West Sussex Philharmonic Choir offer Handel’s Theodora
Jonathan Lucas Wood, new musical director with the West Sussex Philharmonic Choir, is loving the work they are doing together.
Their next concert – Jonathan’s own programming – will see them present Handel’s Theodora on Saturday, April 25 in St Mary's Parish Church, Horsham at 7pm. Tickets £20 online from TICKETLIGHT.
“I joined in September,” Jonathan says. “I auditioned for the role of musical director in May 2025. Funnily enough, the previous music director was someone I was in a youth choir with when I was a teenager so actually he reached out to me.
“I started last September and the first impressions that I had were really good. I was looking for a choir since I finished my Masters in choral conducting in 2022, and I was really impressed by the quality of the choir in terms of how they sing but also just how friendly they were and also how organised the committee was. As a musician coming in, you don't want to take on more than the music really! And they were great. I was really impressed with them, and their membership seemed to be thriving. One of the first things I did was to send out a questionnaire, and I got lots of positive feedback about my predecessor. It was a real dream to come in when they were working well and had good numbers.”
Jonathan has taken the view that if it isn't broken, then you don't try to fix it: “But ultimately every musical director has their own style and I would not want to get away from my own personality and who I am as a conductor. But I studied with Bob Chilcott and he said something that really stayed with me. He said: ‘I don't go into choirs to change their sound.’ That really struck me. I think some choral directors have a really preconceived idea of what the choir should sound like but I think one of the great joys is that it is a coming together of many, many different voices. I think the first thing you have to do is listen. You don't go in all guns blazing. You take a step back and you listen to what they're doing and you work with that. But at the same time I think I have very high standards, and I think I have challenged them since I started. And they are rising to that challenge. They are people that have careers in other industries but they are talented singers. They are good but they also want to have fun, and I think we've managed to do that – to have fun at the same time as we create.”
Jonathan inherited a concert programme before Christmas but from the Christmas choral concert in December, the programme has been his own. Handel’s Theodora is his choice.
“I think one of the key things I look for when I am thinking of programme repertoire is why is it relevant to today. There are diehard fans that will always come to our concerts but at the same time we need to be attracting new audiences, and I think the way to do that is to link the pieces in a way that shows that they are relevant today.
“This is a story about a Christian martyr. She was persecuted by the Roman heathens for her religious beliefs, and that's a tale as old as time. You can apply that to today and you can think of people who are being persecuted for their religious beliefs: we're seeing a worrying rise in anti-semitism and islamophobia across the world and Christians are also still persecuted in many countries for their faith."
“So what you do is you frame the concerts in a way that shows that the story is relevant to today's emotions. It's about helping people to see that connection.
“It is a great story. It's a complex story of love and faith, and one of the most interesting things is the chorus takes on the role of both the Roman heathens and also the Christians. We've had great fun characterising the differences between the two factions, and it is very interesting that Handel wrote the music very differently for those two groups.”
Leader – Conor Gricmanis; Orchestra – Noxwode; Theodora – Helena Moore; Irene – Bernadette Johns; Septimius – Nathan Vale; Didymus – Francis Gush; and Valens – John Rhys Liddington.