Founded in 2005 by local composer, Patrick Harrex, we’re an instrumental group, currently directed by Yajie Ye, that rehearses once a month on a Sunday afternoon in the Brighton area and gives public concerts.
New members – whatever their instrument – are always very welcome. Your first rehearsal is free of charge. (See Membership and Contacts below for full details.)
Looking forward: future plans and concerts
We plan to collaborate with New Music Brighton for a concert in autumn 2026. The programme is set to feature Nightly Dreams by Martyn C Adams, CoMA Chaconny by Phil Baker, Rondo by John Petley and The Everyday (Often Gets in the Way) by Paul G. Terry. Further collaboration is planned with Brighton Guitar Group for 2027.
Musicians wanted!
We are actively recruiting new players and now is the perfect time to join.
Many of our players compose for the ensemble and regular workshops with composers provide a great insight into the composition process.
Join us! All instruments are welcome—genuinely no restrictions, though we’d especially love to hear from viola, bass wind, oboe, saxophone, brass, horn, cello, and double bass players.
Interested in attending a free taster session to see if this is for you? Email sussex@coma.org and we’ll be in touch.
Membership fee
Subscription rates for membership of CoMA Sussex from April 2025 to March 2026 are:
OR:
OR:
This includes a contribution towards the costs of running CoMA as a national organisation (including administration of the library and events).
We meet once a month on a Sunday, 2:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. Our rehearsal venue is the Recital Room at the University of Sussex (just South of the Students’ Union shop in Falmer House).
These are the upcoming rehearsal dates:
Email: sussex@coma.org
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Yajie Ye is a London-based Chinese conductor whose work spans contemporary music, choral-orchestral repertoire, and creative production projects. A recipient of conducting fellowships and scholarships from organisations including Cortona Sessions for New Music, Divertimento Ensemble, and Mostly Modern Festival, Yajie is the co-founder and Music Director of Pavilion Ensemble, which she has led since 2021. She has worked with a diverse range of ensembles in workshops, including the Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra, Crouch End Festival Chorus, the Hard Rain Soloist Ensemble, NEW Sinfonia, Opera de Baugé, and AltreVoci Ensemble. In 2025, she served as Guest Conducting Programme Director at the South China Contemporary Creative Music Institute. In 2026, she joined the Three Choirs Festival as Assistant Conductor to Adrian Partington and participated in Bled Contemporary Music Week as a conductor.
Passionate about championing new music, Yajie has conducted many premieres and collaborated extensively with living composers through performance, recording, and education projects. She is currently completing a PhD in Music at King’s College London, where her research explores collaboration in conducting and recording practice. Her fieldwork has included interviews with leading composers and practitioners, among them Sir James MacMillan and Sir George Benjamin. She is also a composer and arranger, with recent performances of her original and arranged works at the Cockpit Theatre and the Conservatorio di Musica G. Martucci.
We like playing in varied venues and enjoy collaborating …
Over the years, we’ve played at the East Sussex Music Centre and Lancing College, and several times as part of the Adur Arts Live Festival in Shoreham-by-Sea. We’ve given concerts in partnership with the lively student contemporary music group at Chichester University and workshops in collaboration with Worthing’s Revolutionary Music Group. In 2012, under Adam Swayne‘s directorship, we collaborated with the Southampton Concert Orchestra in Gavin Bryars’s The Sinking of the Titanic at Southampton Guildhall.
You can hear some of our earlier performances here.
2018 to 2019
In September 2018, under the directorship of Steve Dummer, we performed in St John’s Smith Square, London, as part of CoMA’s 25th Anniversary celebrations. As well as having our own spot, we had great fun playing along with ensembles from Berlin, Maastricht and the UK.
At the Friends’ Meeting House in Brighton in November 2018, we collaborated with New Music Brighton to give first performances of new works that we’d previously workshopped with their composers, together with pieces by members of our ensemble. Out of this came an exciting video collaboration with John Crix and François DeVille in summer 2019.
