Busy December for Mid Sussex-based choir Coro Nuovo

Mid Sussex-based choir Coro Nuovo are looking forward to a busy December.

Transcript

00:00Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers. Lovely to

00:06speak to Kate Kent, who is the Chair of Coro Novo, and you've got a fantastically busy

00:11December coming up, haven't you, with plenty of things happening, starting with a really

00:15lovely sounding concert on December 7th. What's happening in that concert then?

00:21Well, Phil, we're going to St Mary's Church, Bolcom, who have invited us to come and do

00:26a Christmas concert at their church, and we chose the theme of Sussex Christmas because

00:32lots of composers used to have had a connection with the county. We've got Holst, who lived in

00:40Hove for a while, and is buried in Chichester Cathedral. Warren Williams was often seen around

00:45with his phonograph, and Percy Granger as well, recording all those wonderful old tunes that he

00:51would hear on his travels, and then you will find that many of them are familiar and repeated

00:57in carols that we still sing today. Christina Rossetti is another one who wrote the words to

01:01Good King Wenceslas, so there's lots of little treasures that you may not know about which are

01:08in all these carols, and actually a lot to do with Sussex, which is quite exciting,

01:13and we've enjoyed the research actually as well.

01:15And it's a venue you like to play in, isn't it?

01:18It's a lovely venue, it's a very ancient church, a lovely village, and there'll be some nice

01:25refreshments as well, and some readings which take us back 150 years ago to our imaginations of

01:32what life was like in a rural community here, just in the Sussex towns, so yes.

01:37Fantastic. And then, breaking new ground, assuming the weather is okay, you'll be singing at Petworth

01:43House on December the 15th, which is a bit special, isn't it?

01:45Yes, it's something new for us.

01:47They make such a thing of Christmas there, don't they?

01:49Well, they do, yes. I mean, I've heard it's absolutely stunning there. I've never been

01:54at Christmas, but so this is exciting for us, and we're going to be singing in the courtyard

01:59around the Christmas tree, just carols, and we hope that everyone who comes will join in with us.

02:07It sounds fantastic, brilliant. And then early next year,

02:09launching the 2025 Sussex Young Musician of the Year.

02:14Yes, as part of our outreach, we don't just do singing and concerts. We actually

02:19want to think about the next generation, and conserving and helping Sussex Young Musicians.

02:28Studying music is expensive, and it's a difficult journey, and getting a platform is everything,

02:34really. Apart from the money, it's actually getting that platform and getting that recognition. So

02:41what we do is we have a competition where musicians from Sussex, both singers and

02:46instrumentalists of any genre, can apply. And we have prize money of two and a half thousand pounds

02:54this year coming up, and we have a second and a third prize. And actually our adjudicator will be

03:01Eamon Dugan from The Sixteen, the Assistant Director of The Sixteen World Famous Choir.

03:06So he's also from Sussex, so that's going to be very exciting as well.

03:13Lovely chap, and a conductor, and the rest. So being recognised by somebody

03:21like that can often be a huge jump in a career.

03:24Brilliant. Well, Kate, that sounds a lovely way to start 2025.

03:27Lovely to speak to you. Hope it all goes well.

03:30Thank you, Phil. Happy Christmas.