Students from the Class of ‘23 at the University for the Creative Arts (UCA) in Epsom descended upon London’s Royal Festival Hall for their graduation ceremony on Tuesday 4 July. This year over 700 students graduated from the Epsom campus of UCA.

Opening the ceremonies, Professor Bashir Makhoul, President and Vice-Chancellor of UCA, told graduating students: “You are stepping out today into a world of great promise – the thriving creative industries – and the opportunities for creative graduates are endless. Be ready to seize them, and to embrace challenges, with an open mind. 

“I am confident of your drive, unrelenting ambition, and passion for creativity, and I am eager to see how you will apply your talents and make a difference around the world.”

During the ceremonies, UCA Chancellor and renowned ceramicist, Magdalene Odundo OBE offered this piece of advice: “Commit wholeheartedly to your goals and trust that your talent will enable you to achieve them. I’ve had the pleasure of working with some of the world’s greatest designers and artists, and they all share a common value: staying true to their vision.”

In the presence of families, friends and staff across two days of ceremonies, graduates came up to the stage and collected their degree certificates – the culmination of their journey at UCA. Graduating students will now take their place in the global creative community as they embark on the next stage in their creative careers.

On the evening of June 27th, 2023, The Epsom Playhouse opened its doors to The Epsom and Ewell Showcase, brought together by the Epsom Rotary Club. This evening had it all, proving that our community is bursting with extraordinary talent and bringing everyone together to fundraise for local charities.

The evening began with a young Epsom saxophonist whose melodic tunes transported the audience to another realm. She was followed by Kasumi Brooker, whose soprano voice soared through the auditorium gracefully. Then came Ambition School of Dance, showcasing their remarkable choreography and flawless execution. Cam Brown lightened the mood with his humorous songs, and the Bharathakalalayam South Indian Dance Troupe transported the audience to the vibrant and rich world of Indian classical dance and legend. Leatherhead Link‘s inspirational and emotional performance closed the first half with the audience in complete harmony with the choir. In the second half, Protègèm brought us the 70s vibes and danced to Abba’s hits, the  Girlguiding Epsom sang campfire favourites, and the Epsom Silver Band’s Brass Quintet perfectly played well-known versions of classic songs. 

The presence of the Mayor of Epsom and Ewell Cllr Robert Geleit and the Mayoress added a touch of prestige to the event. Their support and appreciation for local talent underscored the importance of nurturing and celebrating our community’s creative spirit.

None of this would have been possible without the support of generous sponsors: Honey & Bamboo, a zero-waste shop from Ewell Village, Alexandra Park’s Park View Cafe, Rotary South D1145, a kind anonymous donor and the fantastic people at the Playhouse who helped with everything.

Epsom Rotary is active in the community with a wonderful allotment project delivering food to The Pantry in South Street and working in conjunction with the Epsom and Ewell Royal British Legion to look after our veterans, amongst many other activities. If you would like to join Rotary or become a Friend of Rotary and volunteer to help your community as well, then don’t hesitate to fill out the form:

https://www.rotary-ribi.org/clubs/membershipenquiry.php?ClubID=874

You can find out more about Rotary here: https://www.rotary-ribi.org/clubs/homepage.php?ClubID=874

Reporter Romana Sustar is a multilingual freelance journalist, University Language Tutor, marketer and owner of  Epsom Digital Ltd., a local digital marketing agency.

This was Mark Biggins’ last concert in charge of Epsom Chamber Choir. He may return some day as a guest. The conductor Chamber Choir have shared with English National Opera moves on to take a post with the Grand Théâtre de Genève, a bit too distant to combine.

Auditions for a replacement happen this autumn. Conductors leave their impression on this choir. For two decades Michael Stevenson worked on refinement and blend such that you needed to be very close to pick out individual voices from the ensemble. His successor, Piers Maxim, liked to entrust choir members with solo spots instead of hiring outside soloists. Mark Biggins has brought an added experience of the opera house, so the timbre has gained energy and exuberance, especially among higher voices, that would do justice to a larger venue even than St Martin’s Church, Epsom.

All these influences were on show in Saturday’s concert (24th June at St Martins Church, Epsom). The ensemble retains its refinement, between singers well used to listening to each other. The big and difficult tenor solo in the choral dances from Britten’s Gloriana was skilfully handled by Dominic Morris. Neil Thomas took the baritone spotlight in the folksong arrangement The Lark in the Clear Air. The Britten choral dances, from Gloriana, were straight out of the opera house, with fast tempi and committed dynamic variations creating an aural spectacle.

