Leith Hill Musical Festival
| Leith Hill Musical Festival | |
|---|---|
| Choir | |
 |
|
| Former name | Leith Hill Musical Competition (until 1950) |
| Origin | Dorking, Surrey |
| Founded | 1905 |
| Founder | Margaret Vuaghan Williams and Lady Evangeline Farrer |
| Genre | Choral |
| Members | Choral Societies |
| President | John Rutter |
| Organist | Alan Brown |
| Chief conductor | Jonathan Willcocks |
| Manager | Amanda Begg |
| Headquarters | Dorking |
| Concert hall | Dorking Halls |
| Influences | Ralph Vaughan Williams |
| Website | lhmf |
The Leith Hill Musical Festival (LHMF) was founded in 1905 by Margaret Vaughan Williams, sister of the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Lady (Evangeline) Farrer, wife of Lord Farrer of Abinger Hall.[29] Ralph Vaughan Williams became the Festival Conductor from 1905 to 1953. The present Festival Conductor is Jonathan Willcocks (appointed June 2016 as the 6th Festival Conductor).[30]
The musical festival consists of various independent choral societies or choirs who are member choirs and therefore comes together under the organisation of the Festival to perform the concerts and competition for each season. A season starts in mid March and includes the mid-March concert of J.S. Bach's St Matthew, St John Passion or Handel's Messiah (latest addition), then a Youth Competition and the main Festival usually in first week of April but definitely avoiding Easter if it falls in April. Currently (as of 2017), there are 12 choirs in the group which is split in 3 divisions for competitions and concerts over the Festival.
The festival is competitive, lasting three days, each day with a different division of choirs; each evening the choirs who have competed during the day combine to give a concert of the main works which form the subject of the competitions. Following the tradition established by Vaughan Williams, the festival performs a mid-March concert of the Passions by J.S. Bach alternate years as a taster and build up to the main festival and competition in early April. However, during the tenure of Brian Kay, Handel's Messiah was added to create a 3-year cycle of the mid-March concerts. These concerts are open to the public as singers at a fee and rehearsals are held in Dorking, the traditional home of the Festival.
In 1905, Margaret Vaughan Williams (known as Meggie; b. 1870), the older sister of the famous English composer, Ralph Vaughan Williams and her friend, Lady Evangeline (Eva, b. 1871) Farrer, the wife of Lord Farrer of Abinger Hall formed the Leith Musical Festival. This was a time musical festivals were like a movement, following in the line of Mary Wakefield having founded one of the earliest in Cumbria in 1885. At its founding, the two ladies named it Leith Hill Musical Competitions, a name it bore until 1950.
Meggie was brought up in Leith Hill Place, her mother's family home after their father died. She was schooled at home. Eva (Lady Farrer, born Evangeline Knox) belonged to an Irish family who were often abroad. She was born in Florence and grew up in a sound knowledge of European languages. Through her own entrepreneur life, she arrived in Abinger Hall, the home of the Farrers to teach music to the child of Tom Farrer Lord Farrer after his wife died. She later became Tom's [second] wife.
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