Leith Hill Music Festival 2026

Leith Hill Music Festival is a competitive choral festival for amateur choirs in the Surrey area held over two days in April with a combined concert each evening.

We went, we sang, we conquered!

At Mickleham Choral Society we were more than delighted to be overall winner of our day’s Leith Hill Music Festival of six Surrey Hills choirs on 11 April. And the smugness continues with trophies for the best accompanied song (Brightest and Best arranged by Shawn Kirchner), best song by a living composer (My Song by Erik Esenvalds) and best unaccompanied song (In Remembrance by Eleanor Davy); this one shared with Holmbury St Mary. The sopranos and altos ensemble, led by Tracy Kennington, also had the highest score for Sarah Quartel’s This We Know but there wasn’t an individual trophy for that class, just a lasting memory of a beautiful interpretation.

The adjudicator praised our Musical Director, Juliet Hornby, for her varied choice of pieces and for the choir’s evident joy in singing them. It was a fitting tribute to Juliet for her inspiring leadership of the choir and probably the best part about winning this year was the acknowledgement of the joyful time we have together.

The Running Horses is kindly displaying the trophies for a couple of weeks so we can drink and gloat – just for five minutes, until we remember it really is about the taking part and not the winning.

For those who don’t know the festival, the choirs compete in the morning with their choices of three pieces and in the evening sing together in a concert at Dorking Halls. This year the concert was of baroque music, the main pieces being the words of Dixit Dominus in compositions by Antonio Vivaldi and Isabella Leonarda played by the Canzona orchestra and conducted by the dynamic Neil Ferris.

The Festival ran for two days and on 10 April Dorking swept the board and were also highest aggregate winners for both days so many congratulations to them!

Read about our 2025 festival experience here