There were over a dozen separate items, showcasing an eclectic range of repertoire, mostly on a theme of summer but with one bizarre Christmas piece apparently left over from an earlier programme, Jonathan Dove’s Wellcome All Wonders. Covid may have cancelled the date when it should have been sung but the choir were not to be denied the chance of demonstrating their prowess tuning its complicated discords.

The audience got invited to sing a refrain in the title number, the mediaeval tune Sumer is Icumen In. A cuckoo has been known to visit Epsom Common. If you encounter it and were at this concert, you know now how to address it.

Instead of more Britten, Flower Songs were furnished by Eric Whitacre. His trademark use of dissonance is more velvety and luxuriant. I have heard it compared to chocolate cake. The choir tuned all the clusters confidently and allowed their audience to wallow in the rich sonority.

Steve Ridge played for the one jazzier piece, by Bob Chilcott, that needed a piano. The other accompanied items employed a harp, more exotic and less percussive and played by Mared Pugh-
Evans. She was kept busy, in the Britten dances, in a mystical upper-voices song Summer by Gustav Holst and in two euphonous folk-song arrangements by John Bawden. He was singing tenor with Chamber Choir last time I heard these settings but has now gravitated to bass. He composes with a calm facility combined with a lifelong immersion in choral idiom. Hearing these songs was as refreshing as being handed a long, cool drink.

Mared Pugh-Evans switched from subtle accompaniment with hints of ancient bucolic tradition to virtuoso display for her solo item, Rhapsodie, by Marcel Grandjany. Composed by a harpist, it let her demonstrate a vast range of impossibly rapid ripples and resonant chords, sometimes at the same time, while always giving the impression that this is what harpists do for fun.

Epsom clarinettist Zoë Humphries joined her for the Victorian Kitchen Garden Suite by Paul Reade, a piece chosen to entertain rather than dazzle. They played with appealing, never forced tone, passing the tunes from one to the other and radiating serenity around the building as the evening started to cool. We heard a Monteverdi madrigal and two joyful, sparkling partsongs by Fanny Hensel.

Then Mark Biggins’ valedictory item, a nod to his past studies in America, was Stephen Paulus’ The Road Home, which was encored affectingly.

Nigel Williams

Related reports:

Passion in the heart of Epsom

Set amidst rolling lavender fields, the Lavender Theatre will open for its inaugural summer season this July in Epsom. The theatre is located at 139 Reigate Road, Epsom KT17 3D

The 250-seat open air theatre will be home for an annual season of plays and musicals with a truly elegant backdrop. Based at Mayfield Lavender in Surrey, the theatre has been co-founded by director Joe McNeice (producer/director of ‘DIVA: Live From Hell!’), Mayfield owner Brendan Maye and Jonathan Muir.

The inaugural season will open with Irving Berlin’s classic musical ‘Annie Get Your Gun’ from July 17, with music and lyrics by Irving Berlin, original book by Herbert and Dorothy Fields as revised by Peter Stone, with new direction and choreography by Simon Hardwick (‘My Fair Lady’).

The launch of the theatre will see the completion of a significant investment into the Epsom site, which already boasts a coffee bar, shop, and a full service glasshouse restaurant due to open alongside the theatre this summer.

“This will be more than just a visit to a theatre,” commented Joe McNeice, “Audiences will be able to grab a picnic to enjoy among the blossoming rows of lavender as the sun begins to set, before taking their seats in our covered auditorium to watch a show under the stars.”

Since opening in 2006, the Mayfield Lavender Farm in Banstead has grown into a major summer destination for tourists and locals in South London, and this year the team are opening the gates to a theatre at their sister location in Epsom.

Lavender Theatre Artistic Director Joe McNeice worked behind the scenes at London’s immersive ‘Great Gatsby’, and was Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre’s Visitor Services Manager until 2022, after graduating from the University of York in 2018.

“The whole place looks incredible, just walking about the site is a real treat for all the senses,” McNeice added, “so our shows have to compliment their surroundings and match the sophistication that the natural landscape has set for us.”

Speaking of his plans for ‘Annie Get Your Gun’, Simon Hardwick said: “The show will be a rip-roaring staging of the well known Broadway musical in a very raw and kinetic production that evokes the energy of Buffalo Bill’s original touring celebrations of the Wild West. The Lavender Theatre will be a dream destination; an environment in which to enjoy a West End-standard production under a hazy summer sky.”

