A wonderful opportunity to sing the Messiah with Neil Ferris.

The choir will be joined by the specialist baroque orchestra Canzona and soprano soloist Isabelle Haile.

Singers can register in the autumn and can find the rehearsal schedule here.

Repertoire - Will Todd's Passion Music and Jazz Missa Brevis

Choirs - Beare Green & Newdigate, Bookham, Buckland & Betchworth, Holmbury St. Mary, Horsley and Mickleham

Supported by Southern Pro Musica

Performers

Will Todd - Piano

Jazz ensamble:

Gareth Huw Davies - Bass

Jim Fleeman - Drums

Jack Pinter Alto/Soprano - Saxaphone

Graeme Flowers - Trumpet

Tom Dunnett - Trombone

Chris Kimber - Timpani

Shaneeka Simon - Soloist

Repertoire - Elgar's Dream of Gerontius

Choirs - Capel, Dorking, Epsom, Leatherhead and Oxshott

Supported by Southern Pro Musica

Performers

Carris Jones - Mezzo Soprano Soloist

Carris Jones has founded her career on a deep love of singing, and is dedicated to helping others discover the transformational power of the human voice. Equally at home singing Byrd in a consort or solo on stage at the Barbican, she has appeared as a soloist across the UK and abroad with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia and the English Concert. Her operatic career includes performing and covering roles at English National Opera and Garsington Opera.

As a consort singer, Carris has sung across five continents, on radio and television, and on the soundtracks of numerous films including the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings franchises. She was a founder member of Stile Antico, with whom she won a ClassicFM Gramophone award and was twice nominated for the Grammy awards.

Carris also has a busy teaching practice, working at the University of Oxford, for the National Youth Choir of Great Britain as a Vocal Lead and as Vocal Coach to the BBC Symphony Chorus. She is also in demand as an expert on choral music and women in church music in particular, making recent appearances on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour and Radio 3’s In Tune.

In 2017, Carris joined the Choir of St Paul’s Cathedral, the first female Vicar Choral to be appointed in its one-thousand-year history. Since joining, she has worked for the introduction of girl choristers into the Cathedral’s world-famous choir. In 2023, in recognition of this, and her significant contribution to the music industry, she was made an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music.

Charne Rochford - Tenor Soloist

Trevor Eliot Bowes - Bass Soloist

Trevor Eliot Bowes studied at the University of Toronto, the Banff Centre for the Arts and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. He is a former Britten Pears Young Artist and Equilibrium Young Artist.

Recent operatic highlights include Antonio The Marriage of Figaro, Benoît La bohème Drive & Live, (English National Opera); Father Trulove The Rake’s Progress, Colline La bohème, Seneca The Coronation of Poppea (English Touring Opera); Alidoro La Cenerentola (Nevill Holt Opera); Sergeant of Police The Pirates of Penzance (Opera Holland Park); Father Trulove The Rake’s Progress (Munich Philharmonic); and Basilio Il barbiere di Siviglia (West Green House Opera). Other roles include Figaro Le nozze di Figaro, Leporello Don Giovanni, Don Alfonso Così fan tutte, Death Savitri, Cadmus and Somnus Semele, Léandre L’amour des trois Oranges, Don Inigo L’heure espagnole, Simone Gianni Schicchi and Sarastro Die Zauberflöte; Talbot Maria Stuarda, and Drum-maker The Adventures of Pinocchio.

Concert appearances include Haydn Paukenmesse (London Philharmonic Orchestra); Mozart Requiem (Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Hallé); Handel Aci, Galatea e Polifemo (OAE); Handel Messiah (London Handel Festival); Vaughan Williams Fantasia on Christmas Carols (Orchestra of English National Opera); Bach Cantata 71 (Toronto International Bach Festival); and Thief Peer Gynt (Royal Scottish National Orchestra). In future seasons he will make his debuts with the Hallé and London Philharmonic Orchestra.