11 singers standing 2 metres apart! Despite the restrictions, the concert was a welcome and strangely moving experience for both us and the audience. We then gave a very similar concert in December 2021, as a fundraiser for St Thomas’s Church in Lewes.

In December 2018 we performed a Christmas concert at St Michael’s Church in Lewes. Accompanied by word-class violinist Julia Bishop and a baroque string quartet, with Nick Houghton both directing and playing his chamber organ, this was another sell-out success.  The programme included Vivaldi Magnificat, Poulenc Quatre Motets pour le temps de Noel, Handel Organ Concerto Opus 4 no. 5, plus carols and Christmas anthems by Hadley, Howells, Mealor, Whitacre and traditional carols.

In February 2018 we performed Benjamin Britten’s Rejoice in the Lamb, Gerald Finzi’s Lo the Full, Final Sacrifice and Aaron Copland’s In the Beginning, featuring Briony Lambert (Mezzo) and Iestyn Evans (Organ).

The first of the two concerts was at All Saints Church, Eastbourne (our first appearance in Eastbourne) and the second was at Ringmer Parish Church the following day. It was a fantastic programme that we last presented in 2014 as ‘Choral Masterpieces of the 1940s’. The Copland in particular is a wonderfully challenging but rarely-heard work.

Saturday 26th September 2015 – Faire is the Heaven, featuring motets Komm Jesu Komm and Lobet den Herrn by J S Bach, two motets by William Harris, three by Charles Villers Stanford and Herbert Howells’ Requiem. Nicholas Houghton directing, and playing both church organ and chamber organ.

Sunday 21st December 2014, 6pm – St Michael’s Church, Lewes. Vivaldi ‘Gloria’ plus seasonal music and carols. Accompanied by strings and chamber organ. Special guest Julia Bishop of Red Priest leading the players.

Saturday 20th September 2014, 6pm – St Michael’s Church, Lewes. Britten Rejoice in the Lamb, Copland In the Beginning, Finzi Lo the Full, Final Sacrifice. Featuring Briony Lambert (Mezzo) and Roger Sayer (Organ).

September 2013 – St Michael’s Church, Lewes. English Sacred & Secular music.

November 18th 2012 – St Michael’s Church, Lewes. Duruflé Requiem and short choral pieces by Clive Osgood and Arvo Pärt. ( A repeat of our Haslemere concert in February).

February 2012:  Concert in Haslemere: Durufle Requiem and shorter works by Arvo Part, Duruflé and Clive Osgood, including Miserere, written especially for the Lewes Singers.

September 2011: ‘Heaven & Earth’, Sayers Common Church. A concert of anthems and madrigals, around and between movements of Byrd’s Mass for 4 voices, as part of the Hurstpierpoint Festival.

December 2010: All Saints Church Lindfield, Christmas concert with the Mid-Sussex Sinfonia. The programme included J S Bach Magnificat, with solos sung by members of the choir, and a number of accompanied and acappella carols and anthems.

February 2010: On Saturday 6th February we gave a concert in Lewes to help raise funds for the St John Sub Castro organ which is in urgent need of repairs and restoration. We have a close relationship with St John’s and are delighted to be able to give something back by way of a fund-raising concert. The concert raised over £700.

The programme featured sacred music by composers from the 16th to the 21st centuries, including J S Bach’s motet Komm, Jesu, Komm.

6th October, 2007, St John Sub Castro church, Lewes

‘Heaven & Earth’, a Voices for Hospices concert in aid of St Peter and St James in Chailey.

This was part of the national Voices for Hospices event. The programme featured English music from the 16th to the 21st centuries, both sacred and secular:
Byrd, Mass for 4 voices
Rutter, two Birthday Madrigals
Tavener, The Lamb
Purcell, Remember not Lord our offences
Finzi, 3 songs of Robert Bridges 2 short works for chamber organ including Scherzo on Gopsal by Sussex composer Alan Smith
Traditional Sussex song from the Copper Songbook

May 14th 2006, concert at St Michael’s Church in Lewes, as part of St Michael’s Festival Weekend: Creation, A Celebration.

The programme included a selection of short English choral pieces including Tudor madrigals and motets, anthems & songs by Purcell, Stanford, Weelkes and Finzi.

Saturday 4th December 2004, concert at St John Sub Castro in Lewes. Part songs, anthems & motets by Bach, Stanford, Part, Finzi, Brahms, Purcell and others.