The theatre, privately funded and managed by Lavender Productions Ltd., will produce its own shows with plans to see the summer season expand year on year with diverse and engaging programming.

McNeice said: “With no public funding or grants to help us achieve this mammoth project, we are relying solely on our Box Office income to build the Lavender Theatre into a profitable business, but we believe that creating a new producing theatre, a proper landmark location for the arts in Surrey, is something worth the investment, for both the local community and the wider industry.

“I’m really passionate about developing new shows, particularly musicals. The location is perfect because it’s actually very close to London, but far enough away to have its own identity, which will give us the opportunity to develop work without the vast expense and pressure that comes with opening new shows in the capital. It’s an incredibly exciting opportunity.”

Tickets for the inaugural season are on sale today at lavendertheatre.com.

Epsom Choral Society gave us a night to remember at St Andrews Church in Cheam last Saturday. Their programme was an unusual and attractive coupling of works by Constant Lambert and David Fanshawe.  In The Rio Grande, Lambert sets a poem by Sacheverell Sitwell for choir, two pianos and percussion, while in African Sanctus, written following visits to Africa in 1969, Fanshawe combines African sounds, both human and natural, with live musicians and a Latin Mass.

The concert got off to rousing start with the choir in fine voice, with plenty of rhythmic verve and effective dynamic contrasts throughout. It’s worth remembering, however, that in very soft passages articulation needs to be even crisper. I did also wonder whether there might have been slightly more sway and swagger in phrases such as “… they dance in the city, down the public squares…”. These are minor quibbles; the performance was as accomplished as one might expect.

Marion Lea, the choir’s regular accompanist, took the solo piano role, with its virtuosic cadenzas, while Peter Jaekel, a regular visitor, took the ‘orchestral’ part. Both pianists dealt expertly with the technical demands, and they displayed an excellent rapport. This was also apparent as two pianos became one for the three lollipops from Walton’s Façade suite, namely Polka, Popular Song and Foxtrot, hugely enjoyed by the sizeable audience. The first half ended with a brief introduction to African Sanctus by the late composer’s widow Jane Fanshawe. During her very informative words and photographs, conductor Julian Collings was presented with one of David Fanshawe’s trademark caps.

The second half of the concert was heralded by a mighty roar of “Sanctus” from the choir, accompanied by a full percussion ensemble. Having conducted this work myself many moons ago, I recall just how tricky it was to get all elements perfectly aligned – I wish I had had professional sound engineers such as the excellent team on Saturday!  A mesmerising muezzin’s call to prayer got the next movement under way. Here the gorgeous blend of the voices produced some exquisite singing with perfect intonation. Other qualities such as stamina and staying power presented themselves in the next two movements. The call of the muezzin translates into the key of D, and as any soprano will tell you a very high D lies well out of the comfort zone so full marks to the sopranos here.

Following the Credo came Love Song, a tender and moving episode in which a cattle boy in East Sudan sings about a girl called Abdha. At the start of the movement, we hear a recording of a mother ringing tiny bells outside her tent in an ancient custom signifying the birth of a baby son. In the context of the mass this signifies the birth of Jesus Christ, and as the sound of the bells gently faded the effect was intensely poignant.

The Crucifixus is described by the composer as the “heart of the work” and it features a fearsome mix of war cries, rainstorms and dances, resulting in a dramatic and menacing texture. I wondered for a moment whether the percussion was slightly overpowering here – the war cries from South Sudan, for example, were not easily picked out. A belated mention here of the excellent soprano soloist, Lisa Swayne, who managed the wide jagged leaps with great style and aplomb.

The gentle Lord’s Prayer which followed drew a lovely gospel feel to the singing, although I did feel that the lead guitar was slightly over-amplified.  After a movement of chants and a superbly effective Agnus Dei – with the soloist once again shining in her three consecutive cries of Jesu Christe – a thrilling, exhilarating and exuberant finale brought this unique work to a close. Rapturous applause followed, leading to an encore – a repeat of the Lord’s Prayer – during which Julian Collings, fittingly I thought, wore the cap presented to him earlier.