2019 to 2020
In October 2019, we gave a concert at West Dean College of Arts and Conservation, an amazing place, hosted by composer-in-residence, Mary Hampton. To suit the location, we focused on pieces relating to the visual arts, including two world premieres. In November, we played as part of the Adur Arts Live festival in the lovely Norman church of St Mary de Haura in Shoreham-by-Sea.
Our big achievement in March 2020 was a weekend of contemporary music making at St Mary’s Church, in Brighton’s Kemptown, as part of CoMA’s Festival of Contemporary Music for All 2020. Other amateur musicians joined us to rehearse and perform alongside members of professional contemporary music group, The Riot Ensemble. Four public concerts featured pieces written specially for our ensemble and for the festival.
2022
In March 2022, we returned to performing for the first time since the Covid pandemic started. We enjoyed a fantastic day sharing our passion for contemporary music with Brighton, Hove and Sussex Sixth Form College (BHASVIC) music students for the Festival of Contemporary Music for All 2022. We were led by composer and conductor, Lucy Callen. The day took a workshop approach and culminated in a concert. BHASVIC students and staff impressed us with their energy and enthusiasm.
John Crix joined us again, bringing video material he’d developed to complement some of our pieces. Specialist software allowed John to manipulate and transform his film sequences in real time to be displayed as an organic part of the performance. In so doing, he entered the world of flexible tempo and improvisation. ‘My laptop is becoming yet another instrument in the ensemble,’ said John, ‘and, like the other players, I’m learning to be alert to signs and cues from our conductor and the instrumentalists around me’.
2023
We were thriled to welcome Lucy Callen as our new director and performed three exciting concerts in 2023. Performances included music by Colin Riley, Tansy Davies, Gregory Rose, Lucy Callen, Paul Terry, Elspeth Brooke, Diego Monsalve, Naomi Pinnock, and Lluís Nadal, plus others. Our first post-lockdown concert was at One Church Brighton, Gloucester Place, on Sunday 30 April. We then performed during CoMA’s 30th Anniversary Weekend, 15-16 July 2023 at St John’s Smith Square, London. Autumn 2023 saw us perform at the Adur Arts Live Festival in Shoreham-by-Sea.
2024
In March 2024, CoMA Sussex performed in two collaborative concerts with CoMA London, at BHASVIC, Hove and at Queen Mary University of London, as part of CoMA’s Festival of Contemporary Music for All 2024. This included world premiere performances of Uri Agnon’s March and Jasmine Morris’ Rove.
2025
We were delighted to work with composer Franklyn Oliver as part of the CoMA Bespoke project. Franklyn composed a bespoke and inclusive composition for CoMA Sussex, Banishing the Boggart of Clayton Hall, and mentored ensemble members in composition. The project culminated in a public performance at Covent Garden’s Dragon Hall on Saturday 14 June 2025. We also workshopped The End and Four Part Harmony with composer Elif Karlidag.
On 25 October 2025, CoMA Sussex performed at St Mary de Haura church in Shoreham-by-Sea as part of the Adur Arts Live Festival. The programme included many works by local composers from New Music Brighton, alongside CoMA Open Score repertoire: Three Conjugations by our Founder, local composer Patrick Harrex, Seascape by Mary Offer, Forest Interludes by Declan Molloy, Feverish by Chris Gander, Nightly Dreams by Martyn C Adams, a revised orchestration of Rondo by John Petley and The End by Elif Karlidag. We also performed new works by CoMA Sussex members who had been mentored under the CoMA Bespoke project: Frère Jacques Variations by Samuel Hiroki Banks, A very short ride in a fast machine by Derek Hill and Stationery Suite by Diego Monsalve.
2026
CoMA Sussex performed at the Brady Arts and Community Centre in London in as part of the CoMA Festival. The programme featured Impact and Reflection by Diego Monsalve and Glacier by Eleanor Alberga. Together with CoMA London and CoMA Singers, we also performed Marathon, a newly-commissioned work by Alice Chance.
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