Thanet Festival Choir

 

The Thanet Festival Choir (TFC) is a mixed choral group (male and female voices) of around 75 amateur singers. Based in the Isle of Thanet, East Kent, we regularly perform concerts to bring our music to the wider community. We are an adult choir, but we welcome young people over the age of 16 provided that they are accompanied at rehearsals by a parent/guardian or other appropriate adult. Our membership is drawn from a wide range of musical abilities. Some of us have many years experience of singing in choirs and others are relatively new to the joys and challenges of choral singing, but we all enjoy singing works from the traditional choral repertoire and support each other in our learning.

80th Anniversary Concert

2026 is our 80th Anniversary Year and we are celebrating by performing Mendelssohn’s wonderful oratorio Elijah, which was the first work ever performed by the Choir. This promises to be one of the outstanding musical events in Thanet this year, and if you love the immediacy and drama of live music our concert is not to be missed. The Choir is delighted to welcome back many artists who, having sung for us earlier in their careers, now have established international reputations as recitalists and consort singers. 

Baritone Nick Morris, making his TFC debut as our Elijah, has an extensive career in opera, having performed major roles in works by Handel through to Wagner, and in world premieres by Knussen, Maxwell-Davies and Phillip Glass. Our tenor soloist, Mark Dobell, a former student of our MD, and a member of The Sixteen and Westminster Abbey Choir, has performed across Europe and the U.S.A. with the likes of The Monteverdi Choir, I Fagiolini, The Cardinall’s Musick and The Tallis Scholars. Mezzo-soprano Ciara Hendrick has an extensive diary encompassing chamber, consort, recording and operatic engagements, singing regularly with the BBC Singers, I Fagiolini (currently touring with their Monteverdi Vespers at King’s Place later in the year), the Dunedin Consort, La Nuova Musica and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.  She has also recorded with many leading Early Music groups. Alexandra Stevenson, our soprano, has combined her love of contemporary opera, touring in the U.K. and the Europe, in premieres of works by Patrick Dawes and Cecilia McDowall, as well as singing for the official broadcast of the Coronation of King Charles III, as a Classic FM Partner Solo Artist.
 

Early Bird Tickets for Elijah are now available at the special price of £18, for a limited time only. Save £4 on the price of a standard Adult Advance Ticket and £7 on the door price. CLICK HERE to take advantage of this special offer.

Would you like to sing with the Choir? Come along to one of our June Open Rehearsals

An Open Rehearsal is a ‘taster session’ where you may take part – or just observe – with no obligation. Join us at St Peters Church Hall, Hopeville Avenue, St Peters CT10 2TR on Wednesday evenings from 7.45pm. You will receive a warm welcome. We have a ‘buddying’ scheme so that prospective new members are paired with experienced singers who can guide and support them through their first few rehearsals.  You’ll be introduced to other members of your voice section and to the Music Director, and given music and basic information about the Choir. Each rehearsal starts at 7.45pm and begins with a ‘warm up’ to get the vocal chords working. We then rehearse some of the music programmed for our next concert, usually in some detail to start with and then we progress to ‘sing-throughs’ as the notes and words become more familiar. There’s a 10 minute break at around 8.30pm, and we usually finish at around 9.20pm.

If you would like to come and join us then  click here to find out more, or email tfc.social.medias@gmail.com

Unfortunately, due to an ongoing technical issue, some of the contact links on this page are not working. Please accept our apologies. If you wish to contact us email tfc.social.medias@gmail.com

News

Special Price Early Bird Tickets for ‘Elijah’ now available

Rehearsals for our spectacular 80th Anniversary Concert, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, which will take place at Holy Trinity Church Broadstairs on Saturday 24th October, are now well underway. As this is such a special concert we are offering Early Bird Advance Adult Tickets at the special price of £18, a saving of £4 on the standard Adult […]

Save the date …

Saturday 24th October. 7.pm. Holy Trinity Church, Nelson Place, Broadstairs CT10 1HQ. Be there or be square! Our 80th Anniversary Concert, Mendelssohn’s Elijah is absolutely one not to miss. It’s a superb and very dramatic work, telling the Old Testament story of the Prophet Elijah,  and we’ll be performing it with a first-class orchestra and superb […]

Join us at our June Open Rehearsals

Rehearsals for our 80th Anniversary Concert, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, have just begun and anyone interested in joining the Choir, or singing  Elijah with us, is cordially invited to come along to one or more of our June Open Rehearsals. These are ‘taster sessions’ where prospective new members can observe or join in without any obligation or […]

What's it like to sing in a choir?

New to singing or out of practice? Come along for an evening and have a go. Click here for more details

Upcoming concerts