Martin Seath

Related Reports:

Epsom choristers go south for the Summer

Epsom Choral Society opens its centenary celebration 2022

_{Photo credit: Clive Richardson}

Making a Claygate outdoor swimming pool an all year round indoor facility is one of many projects supported by Surrey County Council’s Community Fund. Since November 2020 the Fund has splashed out over £10 million. This year sees a commitment of £2.9 million to Surrey’s premier theatre, The Yvonne Arnaud in Guildford.

The money will be used to improve the accessibility of the entire theatre and ensure existing and new community spaces be accessible for a variety of new groups, building on the community initiatives and outreach programmes already delivered by the theatre.

Joanna Read, Theatre Director and Chief Executive of Yvonne Arnaud said: “By making this award Surrey County Council is recognising the value the people of Surrey place upon the Yvonne Arnaud and its’ integral role as an arts provider across the county. This funding will help make the theatre accessible, sustainable and fit for purpose, better able to serve Surrey for future generations.

“The Arts play a critical role in supporting our health and wellbeing and building cohesive communities. It’s good to have the backing of our County Council as we continue our work bringing excellent theatre and arts engagement to the people of Surrey. Our vision for the Arnaud maintains its theatre traditions while building on our creative heart; repurposing a 1960’s building to deliver multi-faceted offerings for 21st century audiences.”

Surrey County Council Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Communities and Community Safety Denise Turner-Stewart said: “This is a truly ambitious project to develop Guildford’s iconic and much-loved building into a friendly, cultural community hub and is exactly the sort of project which offers a wider community benefit.

“Surrey’s cultural offer caters for all ages and budgets.  It is an important part of what makes the county a great place to live, work and visit. I would like to congratulate Yvonne Arnaud who have been successful in their application to Your Fund Surrey.

“Improving accessibility will enable Yvonne Arnaud to build on its existing excellent reputation and become a place everyone can enjoy.”

Master Park Pavilion in Oxted, another recent successful applicant to Your Fund Surrey Large Community Project Fund, will receive £1.86m towards replacing the current building with a new fit-for-purpose two-storey community and sports hub.

The Park Hub, set in the 11-acre park will become a valuable resource for the whole community with new facilities including a café, rooms for classes and community activities, improved changing facilities and accessible toilets.

Pammy McNaughton, Chair of Master Park said: “We will be forever grateful to Your Fund Surrey for helping Master Park towards this goal. We knew that our request for £1.86 million was a large sum, but by granting us this amount, not only will Your Fund Surrey be helping Master Park Charity, but they will also be helping the many other charities, activities, clubs, and communities that we are engaged with.”

Other projects awarded funding via Your Fund Surrey so far include:

Claygate Community Pool, £363,500 to develop an existing outdoor pool into an indoor facility that will enable the whole community to use the pool all year round.

Leatherhead & Dorking Gymnastics Club, £550,000 to extend the current facilities and build a new gymnasium and sensory room.

Normandy Community Shop and Café, £570,189 towards building a new community shop and café at Manor Fruit Farm

Ripley Village Hall, £645,036 towards rebuilding of the Village Hall, including accessible community rooms and a new kitchen.

South Park Sports Association, £150,000 towards the construction and installation of a 3G artificial grass pitch with a spectator area.

Tatsfield Parish Council, £10,146 to install new picnic benches and planters on the village green.

Weybridge Men’s Shed, £30,000 towards the internal fit-out of two sheds and the installation of an underground water treatment system.

Communities can submit applications via the Your Fund Surrey website for both small and large scale community projects and have their say on projects being proposed in their local area www.surreycc.gov.uk/yourfund.

Celebrating World Refugee Week (19th – 25th June) Epsom and Ewell Refugee Network has been celebrating the talents and success of refugees the charity has supported.

Nataliia Zadorizhna is a concert pianist who started playing the piano at the age of 4. She graduated from the Glier Kyiv Academy of Music and also has a PhD in Linguistics. She arrived here in May to flee the war in Ukraine.

Natalia has been appointed as a peripatetic piano teacher for Surrey Arts and also gives private piano lessons. She has formed a Ukrainian choir in Epsom and is a top-class musician who has played in several concerts in and around Epsom.

