Welcome to the

Sutton Music Festival

incorporating Speech & Drama

2024 – The 91st Annual Festival

Entries for the 2024 Festival have now closed

Many thanks to all of you who have now entered

Any queries on your entry should be sent to your section secretary or to information.smf@gmail.com

Festival Helpline (until 1st December) – 07541 024019

The Syllabus for the 2024 Festival can be viewed here

The Timetables for the 2024 Festival can be viewed here

2023 Festival Gala Concert Photo

The Festival will as usual be held in November, but due to the popularity of some classes, will stretch over an extra weekend. Also we are pleased to be back at Homefield School for the vocal classes. Provisional dates are:

Vocal	Sat 9th / Sun 10th	Homefield School, Sutton
Concerto Class	Fri 15th
Speech & Drama	Sat 16th / Sun 17th
Piano	Sat 16th / Sun 17th / Fri 22nd / Sat 23rd / Sun 24th / Fri 29th
Strings	Sat 16th / Sun 17th / Sun 24th
Choral	Fri 22nd	Holy Trinity Church, Wallington
Winds	Sat 23rd

Unless stated otherwise above, classes will be at Overton Grange School, Sutton.

Once again we will be awarding the 90th Festival Trophy for the performer who gives outstanding solo performances at intermediate or advanced level from any two sections of the Festival.

The Prize Winners’ Concert, attended by the Mayor of Sutton, will be held on Sunday 1 December at Overton Grange School at 3pm.

We are delighted to once again have a first-class team of adjudicators to provide feedback and encouragement to our entrants. This year we will be using the new marking scheme approved by BIFF.

Our adjudicators:

ROBERT BAILEY AGSM, LRAM – Strings and General Instrumental – is a ‘cellist, pianist and conductor. He teaches ‘cello and piano, and has worked at the Royal College of Music and The Guildhall School of Music as an orchestral and chamber music coach.

JULIA DEWHURST FTCL, ARCM, PGCA, CertEd, FRSA – Choral and Vocal – is a lyric-coloratura soprano, who has appeared nationally and internationally on the concert and opera stage in a performing career spanning over 30 years.

RUTH GERALD Mus Bac (Adel), FRCM – Piano – was Head of Keyboard Studies at the Royal College of Music and previously Head of Keyboard at the Birmingham School of Music.

ROBERT MAX ARAM, GRSM, LRAM, PPRNCM, Adv.Cert.(Julliard School) – Concerto Class – is principal cellist of the London Chamber Orchestra and Artistic Director of the Frinton Festival, and has been cellist of the Barbican Piano Trio for thirty years.

SAMANTHA TUCKER BA (Hons) – Speech and Drama –

Samantha studied Acting, Directing and Textual Analysis as part of her Drama degree, graduating from the University of Wales, Aberystwyth.

She has taught Speech & Drama for many years and was principal of her own Drama Studio in Haverhill, Suffolk for over 10 years and directed numerous productions. Samantha has been teaching Speech and Drama at St Faiths School, Cambridge for over 15 years. She replaces Katrina Mulvihill who is indisposed.

ROSIE WHITFIELD Dip RCM, ARCM, PGCE – Winds – Rosie is Director of Music at Whitgift School and Head of Junior Guildhall. She developed the prestigious Whitgift International Music Competition in 2013, and continues to support and mentor young musicians hoping for a career in the profession.

Full details of our adjudicators are here.

Entries to the Festival have now closed. Late entries will not be accepted.

Celebrity Vocal Masterclass 2025

The Celebrity Vocal Masterclass in 2025 will be led by Heidi Pegler

The next in our series of celebrity masterclasses, for singers, will be held on 11 May 2025. Further details will be announced in due course.

The Vocal Masterclass will provide an unrivalled opportunity for some of our most talented singers from this year’s Sutton Music Festival to perform a favourite piece and work on it in public with soprano and singing teacher Heidi Pegler.

Heidi enjoys a busy career both as a performer and an educator. She has appeared at many of Britain’s leading concert venues and is currently Deputy Director of Music and Head of Singing at St. Paul’s Girls’ School, Hammersmith where she runs a lively and busy singing department conducting all the choirs and directing and producing musical and operatic productions. She is a consultant, senior examiner and trainer for the ABRSM, has given workshops worldwide and is a former Chair of the Association of Teachers of Singing.

She has published several songbooks including the award-winning series The Language of Song, The Best of Singing and It’s never too late to sing.

Our series of Masterclasses, which began in 2015, has proved very popular with our talented performers. It is funded by a bequest from the late Neil Heayes.

