Fernhurst Choral Society ring the changes with autumn concert

It is offering its autumn concert on Saturday, November 19 at St Mary's Church, Petworth.

“Last time I checked Fernhurst only had a population of something like 3,000,” Tim said, “and so it really shouldn't have a choir as good as this. But it really is a great choir for a relatively small South Downs village, and musically it is just very fulfilling.

"We have a great range of styles and I can't quite believe that I'm now into my 12th season. I've somehow managed to dig up not too much old repertoire which is always the main challenge and they're lovely people. There really do enjoy meeting on a Monday evening and singing. There is a proper sociability and enjoyment about it and I think that's why the choir does so well. But we are always looking for new members. The truth is that quite a lot of people took the pandemic break as a moment to leave the choir. Many of them would have left during those years anyway and there is always an element with a choir of people leaving and new people joining but the difficulty during the pandemic was that obviously you weren't able to recruit. So we are still down on numbers on our pre-pandemic heyday. We were looking at one point at being about a third down which is quite significant from a peak of high 80s to somewhere in the 50s. But we have had quite a decent recruitment drive over the summer. However, we would still like to get more people. I would say that we've got around 60 people at the moment and musically that's perfectly workable but obviously there are some things that you could do with a choir of 80 that you can't do with a choir of 60.

"Plus also there is the financial aspect. The model is that people pay to be part of it and the difference between 80 people paying £100 a year and 60 people paying £100 a year is £2,000 obviously so we do need to be recruiting but actually the main way of recruiting is word of mouth. We're in good heart and it's great to get people coming along trying it and finding that they are enjoying it too.”

For the autumn concert, the choir will be accompanied by mezzo-soprano Alice Bell, George Haynes playing jazz piano and Jason Reyes-Walsh on double bass.

The concert offers a change from the usual classical offerings. It begins with the choir singing Songs and Sonnets of Shakespeare – a group of folk songs with texts by Shakespeare and all set to music by the great jazz pianist and composer Sir George Shearing. The concert continues on the Shakespearean theme with Alice Bell singing solos of songs penned by the Bard.

The music will be interspersed with a few songs from the Great American Songbook, such as I Got Rhythm and Let's Do It. After the interval the choir will sing jazzy arrangements by John Rutter of spirituals like Steal Away and Deep River, all accompanied by Alice.

The concert starts at 7.30pm. Tickets are £18, including a programme. They are available from the ticket manager on 01730 815708, or via the website www.fernhurstchoralsociety.org.uk.