Ksenia Bugrimova is an award-winning film producer and creative director who has made many films and tv programs in Ukraine. Since arriving in the UK, she founded Talented U – https://talented-u.com/en – a Ukrainian-British Association of screen industry professionals. Here is an example of her much acclaimed work https://youtu.be/ayVgCK-3f00

Samira is a 17-year-old Afghan girl who came to the UK in summer of 2021 and moved to Epsom in May 2022. She is a gifted artist and doing a dressmaking course at college. EERN provided her with a sewing machine and one of our volunteers helped her learn how to use it (as she had never used an electric machine before). Within 2 weeks she had made 4 traditional Afghan dresses and she hopes to become a professional tailor.

Samira has been working very hard at her English, supported by EERN, and was very pleased to pass her driving theory test first time!

Helin Konyar was studying singing at Kiev Municipal Academy of Circus and Variety Arts when, at the age of 20, she had to leave Kyiv last May. When she arrived here, she auditioned for the famous Laine Theatre Art College in Epsom and was awarded a 3-year scholarship. This week she appeared in her first show at Epsom Playhouse.

Yuliia Komyshan is a professional bandura player from Poltava, Ukraine (a bandura is a Ukrainian plucked-string folk-instrument). She has degrees from Poltava Professional College of Arts and from Glinka Dnipropetrovsk Academy of Music and a PhD in Educational and Pedagogical Sciences.

Yuliia came to the UK when the war started in Ukraine. She dreams of introducing people all over the world to the interesting and rich Ukrainian culture and traditions. She loves giving people the opportunity to listen to the bandura and to connect with Ukrainian musical culture, both traditional and modern. She performs at concerts whenever she can.

Yuliia says that she is very grateful to the government, sponsors, volunteers and new friends for the support which she has received here.

For more information about the work of Epsom and Ewell Refugee Network visit their website. https://epsomrefugeenetwork.org

Related reports:

Flight of refugees: history repeating?

Ukrainian refugees made welcome by King’s rep.

Cllr Alex Coley: Refugees in Epsom and Ewell

EPSOM ROTARY CLUB will again be hosting the EPSOM & EWELL SHOWCASE at Epsom Playhouse at 19.00 hr on Tuesday 27 June 2023.   Tickets at £25 each support an amazing variety of local talent and in turn local charities and local good causes in and around Epsom. The acts consist of:

Cam Brown is a well know local guitarist and singer.  He enjoys performing songs by Jake Thackray and often performs in local pubs and halls.

Rhea is the winner of the local Young Musician award and will play “Against All the Odds) Phil Collins and Albright on her saxophone.

Kasumi Brooker, a soprano who sings with Epsom Choral Society will sing Puccini, Mozart, Gershwin, Bernstein, Lloyd Webber and Loewe.

Relive the experience Girlguiding Epsom will bring the Camp-fire to the stage with music!

Protègèm Dance School will perform contemporary dance on stage.  

Brass Quintet Come and see a great performance by the Brass Quintet of the Epsom and Ewell Silver Band.   

Bharathakalalayam Dance Southern India brings us lots of great Dancing and these dances are based on the Hindu religion -Radha Krishnan, Dandia and Thillana.  

Ambition School of Dance Ballet, Modern, Disco/tap dancing brought to the stage by these young performers. They wowed us last year so come and see them this year.  

Leatherhead Link Who of us could ever forget the emotional, joyful and committed performance by Leatherhead Link last year. They have come back to repeat the performance and we are looking forward to a stunning evening.

Tickets available HERE.

Surrey is to be the home of brand new state-of-the art facilities for the UK’s creative industry sector, thanks to a successful bid involving Surrey County Council.

A partnership team, led by Royal Holloway University of London (RHUL), and involving Pinewood Studios, disguise, BT, Buckinghamshire Local Enterprise Partnership, University of Surrey, Abertay University and National Film and Television School, alongside the county council, has been announced as the preferred bidder for the ‘Convergent Screen Technologies and performance in Realtime (CoSTAR)’ national lab.

The successful bid will create hundreds of new jobs and add tens of millions of pounds to Surrey’s economy.*

The national CoSTAR lab and three regional R&D labs will ensure the UK has the skills and infrastructure to stay on the cutting-edge of new virtual production techniques in film, TV and live events which involve using computer-generated imagery (CGI), augmented reality and motion capture to create ‘virtual sets’. Instead of adding visual effects and CGI in post-production, virtual production allows filmmakers and theatre directors to create large-scale digitally-generated environments using LED panels that performers can interact with in real-time, as a quicker and less expensive alternative to green screens. The technology has been used in the ABBA Voyage live concert and the Batman and Minecraft immersive experiences in the UK, as well on Disney’s hit show The Mandalorian. 

