You cannot look far intop the current live music scene in Mid Sussex without coming across the name of Andrew Sutton who this year celebrates twenty years as Musical Director of the Mid Sussex Choir.

Born in East Grinstead and living almost all his life in the locality, Andfew read music at the University of North Wales in Bangor and his main activity - his daytime job - has been as a teacher as Hurstpierpoint College, St Leonards Mayfield and Stoker Brunswick will testify. But the totality of his service to local music has been and is considerable. He has directed and conducted numerous shows. Among the beneficiaries have been Crawley, East Grinstead and Burgess Hill Operatic Societies, the Hands On Theatre Production and the Ariel Company Theatre. He has played with the Ronnie Smith Showband and plays regularly with the Sussex Symphony Orchestra, conducting them in 2006 in the Proms in the Park Concert with Katherine Jenkins in Victoria Park, Haywards Heath, and in their Christmas Concerts in Burgess Hill and Brighton. As an instrumental performer he has delighted many audiences with clarinet and saxophone. Indeed, he and Andrew Franks have played Paul Carr's Double Saxophone Concerto with four local orchestras.

His love of choral music led to ready acceptance in 1987 of the job of Musical Director of the Mid Sussex Choir. He has been ouir inspiration for twenty years in which period he has staged over fifty concerts. Highlights for him have been peformnances of Elgar's Dream of Gerontius, Puccini's Missa di Gloria and Mozart's Requiem. Making music - one might almost say "making music happen" - is his motivation and he has been and is loved and admired by his choristers who pay tribute to his equanimity and patience, his brilliant programme selection and construction, his humour and awareness and, not least, his abilityto get the best from singers (who catch his enthusiasm even if they cannot always reach his standards!) It would be difficult to imagine a more popular conductor.

Andrew is shown below with two of our longest serving members: Joyce Whitehead on the left and Fiona Fawsett, our accompanist, on the right who have both been with the Choir since its inauguration 60 years ago.