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The Plaxtol Scholars is a chamber choir which sings the length and breadth of the country. Consisting of some 26 singers, the main pre-requisite is that the voices have little or no vibrato.The choir celebrated their tenth anniversary in 2006 with a special birthday visit in the September of that year to Chichester Cathedral, the very first church to offer the choir the opportunity to sing the services. Since that day the choir has sung in many corners of the country. With over 20 cathedral and abbey churches under their belt, including St Paul’s Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, Durham Cathedral and York Minster, the Plaxtol Scholars are well versed in the rituals of sung worship in the Church of England. They sang the services in Norwich Cathedral in February and on Low Sunday (the weekend after Easter) in Winchester Cathedral. The summer will see them at Southwark Cathedral and Ely Cathedral in the Autumn. See the Events page for more details.

In 2009 the Scholars will sing in Hereford Cathedral for the first time. The choir also gives a number of concerts each year, either a cappella or with their sister ensemble, the Plaxtol Chamber Players. The Choir will make its first recording for UHRecordings in September 2008 for a Christmas release and a further recording in 2009. This year they participated in the Sevenoaks Summer Festival with a concert of folk songs and madrigals on 4th July (see below) and lead a Christmas concert for Special Olympics Great Britain on 18th December in Southwark Cathedral.

The choir members come from London, Bromley, Sevenoaks, Tunbridge Wells and Ashford areas of Kent, and also from Surrey and Sussex including Eastbourne.

Their director, Marius Carboni, was the first music graduate from Huddersfield Polytechnic to major in conducting. He has much experience in the choral field having conducted and sung in a number of other choirs. He left EMI Classics as their Head of Press 12 years ago to set up a Classical music marketing and public relations consultancy which he continues to run today. He returned to study a few years ago, and gained an MA at King’s College, London, and now lectures Music Business part-time at Hertfordshire University to both final year undergraduateand post=graduate music students.He is also researching a PhD into the provision and accessibility of Classical music in the UK.

Check the Events page to see the most up-to-date concerts and cathedral visits that The Plaxtol Scholars are singing. The choir opened the 2008 Plaxtol Music Festival in Plaxtol Church on January 26th performing Haydn's Little Organ mass and Bach's Magnificat.The concert sold out.

The choir has been performing for over 12 years and has bookings up until 2010. If you are interested in booking or joining the choir please contact Marius Carboni on + 44 (0)1732 811036 (office) or + 44 (0) 7885 753272.

Music festival return is sellout success

	Kent Messenger Friday 1st February 2008

AFTER an absence of nine years, the Plaxtol Music Festival has returned with a sellout concert.

The festival, which features several classical and jazz concerts during the year, opened on Saturday night with a concert in Plaxtol Church, near Sevenoaks, performed by the Plaxtol Scholars and Chamber Players. Their performance included pieces by JS Bach and Haydn.

Future events at the church will include a harp performance in May by Claire Jones, who regularly plays for The Prince of Wales, and a concert by cellist Julian Lloyd Webber, who performs in September.

Festival organiser and artistic director Marius Carboni said: "I was delighted with the support the village gave to the festival in making the first concert a sellout."

Mr Carboni, a former Plaxtol parish councillor, who conducted Saturday’s concert, gave up organising the festival nine years ago due to increasing work and family commitments.

"Lots of people said they would like to see it back up and running, but it was only when I stepped down from the council that I had the time to do it," he said.

Deputy Mayor of Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council, Chris Smith, officially opening the 2008 Plaxtol Music Festival, jJanuary 26th, 2008 with Marius Carboni, Artistic Director of the Festival)