The £51m funding application was submitted in February 2022 by StoryFutures at Royal Holloway, University of London on behalf of the wider bid team. The application focused on establishing a CoSTAR national lab at Pinewood Studios, alongside associated facilities and programmes to drive innovation and creativity in the UK’s screen and performance industries.

Surrey County Council’s proposed contribution includes a capital commitment of £3m to fund the establishment of a CoSTAR satellite studio and incubator space on the RHUL campus in Surrey. It’s hoped these facilities will provide a sizeable boost to Surrey-based creative industry businesses, with over 200 expected to benefit.

The Surrey-based Satellite Studio Facility is also projected to create 350 jobs over six years, and make a net contribution of c£35m gross value added to Surrey’s economy. Both facilities aim to open in early 2026.

The announcement yesterday came as part of the government’s Creative Industries Sector Vision, which aims to maximise the potential of the UK creative industries and grow the economy.

Along with the national lab, the government also announced that three regional research labs will be based in Yorkshire, Dundee and Belfast. All of these facilities will work closely with Surrey’s new CoSTAR satellite studio and incubator space to be located on RHUL’s campus in Egham.

Together, these facilities will ensure the UK has the skills and infrastructure to stay on the cutting-edge of new virtual production techniques in film, TV and live events.

Surrey County Council Cabinet Member for Transport, Infrastructure and Growth, Matt Furniss, said: “I’m delighted that our joint bid for the national CoSTAR lab has been successful.

“These facilities will bring huge technological advantages to UK creative industries and their global competitiveness and it’s fantastic that Surrey will be home to them.

“It’s also hugely exciting to think of the local benefits that will come from our proposed CoSTAR Satellite Studio and Incubator space. These will bring about local jobs and investment and provide invaluable support for our local businesses, helping to deliver the skills and opportunities for Surrey’s economy to thrive.

“I’d like to thank all of the partners involved in the bid for their hard work in securing this great outcome for Surrey.”

_{*Today’s announcement of the preferred bidders for CoSTAR is subject to internal government approvals processes, and where relevant, commercial discussions with external partners. Partner organisations such as BT, the National Film and Television School, Vodafone, Studio Ulster and Screen Yorkshire have today announced they will invest at least £63.3 million in CoSTAR.}

This year, Epsom Choral Society’s summer concert will take you on a journey of discovery with two exciting British 20th century works on Saturday 24th June 2023 in St Andrew’s Church, Cheam.

From green and leafy Surrey, Epsom Choral Society travels firstly to Brazil to enjoy the jazz rhythms and sparkling piano of Constant Lambert’s popular 1927 work The Rio Grande.

In the second half, the singers cross the Atlantic to Africa with David Fanshawe’s African Sanctus (1972), a work which combines the traditional Mass with an original soundtrack of African music recorded by the composer during his travels up the Nile.

Jane Fanshawe, David’s widow, will attend the concert and will give an introduction and her personal memories of African Sanctus. David Fanshawe (1942-2010) was an English composer and self-styled explorer with a fervent interest in world music. His best-known composition is his choral work, African Sanctus, written in 1972

African Sanctus features soprano soloist, Lisa Swayne, and the soloist playing the fiendishly virtuosic piano solo in The Rio Grande is ECS’s very own Marion Lea, a formidable pianist who next year celebrates 50 years as the choir’s accompanist! Marion will also be joined by Peter Jaekel for duets from Walton’s Façade. The concert will be conducted by Epsom Choral Society’s Musical Director Julian Collings.

Chairman Isobel Squire said: “This is an exciting end to our season, and we look forward to transporting our audience from a gentle English summer to the dynamic rhythms of more southerly climes.”

The concert takes place at St Andrew’s Church, Northey Avenue, Cheam on Saturday 24th June 2023 at 7.30pm.

Entry is £18, or just £9 for students and under-18s.

Tickets are available via Epsom Choral Society website www.epsomchoral.org.uk/tickets

Epsom Choral Society has been singing for 100 years with around 90 singers. It puts on at least four concerts each year which attract a loyal following. Epsom Choral Society is a friendly choir – it does not require auditions but does aim for high performance standards. Rehearsals are on Wednesday evenings under the baton of their Musical Director, Julian Collings.

Related reports:

Epsom Choral works 100 years

Epsom Choral Society opens its centenary celebration 2022