| Sunday 8th March (page top) St Andrew's Parish Church, Farnham 7.30pm The Festival opens with a fanfare and recital from Michael Chapples Trumpet Ensemble. Alton College's New Music Group will perform, as will All Hallows' Choir. The Farnham Rock Choir make their second appearance at the Farnham Festival, and the combined secondary schools of Weydon, The Wavell and Heath End will perform a new work by Elizabeth Winters, ‘Pilgrims Tales’, about the Pilgrims Way which passes through the town. Click here to read more about Elizabeth Winters. Monday 9th March (page top) St Andrew's Parish Church, Farnham 7.30pm An evening of Choirs and Orchestras. The Farnham Junior Girls and Boys Choirs will perform together with St Nicholas Senior Schools Orchestra and Senior Chamber Choir. Gilly Murray’s Opus 1 and Opus 2 String Orchestras also make a welcome return in 2009. Tuesday 10th March (page top) The Great Hall, Farnham Maltings 7.30pm The Just So Singers, who took part in their first Farnham Festival in 2005, and in 2007 performed their first Farnham Festival Commission, composed by Paul Ayres, ‘Just So Songs,’ return to perform in the Great Hall. St Nicholas School, who in the past have performed in the earlier festival-week concerts at St Andrews Parish Church are seen tonight in the Maltings for the first time. The William Cobbett unit will present a percussion group. Wednesday 11th March (page top) The Great Hall, Farnham Maltings 7.00pm The main work is to be performed by the 200 strong Combined Infants Schools Choir is a new Commission entitled The Moon Thieves. The wok is based on the book of the same title by Sandra Horn, and has been arranged for voices and piano, with percussion parts. Composed by Ruth Kenward, the work will include at least eight musical items, of which two will be choreographed for dance. Ruth Kenward's musical adaptation of Sandra Horns book ‘Tattybogle’ was performed by the Infants Schools Combined Choir at the 2007 Farnham Festival. It was not a first performance, but was an enormous success and also the first time that the writer had had the opportunity to see the work performed. "I had the great pleasure seeing my story brought to life by all those wonderful children" wrote Sandra Horn afterwards. This evening will conclude with the Steel Pans from Farnham Heath End and More House School, Frensham. Thursday 12th March (page top) The Great Hall, Farnham Maltings 7.00pm Barfield School musicians are to perform an orchestral selection. The concert will also feature a senior dance group from Guildford College (who are studying for a National Diploma in Performing Arts-Dance), the Cantamus Chamber Choir from Frensham Heights, and groups from Heath End and Weydon Schools. Friday 13th March (page top) The Great Hall, Farnham Maltings 7.00pm The 180 strong Combined Junior School Choir will perform first and will be followed by the Alton College Jazz Band. (It is tradition for a group of senior musicians to perform on the evenings when the younger massed infants and junior choirs have performed in order for them to see the musical opportunities available to them when they progress to the senior schools and colleges.) Friday 13th March (page top) The Cellar Bar, Farnham Maltings 8.30pm Four and five piece bands from Alton College Jazz Band, Surrey County Youth Jazz Orchestra, More House and All Hallows Schools perform in this year's Jazz Cafe. The programme will include a new commission by John Myhill which will be performed by More House School. John is an international prize winning composer and multi-instrumentalist. He was commissioned by the 2007 Farnham Festival to compose a jazz piece entitled ‘Farnham Suite’ which was performed by the Surrey County Youth Jazz Orchestra in that year's earlier evening massed Junior School Choir concert. Saturday 14th March (page top) The Great Hall, Farnham Maltings 10.00am A repeat of Friday evenings concert by the Combined Infants School Choir. A short performance will also be given by children of Dance Warehouse. Saturday 14th March (page top) The Great Hall, Farnham Maltings 11.30am A repeat of Friday evenings concert by the Combined Junior School Choir. A short performance will also be given by children of Dance Warehouse. Saturday 14th March (page top) The Great Hall, Farnham Maltings 7.30pm The Festival Finale will include performances by the Surrey County Youth Orchestra, the Farnham Youth Choir, Surrey County Percussion Ensemble, and Surrey County Youth Jazz Orchestra. This is the first time the Surrey County Youth Orchestra have performed in a Farnham Festival since 1971 and the Farnham Festival is delighted to welcome them back. Their performance will include a newly commissioned combined work with the County Percussion Group. The Farnham Youth Choir (who will be celebrating 25 years since their formation in 1984) will be performing two new commissions: one by the Queens Master of Music, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, and one by former member Graham Ross. Sir Peter Maxwell Davies' piece is called Gray's Pier and (as was the case with our previous commission from him) is a setting of poetry by George Mackay Brown. The poem is a reflection by an old man of his life on this Orkney Island as he sits smoking his pipe on Gray's pier. The sound of gentle waves breaking is heard from time to time throughout. | 
