Hertford Choral Society is a friendly and welcoming non-auditioned community choir of over 120 members, normally performing four concerts each season at All Saints’ Church in Hertford. Due to the retirement of the current post holder, we have a vacancy for a new Music Director starting in September 2021.

HCS regularly performs major works from across the choral repertoire, typically with professional soloists and orchestras, alongside lighter programmes for creative and varied summer concerts as well as annual Christmas concerts. Our members range from experienced to novice singers, all sharing the love of singing and aspiring to high standards.

We are seeking a Music Director to work at a professional level who is looking to make the choir their own and provide leadership to continue the development of the choir.  Essential requirements of the role include:

  • Experience of conducting amateur choirs for a number of years;
  • Experience of conducting varied choral repertoire, including major works with orchestra and soloists;
  • Excellent knowledge of singing;
  • An appreciation of amateur music making and an understanding of how to enable a community choir such as HCS to perform at its best;
  • The ability to set and achieve high standards of singing through encouragement and a positive approach;
  • The ability to plan varied and interesting concert programmes.

We rehearse with a professional accompanist on Tuesday evenings at Sele School in Hertford (7.30 to 9.45pm), which is walking distance from Hertford North Station. Additional pre-concert and Saturday workshop rehearsals are also scheduled.

You can read more about the choir, see our repertoire and listen to some recordings through our website: www.hertfordchoral.org.uk.

For a full candidate pack and to ask any questions, please contact Sabine Stanley on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..  Applications should be made by email to the same email address by 1st March 2021.

The major strands of Derek's career have been choral conducting and singing. He conducts choirs both large and small and has been Musical Director of the Hertford Choral Society for many years. He has been founder and director of chamber choirs in Harlow, Hertford and St Albans. He has directed four performances at the Royal Albert Hall, London with well over 850 performers in Britten's War Requiem, Mahler's Eighth Symphony, Verdi's Requiem and Berlioz's Grande Messe des Morts. These three concerts have raised around £120,000 for a charity working for the blind.

Derek has also directed a number of 'Bring It and Sing It' performances, many of which have been in support of charities. He was invited to direct a Royal Gala concert for Princess Alexandra as part of a fund-raising programme for the local Princess Alexandra hospital in Harlow.

With the Hertford Choral Society, Derek has worked with a number of distinguished British orchestras and soloists. He has also been responsible for several initiatives with the Hertford Choral Society with a particular focus on developing young musicians (a student conductor scheme in association with several London conservatoires), improving the training of singers (an award-winning coaching scheme) and encouraging young people to gain the 'large choir' experience (Bursaries at local schools).

Derek's musical career began as a chorister at Salisbury Cathedral. He won a scholarship to Bradfield College and then an Organ Scholarship to St Edmund Hall, Oxford University. From there he gained a music degree and his FRCO (Fellowship of the Royal College of Organists). For many years after that, Derek was the main singer (and bass rebec player) with the St George's Canozona - a small group that specialised in Medieval and early Renaissance music.  With that group, Derek recorded for many of the major companies in the UK as well as giving recitals in and around London including at the Wigmore Hall and the Purcell Room on the South Bank.

Derek can be contacted at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Charlie Penn-Jones graduated from the University of Birmingham where he studied piano with Joseph Middleton. He maintains a busy freelance timetable as a versatile young musician specialising in work with choirs of all ages and abilities. Charlie is a Britten-Pears Young Artist, previously joining the music staff for Grimes on the Beach in Aldeburgh, and performing on organ conducted by Semyon Bychkov. On stage, he has appeared in Orpheus, an original piece devised and performed by Little Bulb Theatre, and as Keyboard 1 in an exciting new orchestration of Threepenny Opera for the renowned Salzburg festival. He has even made a brief appearance on the BBC’s The One Show, teaching Lee Mack some basic piano vamping!

Alongside his work with Hertford Choral Society, Charlie is the Music Director of Phoenix Chorale, Cambridge - an auditioned SATB choir for young singers, and Assistant Director of Cantate Youth Choir. He is also accompanist to Ely Consort and teaches piano at the Stephen Perse Foundation, where he is also in charge of several boys choirs. He currently works for the Voices Foundation as a choral specialist, and can regularly be found playing various keyboard instruments with the orchestra of Sinfonia Viva.

Whilst living in Birmingham Charlie was Director of Stone Choral Society and a visiting tutor at the Birmingham School of Acting. He is in demand as a recital accompanist and has experience working with students at both the University of Birmingham and the Birmingham Conservatoire. He has also worked with a number of renowned professional soloists including Sir Willard White and Wendy Dawn Thompson. Charlie’s abilities and willingness to tackle any style of music have led him to work with many prestigious musical organisations including the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Armonico Consort and the national singing programme, Sing Up! He has also assisted in the running of the Choral and Choral Conducting courses at the international Sherborne Summer School of Music and regularly directs very popular singing courses for the Cambridge Holiday Orchestra Association.

Charlie can be contacted at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.