NEXT EVENT

St George’s Anniversary Concert

22nd February 2025 at St George’s Church, Brighton. 1pm. This is a free concert. Our second half program will feature music from the Regency period including work by Scarlatti, Cecere, and Beethoven. The first half will be presented by Brighton Consort. Ticket details from the poster below.

Brighton during the Regency period was known as a place to follow one’s fancies, have a great party, and experience the decadence of late 18th- and early 19th-century lavish living. To celebrate the 200th anniversary of St George’s Church, Kemptown, Brighton Consort and Fretful Federation present a concert of classical choral and instrumental music spanning many centuries, but all tied together by this central theme: Revelry and Delight.

Brighton Consort’s a cappella choral music is all about love and romance. Drawn from our larger programme entitled ‘Amica mea: Renaissance Love Songs’, the music in this concert is in praise of love when things are going well. None of the gloom of a broken heart here. It’s time to enjoy life and love and live it up, something Regency Brighton knew how to do!

Fretful Federation Mandolin Orchestra give us upbeat and light-hearted music from the Baroque and beyond, including pieces by Vivaldi and Beethoven, both composers who were known and loved by the party-goers in Brighton in the 18th and 19th centuries.

 

 

FORTHCOMING EVENTS

Brighton Festival Fringe Concert

May 20th 2025 at St George’s Church, Brighton.

The Fretful Federation Mandolin Orchestra in concert with renowned guitarist and lutenist, Sam Brown.
“The Eric Clapton of the lute”, Sam Brown is counted amongst of the top cordophonists of his generation, known for his imaginative and sensitive style.
Sam first learned classical guitar with the inspirational Sasha Levtov. He discovered the lute at the Royal College of Music, where he trained with Jakob Lindberg. He later studied at the Conservatorio della Svizzera Italia with Lorenzo Micheli.

For the last eight years Sam has performed internationally as a solo and ensemble player, including at Vienna’s Konzerthaus and Wigmore Hall.

PAST EVENTS

Burgess Hill

The orchestra will be returning to the Burgess Hill Festival on June 29th at 7.30 pm.

St John the Evangelist Church

Lower Church Road, Burgess Hill, RH15 9AA.

Telephone 01444 230499

Facebook FB.me/stjohnbh

Website stjohnschurchbh.org.uk

Tickets priced at £10 available online at ticketsource – https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/stjohnschurch

There will be a bar for refreshments.

 

Brighton Fringe Concert

This year our Brighton Fringe concert will take place back at our usual venue of St George’s Church on Tuesday May 21st at 7.30 pm. Program to be announced.

Chris Acquavella Concert

Fretfuls, Moonlights and an American virtuoso at St George’s!

The Fretful Federation had the pleasure and honour of hosting an excellent concert at St George’s Church Kemptown on Sunday 22 October. Playing to an enthusiastic and engaged audience that filled the seats and much of the balcony above, three diverse and entertaining sets combined to build a strong and entertaining programme.

The format was a new venture for FFMO, a winter Sunday afternoon with many visiting players and a guest soloist, and not just any guest soloist; Chris Acquavella a marvellous virtuoso mandolin player, composer and teacher from the USA, topped the bill. It had been a nail-biting time waiting to see if all of the hard work and preparation would pay off. In fact, it proved to be a gratifying success, with a large and enthusiastic crowd that cheered on the programme and the players.

A very useful funding contribution was raised for the beneficiaries of the concert, Belltree Music Therapy CIC, and it was a real pleasure to make so many useful and enjoyable connections, with other musicians, members of our community, and of course, to meet and play with Chris Acquavella was something rather special (see also our earlier report of the workshop with Chris).

The programme kicked off with a delightful set from the Moonlight Mandolin Orchestra, ably led by Hugh Boyde. There followed a set by the Fretful Federation’s own players comprising mandolin virtuoso Detlef Tewes’ first composition, Zauberperlen (Magic Pearls), followed by Leroy Anderson’s whimsical Plink Plank Plunk – always fun to play!

The set culminated in the substantial three-part suite A Shadow of Golden Dream, by David Sutton-Anderson, written 25 years ago for the FFMO and inspired by a combination of the poetry of Herman Hesse and the range of sounds produced by our mandolin orchestra. David himself travelled to be here for this performance and we were delighted that he personally introduced the piece.

Then it was time for Chris Acquavella’s solo set. Chris played several pieces from his new book and CD of etudes crafted to meet the individual needs of his students (see links in Workshop report). Chris’ outstanding playing and backstories to the pieces captivated the audience. His set was a joy to watch and hear!

Chris was then joined by the Fretfuls and all the other guest players for his intepretation of the Vivaldi Mandolin Concerto in C: an absolute treat for us all, and one that will live long in the memory. A very happy audience welcomed a very fitting encore of the lively Neopolitan piece Funiculi–Funicula by Luigi Denza.

