Fakenham Choral Society

Fakenham Choral Society Our aim is to bring the pleasure of live, large-scale choral music-making to a wide public.

16/06/2026

We will be bidding a fond farewell to music director Mark Jones after our concert on Saturday.

Mark has been Musical Director of Fakenham Choral Society for 8 years. During that time he has conducted some exciting and memorable concerts covering a wide range of composers and musical genres, perhaps the most momentous of them all Verdi’s Requiem, which marked the choir's 50th anniversary.

Mark steered the society through the difficult time of the Covid 19 pandemic which restricted our singing for nearly two years. Many of us have vivid memories of singing in the church garden on four evenings in June, seated on garden chairs two metres apart sometimes dressed in sweaters, gloves and bobble hats!

To everything FCS has done in the past 8 years, rehearsals, concerts, Come & Sing Days, Mark has brought his immense musical skills, his dynamic style, boundless enthusiasm and stamina and given a huge commitment of time to the choir. FCS owes him an enormous debt of gratitude for expanding our musical horizons, improving our musical skills and above all having the faith that we can achieve, what at times seemed, the impossible!

Thank you Mark -- we will miss you but hope that you will have fond memories of FCS and of the wonderful music we have achieved with your help and guidance.

Tickets for the concert on Saturday 20 June at 7.30 pm at Fakenham Parish Church are £18 and are available at https://www.fakenhamchoralsociety.org/forthcoming-1

Just a week to go until our summer concert ‘Midsummer Classics’ on Saturday 20 June at 7.30 pm at Fakenham Parish Church...
13/06/2026

Just a week to go until our summer concert ‘Midsummer Classics’ on Saturday 20 June at 7.30 pm at Fakenham Parish Church. We will be performing Mozart’s Coronation Mass and Vivaldi’s Gloria, conducted by music director Mark Jones.

This will be your last opportunity to see Mark Jones conducting Fakenham Choral Society as he will be stepping back after this performance.

We also have four fabulous soloists joining us: Rosamund Walton (soprano), Ilana Bartlette (mezzo soprano), Daniel Bartlette (tenor) and Gavin Horsley (bass).

Tickets for the concert on Saturday 20 June at 7.30 pm at Fakenham Parish Church are £18 and are available at https://www.fakenhamchoralsociety.org/forthcoming-1

Ilana Bartlette, mezzo soprano soloist for our summer concert ‘Midsummer Classics’ on Saturday 20 June. Ilana is current...
12/06/2026

Ilana Bartlette, mezzo soprano soloist for our summer concert ‘Midsummer Classics’ on Saturday 20 June.

Ilana is currently a music and drama scholar at Gresham’s School where she is studying A-level Music, BTEC Digital Music and BTEC Performing Arts. At Gresham’s she sings with Schola Cantorum, Chapel Choir, the close harmony group ‘Crickets’, and with the jazz band. She studies singing with Diana Moore and has recently been accepted into the National Youth Choir. Ilana has enjoyed playing Cosette in the school’s production of Les Misérables this term.

Tickets for the concert on Saturday 20 June at 7.30 pm at Fakenham Parish Church are available at https://www.fakenhamchoralsociety.org/forthcoming-1

Gavin Horsley, bass soloist for our summer concert ‘Midsummer Classics’ on Saturday 20 June.Born in Norfolk, Gavin train...
08/06/2026

Gavin Horsley, bass soloist for our summer concert ‘Midsummer Classics’ on Saturday 20 June.

Born in Norfolk, Gavin trained at the Royal College of Music studying with Kenneth Woollam before joining both the Glyndebourne Festival and Touring Opera. Gavin created the role of Clark in Will Todd’s opera The Blackened Man and made his Proms debut singing the Old Servant in a live televised broadcast of Strauss’s Electra, conducted by Donald Runnicles. Other roles include Bartolo (Le Nozze di Figaro), Seneca (L’incoronazione di Poppea), Don Fernando (Fidelio), Boatswain (HMS Pinafore) for Opera della Luna and Polish Man in Death in Venice for English National Opera.

He regularly performs on the concert platform and recent performances have included Haydn’s Creation, Bach’s St Matthew Passion, Rossini’s Messe Solennelle, Handel’s Messiah and Samson, Dvorak’s Stabat Mater, Mozart, Verdi, and Brahms’ Requiems and Karl Jenkins’ The Armed Man: a Mass for Peace in the Royal Festival Hall.

Gavin has recorded with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the City of Birmingham Touring Opera, in Karl Jenkins’ Requiem for EMI classics and as the Doctor in Verdi’s Macbeth for Chandos under Edward Gardner. He is also currently the Director of Music at St. Augustine’s, Queen’s Gate in Kensington.

