Concerts
2026/27 Centenary Season
Autumn Concert 2026
Our first concert of the season sees us team up with The Bradstow Singers and their conductor, Jacob Bride, who has a long-standing association with MMS. In the first half, MMS’ conductor, Ben Knowles, will conduct Mozart’s fabulous overture to The Marriage of Figaro. After this, soprano soloist Joanne Whalley will join us to sing a selection of opera arias, accompanied by The Bradstow Singers and MMS.
The second half will see Jacob Bride take over the baton, where he will conduct his Dickens Suite and a selection of Christmas carols with both the choir and orchestra.
Spring Concert 2027
For our Spring concert, we return to St. Matthew’s Community Centre where we’ll explore two of the “little” works of two great symphonists, both written in the 1810s: Schubert’s 6th Symphony (known as the “little” C major, in contrast to the “great” C major symphony of the 9th) and Beethoven’s 8th Symphony, somewhat smaller in scale to the 7th and 9th that came either side of it, and indeed perhaps closer to the 1st, 2nd and 4th symphonies in style. Beethoven fondly referred to it as "my little Symphony in F”.
Opening our concert, we have Faure’s beautiful Pavane, written in 1887, originally for piano but later orchestrated. Faure described the work as "elegant, assuredly, but not particularly important.” Modern audiences would disagree with this assessment as it is a perennial favourite of orchestras and audiences
Summer Centenary Concert 2027
Our final concert of the season is our Centenary Concert and for this we are going big. We begin with Brahms' Academic Festival Overture, composed as a tribute to the University of Breslau for awarding him an honorary doctorate. Brahms, who was known to be an ironic joker, filled his quota by creating a "very boisterous potpourri of student drinking songs à la Suppé" in an intricately designed structure made to appear loose and episodic, thus drawing on the "academic" for both his sources and their treatment.
We then perform Sinfonietta No. 2 by our composer-in-residence, Jacob Bride, whose first commission (Sinfonietta No. 1) was premiered by this orchestra over twenty years ago.
Finally we join with Rochester Choral Society; The Bradstow Singers; Maidstone Choral Union; East Malling Singers; East Coast Chamber Choir; and the Choir of The Rochester Grammar School for Beethoven's monumental 9th Symphony, the "choral". Joined by soloists Lizzie Searle; Tabitha Reynolds; Ed Hughes; and Jack Holton, this promises to be a spectacular performance of one of the greatest works in the classical repertoire and a fitting way to celebrate our 100th anniversary.