About the choir
The Mayfield Festival Choir was founded in 1970 by Kenneth Pont, Music Director of St. Leonards-Mayfield School, (now Mayfield School), to provide its pupils with an opportunity to sing the major choral repertoire. The choir attracted praise for its unique soprano line comprising the school’s Schola Cantorum singers; and staging two performances annually including at the biennial Mayfield Festival of Music and the Arts under the baton of Sir David Willcocks.
This arrangement ended in 2004 with the choir becoming a Society, managing all aspects of concert preparation and performance. The choir has rapidly become known for its intelligent and engaging performances of a wide range of choral repertoire, both within and independent from the Mayfield Festival.
Sir Thomas Allen
President
We are delighted to have Sir Thomas Allen CBE as our distinguished President. An established star of the great opera houses of the world, Sir Thomas sang over fifty roles at the Royal Opera House and also had a long association with the Metropolitan Opera in New York. He retired from operatic performing in July 2024 when he sang the role of Baron Mirko Zeta in Lehar’s ‘The Merry Widow’ at Glyndebourne but remains very active as an opera director.
Jeremy Summerly
Music Director
Jeremy Summerly took the helm as Music Director in 2012 and through his leadership the choir has gained a reputation as one of the foremost amateur choirs in the area. As well as being one of the country’s leading musicologists and founder-conductor of the Oxford Camerata, Jeremy is also the Director of Studies in Music at Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge and Artistic Director of the Mayfield Festival. He can also be heard regularly on the BBC with broadcasts for Radio 3’s CD Review and Front Row on Radio 4.
Andrew Benians
Accompanist
A very accomplished musician in his own right, Andrew Benians has been our accompanist since 2004. Occasionally standing in for Jeremy to take full rehearsals, but more often just providing adroit accompaniment to help the choir to improve its performance. Andrew served as Director of Music for St Dunstan’s Church from 2004 to 2022 and also established the Mayfield Consort which has gained a loyal following and is particularly noted for its polished, communicative performances of a wide repertoire.
Mayfield Festival Choir performs in the beautiful setting of St. Dunstan’s Parish Church, Mayfield, East Sussex. We normally give two concerts each year, in early May and mid November with a programme of major choral and orchestral works. We are fortunate to perform with first-rate orchestras and instrumental ensembles as well as some of the UK’s most talented young vocal soloists.
In recent years the Choir has performed a wide range of repertoire including: Handel’s Messiah, Brahm’s Requiem, Bach’s St John Passion, Haydn’s Creation, Dvorak’s Stabat Mater, Mozart’s Great Mass in C and Fauré’s Requiem. We have also performed a number of other shorter works including those of contemporary composers such as Jonathan Dove, James MacMillan, John Tavener, Arvo Pärt and in 2022 gave the premier performance of Nicholas ONeill’s Cantata of Saint Dunstan.