Each year, EXTRA INFORMATION & UPDATES for the choir in the run-up to, during and after the festival appear here between the time when singers enrol and the end of the festival!
….. (and please check in here often for updates)

** NEW ITEMS to follow BELOW re the dress code, timetable, your accommodation and meals, musical scores and editions plus WATER, DINNERS, SCHEDULES & WINE + INFO re all questions for our choir singers this summer**

2025

This is where choir singers can find updates and extra information for your participation in the
2025 SUMMER FESTIVAL CHOIR!

NEW UPDATES (contact for any questions: jo******@**************le.com)

1. Pippa and I just arrived in Seillans today (10 June 2024) and will do allocation of accommodation and a LOT of other things here over 2 weeks (in coordination with Alex (logistics in Seillans) and Rupert (re 29 July Gala and Soiree Musicale/ fundraiser launch even)t.
2. Please note that our (Pippa’s and my) intended “retirement” from admin & finance roles is unavoidably “on hold” until AFTER the 2025 festival!  ;-).
3. MAGGIE DONNELLY has kindly offered to sort easier access to the music for the a Cappella concert. Further messages about this will follow here in coming days and we will also post to the Musique-Cordiale Choir WhatsApp Group (please contact Jonathan if you are not yet a member of the group). Sorry for the delay! SEE BELOW FOR DETAILS OF WORKS TO BE SUNG (the main choral Oeuvre – for 2 concerts) is Haydn’s CREATION, to be sung this time in English. (The Bahrenreiter edition is preferred, especially for those of you who do not already have other editions in your music libraries!)
4. The 2025 festival starts with orchestra and a few soloists arriving on or before 28 JULY. Most choir members are not expected until 3 AUGUST 2025 though, if you are nearby, do please come and enjoy some of the early concerts and events. (Let us know if you would like to come early and we maybe can help with accommodation and meals before your booked arrival dates).
5. ARRIVALS & DEPARTURES: This is just to clarify dates and arrangements, especially for new Choir singers this summer (more details of which will appear in the next few weeks – and also in the Musique-Cordiale choir WhatsApp group).
6. Arrival day in Seillans is 3 August for most choir participants (except a few who have asked to arrive earlier). Preferably arrive that day in time to settle into the accommodation that we will have allocated to you. This is best if possible BEFORE DINNER when you can meet others. The first rehearsal for the choir is on the next morning (Monday 4 August). MOST choir members will try to arrive in the afternoon or early evening of 3 August. Please let us know how and roughly when you plan to arrive:
   – if you are coming by train to Les Arcs Draguignan or by plane to Nice, we can try to put you in touch with local transport or with other singers arriving around the same time if you let us know where and when you expect to arrive (you might have to wait a little for others).
   – Cars can also be rented from these locations: please let us know if you’d like to do that (useful for getting around as events are spread across the Pays de Fayence and some accommodation, though all “in Seillans”, is some way away from the rehearsal/ dinner venue). We suggest that we help put you in touch with others who may also be planning to rent so that sharing can happen easily even with people whom you do not (yet) know. Do talk to me or Pippa about these arrangements!
7. Similarly, for departure, we try to help with local arrangements on Sunday 10 August. The final concert on 9 August is followed by a communal dinner with lots of bonhomie!

We are looking forward to meeting you and/or welcoming back old friends. It is only about 2 months to go now – and Pippa and I are in Seillans and the Pays de Fayence (9 towns and nearby hills and lake) in the week ahead to try to finalise arrangements. So let us know, now or until you arrive, if you have any questions or requests!

REMINDER re key items of COSTS for choir singers (in GB pounds) in 2025, which are: 

