Rehearsal schedule

Festival rehearsals fall into three groups:

• for the main two-day Festival in April, choirs rehearse and prepare independently for the most part. However, any choir member wishing to participate in a Festival concert must have sung in the combined rehearsals for that concert, unless permission for absence is given by the Festival Conductor. There are three combined rehearsals lasting two hours for each choir group, each accompanied by Principal Festival Accompanist, Alan Brown. The final afternoon rehearsal on the day of each concert is also mandatory. These rehearsals are the opportunity for the Festival Conductor to prepare the combined choirs for their performances at the evening concerts.
• Independent Singers have their own rehearsals as well as joining member choirs for Combined Rehearsals.

• for the March concerts, weekly rehearsals are held in the period leading up to the concert on Saturdays and also on Sunday afternoons. It is expected that all singers will attend most of these rehearsals, which are taken by our Chorus Master, and accompanied by Festival Accompanist, Jean Douglas Tutt.  The Festival Conductor usually attends one or two, as well as taking the final mandatory rehearsals on Saturday and Sunday afternoons immediately before the concert.

The Schedule of Rehearsals

The rehearsals will be held in:

Dorking Halls Grand Hall, Reigate Road, Dorking, RH4 1SG (DHGH)

Capel, Dorking, Epsom,Leatherhead, Oxshott and Independent Choirs rehearse Beethoven's Mass

Beare Green and Newdigate, Bookham, Buckland and Betchworth, Holmbury St Mary, Horsley and Mickleham Choirs rehearse Gershwin's Porgy and Bess