Music Director

Sutton Valence Choral is looking to appoint a new Music Director to take over from our current Director, Bryan Gipps, who will be retiring in November 2025 after more than 20 years with the choir.

Under Bryan’s guidance, the choir has gone from strength to strength to become one of the foremost choirs in SE Kent, described by the Church Times as the leading large vocal ensemble in Maidstone.  We are looking for a musically talented, highly skilled and inspirational conductor to help us to continue to pursue our Vision – which is simply to share the pleasure of music-making by providing members with the opportunity to learn and perform choral music to a high standard.

Sutton Valence Choral, which performs in the classical tradition, was formed over 30 years ago. It is a non - auditioned choir of approximately 60 singers and includes a smaller auditioned chamber choir.

Our repertoire ranges from Bach, Haydn and Mozart to Dvorak, Britten and Bernstein as well as including living composers like Karl Jenkins and Cecilia McDowall. Our Christmas and summer concerts are usually lighter affairs - including modern music, folk songs and opera.

We rehearse in a hard-working and happy atmosphere for two hours on Monday evenings during school term time at Sutton Valence School and perform in venues local to Sutton Valence and occasionally further afield such as Rochester and Canterbury Cathedrals. We perform a minimum of two major concerts per year usually in November and March, when we engage the Beresford Sinfonia and professional soloists.  Two further concerts, in July and December, generally involve a collection of shorter pieces accompanied by piano or organ.

We also undertake workshops, charitable functions and social events and occasionally join with other choirs to perform major choral works. Each year we choose a local charity and raise money for it throughout the year. This year we are supporting the Kent and Medway Young Musicians Trust and recently held a “Walk and Sing” for them when we walked between several local churches singing at each one and ending with a picnic.

The current remuneration structure for the Music Director is £103 per rehearsal plus £38 per rehearsal if the Accompanist is absent and £412 for each concert performance including the dress rehearsal. This will be reviewed annually in line with RPI and Government statistics on average earnings.

The closing date for applications is midnight on 31 March 2025  Shortlisted applicants will be invited to take a section of a rehearsal following interview.

For further information, including a detailed job specification and application timetable, please contact the Chair, Margaret Jordan svchoralsoc@gmail.com

We look forward to hearing from you.

Registered Charity: 1119160

https://www.suttonvalencechoral.com/