• membership (£30 per year)
• Choir participation £420 per singer (not charged to accompaying partners etc. Children are free!) Special much-reduced fee for choir-singers who are aged 26 or under – on application: contact us.
• Food: breakfast and lunch are self catering wherever you stay (or local restaurants, pizza, cafe, bar etc.). There are plenty of sources of ingredients throughout the Pays de Fayence though mostly nt open on Sunday afternoone except for the little superarket (Huit à huit / Carrrefour Express) in Seillans when you arrive.
• Dinner : we provide an optional evening meal with (almost) unlimited wine each evening during the choir week: communal out of doors or under a big tent with other singers, soloists, players and team, usually after any evening concert – there is a concert most evenings through only 2 involve performances by the choir (or 3 if optionally also singing a cappella programme in addition to the major choral work): £225 for 6 of the 7 evenings with one (Tuesday) evening off (or £40 each)
• Accommodation:
  If you have booked, we will let you know where you will be staying BEFORE THE END OF JUNE,
  (Unfortunately this is the MOST complicated thing that we try to arrange and is in short supply locally; but we booked it in the early Spring): it varies according to what you want (we rent a variety of houses and apartments for one or 2 weeks of the festival. We book these each year and these are shared/ allocated among choir, players and team. Some have pools, houses range from 20 occupants down to one or two. We do not seek to make a profit on this part of the operation, just to cover our costs. You are welcome to find your own accommodation (or there is a local camp-site) but hotel rooms barely exist in the area, especially in the high season. Costs are unavoidably higher (usually double per person) for single-occupancy. We have rooms with shower/ bath + kitchen, living room patio space in apartment with just one or 2 beds, suites with doubles and twins in houses for 6-8 people. Some have pools – and our people can have access to pools in other houses in and around Seillans we rent if none where they stay). The best places go to earliest bookers, of course. We ask for initial deposits and staged or final payments later. Accommodation costs can range from £250 per person (double occupancy) to £ £500-1000 (single occupancy) for the week. We ask you what you want on the enrolment form and follow on phone and by email and WhatsApp (there is also a choir WhatsApp group for contact others). We try our best to allocate (and re-allocate) and match according to your requests/priorities but democracy and supply and demand can be challenging!
• Travel depends on what you want and when you book. You can arrive by train, Eurostar from London St Pancras, SNCF: 2 price levels are usually on offer (arrive St Raphael or Draguignan Les Arcs travel e.g. via Paris or Lille and Marseille, car or plane (Nice airport). We try to help with lifts/ car-shares to/ from station or airport. Taxis to/from Seillans (booked in advance through us) are about £100 per person or less if a full car is arranged. More expensive if booked at the airport. There are also very cheap buses to Seillans from Nice airport, Cannes or St Raphael at the right times of day. You can rent cheaper local car-hire through Super-U in Fayence. Otherwise all the big and small rental operators can be advance booked online and found at arrival airports and stations.
• Music: please buy your copies in advance; we do not usually supply them for the major works but may do so for smaller a cappella works. [See list below]. You can source these yourselves. see above: Pippa, Maggie and Rebecca may be able to help. We have circulated details on the CHOIR WHATSAPP GROUP, of which you should all be members (we should have invited you; please conatct Jonathan if you are not yet in it). Various other info (e.g. re travel and accommodation can be found on the group.
• Phones; remember to buy European roaming deals from your phone operator before you arrive in France. Mose accommodation has Wi-Fi and there are good 5g local services
• EXCHANGE RATES: we invoice in GB pounds and convert these to Euros, depending on your preference or location. All prices are based on the GBP sterling price that we set. Depending on how you pay, the euro price varies with live rates linked to our online Transferwise /Wise multi-currency account if you pay (as we prefer) by online bank transfers/virements or by direct debit. If you pay by card or PayPal, we typically receive funds several days later after deduction of a %age processor fee and the sum may vary according to your card-processor or PayPal rate. We reserve the right (but rarely exercise it) to change you for any processor costs or delays.
• This year’s (optional) a cappella programme will be titled: ‘2025: Anniversaries through the Ages’, with first draft of the programme featuring:
• Palestrina’s Sicut Cervus
• Blitheman’s In Pace
• Gibbons O Clap Your Hands
• Scarlatti Exulate Deo
• Coleridge-Taylor All My Stars Forsake Me
• Bennett Come Live With Me
• Satie Gymnopedie No 1

Accommodation, arrival information etc.

In June, we will be writing to everyone who has booked accommodation, providing details, addresses, arrival & parking info etc. Following final (multiple) re-revised allocations (always one of the MOST complex and daunting tasks that faces us), we are less than half way through this process so far. Please be patient; we will reach all of you by email soon.

Concert Tickets

Please book tickets – ON LINE before 3PM on the day of the concert – for all evening concerts you or your friends want to attend as audience. Choose choir tickets (free) or buy standard (or gallery or premium) tickets for friends or non-singing partners or for yourselves for any concerts before 4 August: please order tickets online for all evening concerts that you want to attend. We need you to book tickets, including free choir ones, to control audience numbers. We encourage choir members to hold back and allow paying audience members priority for standard seating. (You do not need to pay for any concert tickets for any singing participant for the “choir week, viz 3 – 9 August). Lunchtime-concerts are FREE-entry with no tickets. (NOTE: when booking free tickets for choir-singers (or others for non-singers), please note that you will be in Claviers on 7 August 2025 for the concert + dinner afterwards and coach back to Seillans. So you can’t also go to the jazz concert that evening though you might be able to join in at the end!

DRESS CODE for concerts, choir & orchestra

As in previous years: Red, white or blue tops, shirts or dresses (primary colours only – as in French flag – NOT turquoise, mauve or orange or magenta PLEASE!) Black or white trousers or skirts. NO black tops except conductor. No shorts for performers in concerts please!

Please let me know if you have any questions: Jonathan (jo******@**************le.com)

https://mailchi.mp/musique-cordiale/festival-2025-box-office-now-open-la-billetterie-est-ouverte

Tickets now available for the 21st annual Musique-Cordiale Festival, Seillans & Le Pays de Fayence, Var, Provence, France. See the details in French & English! Do join us! https://musique-cordiale.com (français & English). Note: enrolled choir singers do not need to pay for tickets during the choir week but please go to the site and book free’ choir’ tickets for the events you want to go to – apart from those in which you are performing (accompanying fiends and family do need paid tickets) 29/4/25

MORE UPDATES will follow here or via the WhatsApp choir group over the coming months and days before the festival and thereafter once you arrive in Seillans…

Still 2024 info (last year) – some applicable in 2025 too
– schedule to be revised and updated soon!

2024 Rehearsal schedule –

*(2025 schedule will be here early in July: Graham’s injury delayed this but it will be posted here ASAP)

Dinners

There will be dinners (evenings only) for choir members from 3 August to 9 August 2025 EXCEPT ONE EVENING TO BE ANNOUNCED WHEN YOU CAN HAVE AN EVENING OFF) for everyone who have purchased the ‘forfait/6-day meal deal’ when you enrolled or for individual dinners if you book – and pay – by the morning. (We do not provide lunch or breakfast on any day).

• and note that it will doubtless be HOT again this summer in the Var, will little sign of much cooling during the festival though Seillans has seen some rain in recent months – unlike the previous couple of years.
• Our evening concerts are mostly back to earlier times by popular request this year (ditto dinners) – to allow more relaxed and convivial dinners together. But outdoor concerts will again be later in the evening.
• Brits rarely remember to keep shutters shut in daytime, get up early, take siestas, stay poolside (but sun-protected), generally arrive early and slow down …. and sing soto voce, except as directed! Water instead of wine … ??
• Things to bring: INCLUDE music, sunglasses, swimming towels, sun hats and cream, pencils, mobile phones, your insurance documents…

More soon…