Dear Friends
We were sad to have to say goodbye at Christmas to Olivia Shotton, our Director of Music, who guided us through the COVID lockdowns and introduced us to a lot of new music, much of it unaccompanied. Her increasing pressure of work in London has led to her having to stand down, but we were glad to have played a small part in what we are sure will be a stellar conducting career, and we wish her well for the future.
Olivia’s last concert with us was a programme of readings and carols at Sedgewick House, which equally sadly was our last in this lovely venue as its owner has decided to sell the property. We once again managed to fill all the available space and give our audience a hefty dose of Christmas cheer.
Although she was with us for only two years, Olivia made a strong impression on the choir, and we are all much better for it. She got us singing in the open air when it was allowed during the pandemic, and ensured that we were one of the first local choirs to put on a performance after lockdown. Under her baton we completed a full 12 months of singing and performing some very good concerts. She lowered our average age (and made some of us feel a lot younger!) which her successor will continue to do and she certainly put a more youthful face on the choir.
Olivia’s successor, Timothy Peters, also graduated (as she did) with an honours degree in music from Sheffield University. He too is an accomplished conductor, as well as a talented tenor and composer. Last year he was appointed Fellow of the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain and also as Musical Director of Surrey’s LGBTQIA+ Choir, Surrey Rainbow Choir. He is first and foremost a conductor of chamber choral music, but has also worked with larger ensembles, such as when he led two hundred and fifty singers from four choral societies in a performance of his composition The Golden Hour in Sheffield Cathedral, a piece commissioned by Classical Sheffield in 2019.
He has been featured as a soloist on BBC Radio 4 and regularly performs for choirs and orchestras around England including the Exon Singers, Hallam Choral Society and Hallam Sinfonia, Bakewell Choral Society and South Yorkshire Symphony Orchestra. He is also a member of the Chester Festival Chorus and Ensemble Deva, Kantos Chamber Choir and the Northern Ballet Sinfonia Orchestra, the National Youth Chamber Choir of Great Britain and the San Francisco Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra.
In his day-to-day life, Timothy teaches singing, musical production, DJ performance and the composition component of GCSE and A-level Music and conducts choirs at the City of London Freemen’s School. He also sang regularly as a lay clerk at Guildford Cathedral until the end of last year, and now performs on a freelance basis for choirs in and around London.
In the autumn of last year we were also delighted to be joined by Ian Miles as our regular practice pianist. For over 40 years Ian was a teacher of modern European languages. He is an accomplished organist, and for a number of years in the early 2000s led the Oxford Male Voice Choir.
We now have a few weeks to complete the work on our next Concert Spring: To Life on 25th March, which will be at St John's Roman Catholic Church, Horsham at 8pm. Tickets are available as usual via our website.
Looking further ahead we will restart after Easter on 13th April with our summer concert on 25th June, also at St John's Church in Horsham.
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