A Petersfield Musical Festival maestro is pulling all the strings to give people in a Rother Valley community a festive treat.

The Rogate Choral Society – which has sung carols in the village for well over a century – will hold their Christmas Concert and Party next Tuesday evening (December 17).

And the group have been given a present by a choral supremo from across the Hampshire-Sussex border, as Mark Dancer has composed the opening work for their festive shindig in the village hall.

Ben Jonson’s carol A Hymne on the Nativity of my Saviour is one of Dancer’s contributions to the concert as he’s also composed an arrangement on Frank Gruber’s original Silent Night and a descant for Charles Wesley’s Lo! He comes with Clouds Descending.

The musical director of Petersfield Choral Society is a director of music and organist at St Peter’s Church in Petersfield, where he has given a summer series of organ recitals since 2000, and was also an official accompanist to the Petersfield Musical Festival a few years ago.

The Rogate Choral Society Christmas Concert and Party will begin at 7.30pm with a “unique evening of festive merriment” being promised by organisers.

Revellers can expect carols, songs and readings along with a buffet supper included in the princely £15 ticket price.

The Society will be led by its musical director Giles White while Dancer will accompany the performance.

Tickets are available from Rogate Post Office & Stores, One Tree Books in Lavant Street, Petersfield, or from society members and at the door.

In recent months the society appears to have grown and become noticeably younger, with new and aspiring welcomers always welcome to audition.