About us

  • Leith Hill Music Festival is a competitive choral festival for amateur choirs in the Surrey area, founded in 1905 by Lady Evangeline Farrer and Margaret Vaughan Williams, whose famous brother, the composer Ralph, was Festival Conductor for nearly fifty years. Each year around five hundred singers take part over two days.

  • The main Festival takes place over two days in the middle of April, at Dorking Halls. The Halls were opened in 1931 to house the Festival and Ralph Vaughan Williams was an influential figure in raising funds for its construction.

    There are currently two ‘divisions’. Each division has one day which is self-contained: choirs compete in the morning, bury the hatchet at lunchtime, then rehearse together with the Festival Conductor in the afternoon ready for the evening’s concert. The term ‘division’ is historical and division numbers are not indicative of talent, nor do the divisions compete against each other.

    In March, there is a performance of a major choral work such as Bach’s St John Passion, Bach’s St Matthew Passion, Handel’s Messiah and Verdi’s Requiem. There are specific rehearsals for these performances and many independent singers (i.e. those who do not sing regularly with an LHMF choir) take part.

    We have previously held a Youth Choirs’ Competition in March, open to school and youth choirs. We would love to revive this element of the festival if a suitable volunteer could be found to organise this.

  • Jonathan Willcocks took over as Festival Conductor from Brian Kay at the beginning of May 2016. Jonathan is the son of composer and conductor Sir David Willcocks, and is both a composer and a conductor in his own right. In addition to his role as Festival Conductor, he is also Musical Director of the Guildford Choral Society, the Chichester Singers and professional chamber orchestra Southern Pro Musica, while freelance conducting and workshop engagements have taken him to many parts of the world.

    The Festival Conductor chooses the music for the competitions along with other members of our distinguished Music Committee and conducts both the Combined Rehearsals and the evening performances of the April Festival. He also conducts the March concert and several of the rehearsals for this. The other rehearsals for the March concert are taken by a Chorus Master.

  • There are three Combined Rehearsals for each division in advance of the April Festival. These are held on Saturdays/Sundays, and last for two hours for each division. All choir members taking part in the Festival are expected to attend. This is Jonathan’s opportunity to prepare the choirs for the combined choirs’ performances on the evenings of the Festival. It is the only time that Festival organisers get the opportunity to speak directly to all the singers and is an important part of preparations for the Festival.

  • The Festival is affiliated to the British and International Federation of Festivals for Music, Dance and Speech and is a member of Making Music.

Our professionals

The day-to-day organisation of the Festival depends upon a group of volunteers dedicated to the Festival's motto 'Music Won The Cause'. However, the leadership, guidance and support of a team of top professional musicians, also dedicated to maintaining and improving upon the legacy of Vaughan Williams and other forerunners of the present day, enable us to present concerts to a professional standard.

The quality of our music-making is in safe hands with our Festival Conductor, Jonathan Willcocks, and our President, Brian Kay, ably assisted by the other musicians who work with us, and details of whom may be found by clicking on the links below.

The professional musicians who, between them, not only lead their choirs in their own programmes but also prepare them through many rehearsals for their annual day of competition and concert at the Festival, are an intrinsic and highly valued part of our organisation. Jonathan Willcocks conducts the evening concerts and is always fulsome in his thanks to the Choir Conductors. The above are ably supported by their accompanists. The Festival is most grateful to them all.

President

Brian Kay

We are extremely fortunate to have the multi-talented and experienced musician Brian Kay as our president.

As Conductor from 1996 to 2016, he lead the Festival with infectious enthusiasm, so much so that all who worked with him shared the great joy of music-making.

Brian is also a member of the Festival's Music Committee.

Festival Conductor

Jonathan Willcocks

When the Festival committee appointed Jonathan Willcocks as its Festival Conductor from May 2016, the Chairman of Leith Hill Music Festival, Graham Aslet, said “The Festival is delighted that it has been able to attract a musician of Jonathan Willcocks’ standing to take over as Festival Conductor. He has all the attributes we were looking for, and I am confident that we will be in excellent hands in the years ahead”.