Tickets for the concert on Saturday 20 June at 7.30 pm at Fakenham Parish Church are available at https://www.fakenhamchoralsociety.org/forthcoming-1

Daniel Bartlette - tenor soloist for our Midsummer Classics concert. 20th JuneDaniel Bartlette was a music scholar at th...
03/06/2026

Daniel Bartlette - tenor soloist for our Midsummer Classics concert. 20th June

Daniel Bartlette was a music scholar at the King’s School, Canterbury before taking a gap year in Australia, where he served as tenor lay clerk at St George's Cathedral, Perth. This marked the beginning of a distinguished career spanning more than 20 years as a cathedral musician. On his return to the UK Daniel was appointed tenor lay clerk at Liverpool Anglican Cathedral . During his time there, he pursued a variety of musical projects, including singing with Capella Nova. From 2000 to 2011, Daniel returned to Canterbury as a lay clerk at Canterbury Cathedral, where he took part in numerous recordings and broadcasts, and performed in concerts, festivals, and tours both in the UK and abroad.. In September 2011, he moved to Norfolk to take up the position of tenor lay clerk at Norwich Cathedral, a role he held for the following six years.

Daniel is now a guest member for the renowned choirs Polyphony and Sonoro. He is also a regular deputy with the BBC Singers, with whom he has enjoyed a particularly busy and varied schedule in recent years. His work has included performances at the BBC Proms, as well as numerous recordings, tours, and concerts, including the British premiere of Dead Man Walking by Jake Heggie.

In 2017, Daniel joined The Grange Festival to perform Goyescas, a one act opera by Granados, as part of the From El Greco to Goya exhibition at The Wallace Collection. He returned to The Grange Festival in 2018 for productions of The Barber of Seville, The Abduction from the Seraglio, and Candide. Later that autumn, he was delighted to tour Myanmar and Norway with the BBC Singers.

Tickets for the concert on Saturday 20 June at 7.30 pm at Fakenham Parish Church are available at https://www.fakenhamchoralsociety.org/forthcoming-1

At our summer concert ‘Midsummer Classics’ on Saturday 20 June we will be performing Mozart’s Coronation Mass and Vivald...
27/05/2026

At our summer concert ‘Midsummer Classics’ on Saturday 20 June we will be performing Mozart’s Coronation Mass and Vivaldi’s Gloria. We welcome back Rosamund Walton as our soprano soloist.

Rosamund Walton is a critically acclaimed professional singer and choral conductor whose career has seen her perform in many of the major concert venues of Britain and Europe working with orchestras such as the English Chamber orchestra, the London Mozart Players and Norwich Baroque. Now based in East Anglia she maintains a busy performance schedule from intimate recitals to full-scale oratorios and opera both with voice and baton.

Rosamund’s initial Degree was in Drama from the University of East Anglia. After graduating she spent many years working as an actress in both straight theatre and musicals before deciding to concentrate on the classical repertoire. She studied at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, gaining a Post Graduate Diploma and a Masters in Concert Singing.

She began her singing career in choral and church music, initially with the Rodolfus Choir then becoming a member of the choir of St. Paul’s, Knightsbridge and Cantor at Westminster Cathedral before leaving London to further her studies in Scotland. She sang with the Morley Consort and was the professional soprano for the Honourable Society of Gray’s Inn. She has always maintained a keen interest in contemporary classical music and toured regularly with the New London Chamber Choir.

Rosamund has sung with us a number of times, most recently in last summer’s performance of Will Todd’s ‘Mass in Blue’ .

Tickets for the concert on Saturday 20 June at 7.30 pm at Fakenham Parish Church are available at https://www.fakenhamchoralsociety.org/forthcoming-1

🎼 🎼 A fabulous day singing ‘Glorious Glorias ’ (and a Kyrie and an Agnus Dei ) at our Come & Sing on Saturday. A big th...
10/05/2026

🎼 🎼 A fabulous day singing ‘Glorious Glorias ’ (and a Kyrie and an Agnus Dei ) at our Come & Sing on Saturday. A big thank you to the amazing Zinnia-Claire B***y for joining us to sing the solo soprano parts, our three other volunteer soloists, to Matthew James Preston, our accompanist, and to the enthusiastic and energetic Mark Jones for leading the day. Thank you to everyone who came, and to our sponsors for making the day possible. And of course thank you to FCS chair Rosemary Dear for organising the day and to those FCS members who helped.

Limited spaces remain for Fakenham Choral Society’s Come & Sing ‘Glorious Glorias’ on Saturday 9th May so do book quickl...
30/04/2026

Limited spaces remain for Fakenham Choral Society’s Come & Sing ‘Glorious Glorias’ on Saturday 9th May so do book quickly. Our 2026 Come & Sing will be run for the last time by the fabulously energetic Mark Jones before he steps back as FCS’s music director.

We’ll be singing:

* 1st Movement of Vivaldi’s Gloria
* And The Glory from Handel's Messiah
* Gloria in B flat by Stanford
* Gloria in Excelsis by Shaw (Fanfare for Christmas Day)
* Gloria and Agnus Dei from Mozart's Coronation Mass
* Gloria and Kyrie from Haydn's Nelson Mass

All voice parts welcome - come and join us!

We’ll start at 10.30am and there will be a free informal performance at 4.30pm with audience donations to AGE Concern Fakenham Branch.

Registration Fee is £22 per singer. Under 21s £5

Details are as follows:
Date: Saturday 9th May 2026
Venue: Fakenham Academy, Field Lane, Fakenham NR21 9QT
Registration: Online: fakenhamchoralsociety.org (follow the Come & Sing links)
OR: contact Rosemary Dear at [email protected]

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Upper Market Place
Fakenham
NR21 9DY

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