30/09/2026
Join us on Saturday 10th October for what promises to be a beautiful concert...
ETERNAL LIGHT
Bennett • Attride • Britten • Duruflé
Marking three significant musical anniversaries in 2026: 90 years since the birth of Broadstairs-born Sir Richard Rodney Bennett, 50 years since the death of Benjamin Britten, and 40 years since the death of Maurice Duruflé.
Join Thanet Chamber Choir for Eternal Light, an evening of beautiful, exhilarating and deeply moving choral music, bringing together internationally celebrated composers with music written much closer to home.
The concert opens particularly close to home with Sir Richard Rodney Bennett's A Good-Night. Born in Broadstairs in 1936, Bennett became one of Britain's most versatile musicians, equally at home in the concert hall, jazz and film. His exquisitely tender setting of words by Francis Quarles provides a moment of stillness with which to begin the evening, in the year marking the 90th anniversary of his birth.
That local connection continues with Tim Attride, a local composer and member of Thanet Chamber Choir, whose O Be Joyful offers a vibrant setting of Psalm 100. Later in the programme, the same ancient words return in Benjamin Britten's Jubilate Deo in C, offering a fascinating opportunity to hear two composers' responses to the same joyful text.
2026 marks 50 years since Britten's death, and the programme celebrates his remarkable contribution to English choral music through three contrasting works. His extraordinary Rejoice in the Lamb sets the visionary poetry of Christopher Smart in music that moves from exuberant celebration and humour to tenderness and profound reflection. The brilliant Te Deum in C and Jubilate Deo in C bring rhythmic vitality, colour and energy, revealing a composer whose writing for voices remains as fresh and immediate today as when it was written.
At the heart of the programme is Maurice Duruflé's Requiem, performed in the 40th anniversary year of the composer's death.
One of the most loved choral works of the twentieth century, the Requiem draws its melodies from ancient Gregorian chant and transforms them into music of extraordinary warmth and luminosity. From the hushed opening of the Introit to the soaring Sanctus and the profound stillness of In Paradisum, this is a Requiem concerned less with darkness and judgement than with consolation, peace and eternal rest.
The performers
Jacob Bartlett – treble
A young Chorister of Canterbury Cathedral, Jacob brings the clarity and purity of the English cathedral treble tradition to Britten's Rejoice in the Lamb.
Orlando Barton Hodges – baritone
A former Canterbury Cathedral Chorister and now a Deputy Lay Clerk at the Cathedral, Orlando is increasingly in demand nationally and across Europe as both a consort singer and soloist. He is also a member of Genesis Sixteen, The Sixteen's prestigious young artists programme for the next generation of professional ensemble singers. His growing solo repertoire embraces works by Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Fauré, Puccini and Vaughan Williams.
Soloists from Thanet Chamber Choir
The programme also showcases voices from within the choir itself, with solo performances from Sylvia del Nevo, Olivia Tassell and Sean Darrock.
Robin Walker – organ
Royal Academy of Music-trained organist Robin Walker has performed extensively across the UK and internationally, including appearances at St Paul's Cathedral and Westminster Abbey. A former Assistant Organist at Canterbury Cathedral, he is an experienced recitalist, accompanist and choral musician and currently teaches organ at The King's School, Canterbury.
Peter Futcher – Musical Director
Peter Futcher is a choral conductor, singer and music educator with more than thirty years' experience working with choirs. A former choral scholar at Royal Holloway, University of London and St Martin-in-the-Fields, he spent sixteen years as a Tenor Lay Clerk in the Choir of Canterbury Cathedral. He is now Artistic Director of Canterbury Chamber Choir and Musical Director of Thanet Chamber Choir and Sound Waves Choir.
Peter's work as a conductor centres on creating confident, expressive performances in which singers are active participants in the music-making. His approach combines detailed musical preparation with an emphasis on communication, energy and connection: between conductor and singer, between singers themselves, and ultimately between performers and audience. Through his Choir Matters project, he also writes and teaches on choral conducting, rehearsal culture, gesture and performance, encouraging conductors and choirs to create performances that are distinctive, thoughtful and a little "less ordinary".
Thanet Chamber Choir
Thanet Chamber Choir brings together experienced singers from across East Kent to perform choral music spanning the Renaissance to the present day. Under Peter Futcher's direction, the choir seeks to combine the precision and detail of chamber singing with performances of energy, immediacy and emotional connection.
A concert in memory of Nick Audley
This performance is dedicated to the memory of Nick Audley (1977–2026).
A collection will be made during the evening in support of Great Ormond Street Hospital and St Thomas' Hospital, London.
From music born here in Thanet, through the brilliance of Britten to the timeless serenity of Duruflé, Eternal Light brings together music spanning almost a century but united by something much older: our need to celebrate life, to remember those we have lost, and to find consolation and hope through music.
Saturday 10 October 2026 • 7.30pm
St Mary the Virgin Church, Minster, Kent
St Mary's Church, Minster-in-Thanet Minster-in-Thanet Parish Council Minster in Thanet Womens Institute
Experience the beauty of Eternal Light - moving performances of Maurice Durufle's Requiem and Benjamin Britten's Rejoice in the Lamb.