The son of conductor and composer Sir David Willcocks, Jonathan is both a conductor and a composer in his own right. Current conductorships include the Guildford Choral Society, the Chichester Singers and professional chamber orchestra Southern Pro Musica, while freelance conducting and workshop engagements have taken him all over the world. His published music includes major choral works and music for children’s choir alongside many shorter pieces.

March Chorus Master

Ian Assersohn

Ian is a choral director, composer and workshop leader. He has been Musical Director of Leatherhead Choral Society, a LHMF choir, since 2001, although his association with the Festival goes back even further than that. He also leads Epsom Male Voice Choir and is founder-conductor of a chamber choir called Vaughan Williams Singers, specialising in the contemporary a cappella repertoire. He has also had the pleasure of leading and working with a number of other choirs, including several other members of the Leith Hill family.

Ian’s choral music, which is popular with choirs and audiences in the UK and abroad, is published by Oxford University Press and by his own imprint Apple Tree Music.

Orchestra

Canzona

Canzona was formed in 1992 and comprises some of this country’s leading players of period instruments.  The versatility of its director, Theresa Caudle, who plays both the violin and cornett, creates the stimulus for a flexible line-up of wind and string instruments and many of Canzona’s concerts are as a chamber group.  The players of Canzona have a particular passion for 17th century music, but whatever they are playing, from Monteverdi to Mozart, they make every effort to play on appropriate instruments for the period.

Canzona is frequently expanded to orchestral proportions and has performed with many outstanding conductors and choirs including Polyphony and the Holst Singers (conducted by Stephen Layton).  Canzona continues to have a long-standing association with several choirs including the Leith Hill Music Festival, the Somerset Chamber Choir, and the Bristol Bach Choir.  Choral works performed include J. S. Bach's St. John & St. Matthew Passions and Magnificat; C .P. E. Bach’s Magnificat; Handel's Messiah; Monteverdi's Vespers and music by Purcell and de Lalande.

Orchestra

Southern Pro Musica

Southern Pro Musica evolved from the need for a professional orchestra to provide support for choirs based in Hampshire and West Sussex. The availability of increasing numbers of fine free-lance musicians choosing to base their careers in the south enabled the orchestra to enlarge its area of operations to work with choral societies further afield and also to undertake purely orchestral engagements. The orchestra’s first concert performance was given in Portsmouth Guildhall in August 1991.

In 1992 the orchestra was invited by the Southern Orchestral Concerts Society to become the resident chamber orchestra for its annual concert series based at Petersfield Festival Hall. In this series it performed with many distinguished national and international soloists, including in recent years Alison Balsom (trumpet), Natalie Clein (cello), Michaela Petri (recorder) Nicholas Daniel (oboe) and Antje Weithaas (violin). In an exciting further development, in 2013 Southern Pro Musica was appointed by Guildford Borough Council as their ‘principal provider of Classical music’, providing a broad range of orchestral concerts and educational outreach work in Guildford.

Accompanist

Alan Brown

Alan studied piano and cello with Ruth Harte and Lilly Phillips at the Royal Academy of Music, gaining the prestigious Recital Diploma.

As well as solo recitals in the UK and abroad, Alan has a repertoire of over thirty-five concertos, including several twentieth century British works, and has played with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the  London Mozart  Players, the Virtuosi of England and other orchestras,  working frequently with Arthur Davison. He is also in great demand as duo partner to wind and string players, both here and in Germany. He has performed the complete cycle of Beethoven violin and piano sonatas with Igor Ozim in Slovenia.

Alan works as accompanist and coach at both the Royal Academy of Music and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and has a regular summer commitment to international violin courses, working with Igor Ozim in Weimar, Salzburg and Slovenia.