Celebrity Piano Masterclass 2024

SMF MASTERCLASS 24 MARCH 2024 – PRESS RELEASE

Masterclass for Piano given by Vanessa Latarche

Sutton Music Festival organised a very successful and enjoyable Piano Masterclass given by Vanessa Latarche on Sunday 24 March at Trinity School. The masterclass gave an opportunity for some of the Festival’s most outstanding musicians to work with an internationally renowned pianist. They played works by Bach, Chopin, Debussy, Liszt and Kapustin.

Said Vanessa after the class had finished: ‘It has been a wonderful afternoon of music. The students were all very well prepared and were responsive to the feedback. It is such a joy to work with such talent.’

Professor Latarche has been Head of Keyboard at the Royal College of Music since 2005. Awarded a Fellowship of the Royal College of Music in 2010 for outstanding services to music, an honour conferred on her by HRH Prince of Wales, in September 2011, she was granted a Personal Chair at the RCM, which gave her the title of Chair of International Keyboard Studies. As an extension to her keyboard faculty work, Vanessa was appointed as the Associate Director for Partnerships in Asia, which involves managing the RCM’s collaborative work in China and the RCM’s degree programmes at Nangyang Academy of Fine Arts, Singapore.

The Masterclass is funded by the Neil Heayes bequest. Sutton Music Festival is supported by Arts Network Sutton, the HR Taylor Charitable Trust, and is grateful to Trinity School for the use of their piano and recital room.

Masterclass 2024 - Vanessa Latarche & Participants

Vanessa Latarche FRCM & Masterclass Participants

Gala Concert Brings The 2023 Sutton Music Festival To A Close

The 2023 Sutton Music Festival came to a close on Sunday 26 November at Overton Grange School with a Gala Concert of prize winners. Trophies and prizes were presented by the Festival president and Sutton Mayor Councillor Colin Stears.

The Mayor Cllr Colin Stears with the Prize Winners from the 2023 Gala Concert

Participants in the 2023 Gala Concert

90th Festival Trophy

The Mayor with previous prizewinners at the 90th Festival Concert

Winner of the 90th Festival Trophy

Impromptu – winners of the Church and Chapel and the Open Challenge Shields

The Choirs of St Elphege_s Schools winners of the Borough Challenge Shield

Singing _Pie Jesu_ by Andrew Lloyd Webber

Winner of the Junior Vocal Challenge Cup

Winners of the Instrumental Ensemble Challenge Shield

Winner of the Colin Peel Speech and Drama Prize

Winners of the Recorder Group Challenge Sheld

Winner of the Diamond Anniversary Cup for outstanding acting

Winner of the Elocution Challenge Cup

Winner of the HR Taylor Piano Prize and the Beethoven Junior Cup

Winners of the Winifred Burton Piano Ensemble Cup

90th Trophy with Piano cake

Celebration cup cakes

2023 Celebrity Masterclass For Strings

SMF Masterclass for strings given by Ruth Rogers

Sutton Music Festival organised a very successful and enjoyable Masterclass given by Ruth Rogers on Sunday 5 March in Wallington Library. The masterclass included participants from the 2022 Festival, playing violin and cello. They played works by Bach, Sarasate, Paganini, Rachmaninov and others.

Said Ruth after the class had finished: ‘It was an honour to work with these incredibly talented young musicians. They responded so well to ideas and suggestions, and I think that it was a lovely opportunity for them to perform to an audience and interact with a professional musician. Huge thanks to the Sutton Music Festival for giving young people this opportunity.’

Ruth Rogers is currently one of the Leaders of the London Mozart Players, and regularly guest leads other major orchestras. She studied at the Royal College of Music, has won many prestigious awards including the Tagore Gold Medal and the Manoug Parikian Award. She now performs both at home and abroad both as a soloist and in various chamber music ensembles including the Iuventus String Quartet and the Aquinas Piano Trio.

The Masterclass is funded by the Neil Heayes bequest. Sutton Music Festival is supported by Arts Network Sutton, the HR Taylor Charitable Trust, and is grateful to the London Borough of Sutton for the use of the library.

The Mayor, Ruth Rogers and the Masterclass 2

The Mayor of Sutton Cllr Trish Fivey with Ruth Rogers and Masterclass participants

The 89th Sutton Music Festival 2022

We would like to thank the record number of people of all ages who entered the 2022 Festival and participated in a most successful event. We hope the feedback they received from our expert adjudicators will be fruitful.

The Festival came to an end on Sunday 27 November with the Prizewinners’ Concert, showing an excellent standard of performance in music and drama.

Gala Concert Brings The 2022 Sutton Music Festival To A Close

The 2022 Sutton Music Festival came to a close on 27 November at Overton Grange School with a Gala Concert of prize winners. Trophies and prizes were presented by the Festival president and Sutton Mayor Councillor Trish Fivey.