A big thank you and congratulations to Fretful’s musical director Lindsay Stoner and the orchestra leaders from St Albans and Cambridge, together with Nicki Lewkow and Jacky Walls, who all did so much work behind the scenes to prepare such a splendid concert for all to enjoy.

BMG Festival in Cambridge

The orchestra took part in the biennial BMG Festival in Cambridge, April 5th -7th at Churchill College. Some of our members played in the British Fretted Orchestra performance on the opening night and the whole orchestra repeated our recent performance of Shadow of a Golden Dream on Sunday. During the course of the weekend members attended workshops and concert performances. This was a wonderful event with many excellent concerts and performances by other orchestras.

More information can be found here:-

BMG Festival 2024 – (bbmg.org.uk)

Brighton Fringe Concert 2023

Two Mandolin Orchestras – Brighton Fringe Concert 2023

This year we are very excited to welcome an orchestra from Holland to join us for our annual visit to the Fringe. The Fusion Mandolin Orchestra, conducted by Danielle De Rover, will just perform once during their short visit to the UK. The venue is St Mary’s Church, Kemp Town. Friday 5th May at 7.30. Join us for what will be a hugely entertaining evening. The program will include Beethoven, Bach, Coldplay, Queen and lots more.

The picture shows them on their journey from Holland on May 2nd.

Two Mandolin Orchestras – Brighton Fringe

Music and Wine

Music and Wine at St. Luke’s Brighton – Friday, 4th November.

More information from St Luke’s website. We return to the Music and Wine at St Luke’s concert series with a wonderful new program of entertaining music plus some guests from the Sussex Folk Orchestra playing accordion and cello, enhancing the unique sound of a mandolin and guitar orchestra. The programme will include an arrangement of Beethoven’s Allegretto from Symphony No. 7 as well as Seafaring Folk by Oxford-based composer Jonathan Brigg who adapted this piece especially for us.

Friday November 4th: The Fretful Federation (Mandolin Orchestra) – St Luke’s Music and Wine (musicandwineatstlukes.com)

 

Music and Wine at St Luke’s

Friday, November 4th at 7.30 pm. More information from St Luke’s website. We return to the Music and Wine at St Luke’s concert series with a wonderful new program of entertaining music plus some guests from the Sussex Folk Orchestra playing accordion and cello, enhancing the unique sound of a mandolin and guitar orchestra. The programme will include an arrangement of Beethoven’s Allegretto from Symphony No. 7 as well as Seafaring Folk by Oxford-based composer Jonathan Brigg who adapted this piece especially for us.

Friday November 4th: The Fretful Federation (Mandolin Orchestra) – St Luke’s Music and Wine (musicandwineatstlukes.com)

St Luke’s Music and Wine

St Luke’s Music and Wine

Event date:
Friday 4th October 2019 at 7.30 pm.
Details:
The Fretful Federation Mandolin Orchestra will perform The other ocean, a new composition by Esmeralda Conde Ruiz with evocative film archive material provided by Screen Archive South East. An invitation to think, feel and remember. Plus the usual eclectic and entertaining selection of mandolin orchestra material. A chance to see and hear this very exciting and unusual presentation of music and film which was written for the Making Music Adopt a Composer project.
Location:
Queens Park Road, Brighton BN2 9ZB. 

Tickets are available on the door and cost £7 / £5 concessions / free for under 16s.

More information can be found here:- https://musicandwineatstlukes.com/

Paddle Round the Pier

Paddle Round the Pier

Event date:
Saturday, July 6, 2019 – 12:30 to Sunday, July 7, 2019 – 13:15
Details:
Come and Try Mandolin and Ukulele sessions will take place on the bus from 12.30 to 1.15 on Saturday and Sunday.
Location:
Paddle HQ near West Pier, Brighton

 

Jubilee Library event

Jubilee Library event

Event date:
Friday, June 21, 2019 – 14:30 to 15:00.
Details:
The Frets will be taking part in this Make Music Day event in the library.
The whole program runs from 10 til 5 but we will play for half an hour at 2.30.
It should be a fun day, organised by Making Music..
Location:
Jubilee Library at Jubilee Street, Brighton BN1 1GE

Brighton Fringe Concert

Brighton Fringe Concert

Event date:
Tuesday, May 21, 2019 – 19:30
Back again at the Fringe with our new program which will include a performance of “the other ocean” written by Esmeralda Conde Ruiz and featuring film provided by Screen Archive South East. Find more about this on our ‘Adopt A Composer page.
Also on the program, a wide range of music spanning 16th – 20th Centuries, including Portuguese Fado, and the Brook Green Suite by Gustav Holst.
Do come for this unique experience.

Tickets from Brighton Fringe Box Office or on the door. £10 (£8 concessions)
Location:
St George’s Church, Kemptown, Brighton

St George’s Park Retirement Village

St George’s Park Retirement Village

Event date:
Tuesday, April 2, 2019 – 19:30
Our first visit to this Ditchling community.
Location:
St George’s Park Ditchling Common Burgess Hill East Sussex RH15 0SF

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