Welcome to The Cappella Singers web pages!
link: www.choirs.org.uk
The
Choir:
The Cappella Singers of Upminster, based in Upminster, Essex, are an
amateur, mixed voice chamber choir, with around 20 members.
The choir has been singing in Upminster and the surrounding area for
nearly 40 years, and enjoys singing both old and newer music (from Tallis to
Tavener).
Despite our name, not all our concerts are “a cappella” (unaccompanied)
– we sometimes have organ or piano accompaniment, and have sung with an
instrumental ensemble and a harp…
New members are welcome, and although it is helpful if you can
sight-read this is not essential.
Our
concerts:
We usually give 3 or more concerts each year (Spring, Summer and
Christmas), featuring a variety of music.
Refreshments are available at each concert, so you can not only hear
live choral singing, but relax and chat with the choir afterwards!
Our
Conductor:
Since September 2008, we have been very pleased to
welcome and work with our new conductor: GREG HALLAM
Greg Hallam was educated at Chetham’s School of
Music in Manchester and has just graduated from the Royal College of Music with
a BMus (Hons) degree, where he studied voice with Ashley Stafford for four
years.
Greg was a member of the National Youth Choir of
Great Britain for ten years and was Baritone section leader for several courses. He toured twice with NYC – around
Australasia, Samoa and Singapore in 2003, and Eastern Europe in 2006. He has recently been musical and pastoral
assistant for the junior choirs.
Greg has worked with Berkshire Youth Choir, Crawley
Youth Choir and ‘Sainsbury’s Choir of the Year’ winners, Cantate, as a choral
director and vocal coach.
Recently, he has sung with Philharmonia Voices,
London Voices and has toured with the Royal Academy of Music Chamber
Choir to a monastery in Neresheim, Germany.
Currently, Greg is studying for a Master of Arts in
Choral Conducting at the Royal Academy of Music, and he teaches singing at Lady
Margaret’s School in Parson’s Green.
Rehearsals:
We rehearse each Thursday evening,
during school terms, at: Trinity United Reformed Church, Station Road,
Upminster (next to Roomes Store). After each term (that is, ten rehearsals –
with one week off for half-term), we put on a concert.
As we are self-financing,
members pay a subscription – currently £40 per term.
Rehearsals are from 7.30 to
9.30, and new members are always welcome to come and join us!
Rehearsals for the next
concert begin on
Date of next concert:
Future Concert Dates:
Links:
Some Pictures: Recent Pictures of the Cappella Singers
To contact us by e-mail: pirie.ianandjill@btopenworld.com
or phone: 01708 641718.
To find out about our next
concert go to: Next Concert
To see what we have
performed recently, go to: Recent Concerts
For a record of concerts
performed during the first 25 years of the choir, when we were under the
direction of Freda Drage, go to:
Previous conductors have
been: Graham Walker (2002 – 2006), see: www.grahamwalker.org.uk
Will
Dawes (2006 – 2007), see: www.willdawes.co.uk
Huw
Morgan (2007 – 2008).
The Cappella Singers are
members of Havering Arts Council, and we gratefully acknowledge the support of:
Pinney
Rogers LLP, Solicitors,
Caffe Dolce
Vita,
These
pages are managed by Ian Pirie (e-mail address above).
This Page
Updated: May 2009.