Easter concert 2023

Friday, 31st March, at 7.30
​Holy Trinity Church, Rothwell, NN14 6BQ

​For our Easter concert we performed Antonín Dvořák's Stabat Mater ("The mother was standing ... sorrowful, beside the cross"), a 13th century hymn about Mary's anguish as her son Jesus was crucified. By its nature it's rather different from his Mass in D, which we performed for Christmas 2019, but our aim again was to bring out the beauty of Dvořák's music.

Ian summed it up afterwards in his message to the choir: "Congratulations for your notable (!) contributions to an excellent performance of the Dvorak last night. What a stunning piece, and whilst the text is somewhat unremitting, in Dvorak’s hand the work achieves a great variety of textures and colours, and is ultimately transformational, plainly a work of great sincerity which has been a pleasure to work at and discover with you.
A good set of youngsters on the solos, and Richard on the organ, all helped to get us to the expressive heart of the music, which is what I had wanted and asked for, so well done."

Our organist was Dr Richard Dunster-Sigtermans.
Richard works as an organist, accompanist, conductor and teacher and is a graduate of the RCM and the universities of London and Birmingham, holding a PhD in the performance practice of British organ music. He taught in independent schools for over 30 years and was until 2012 Director of Music at Rugby School; he is Director of Music of Rugby Parish Church and ABRSM’s Chief Theory Moderator, and former examiner of grades, diplomas and jazz for ABRSM.

We were also pleased to have four fantastic soloists to sing with us.

Soprano: Alexandra Eve Wynne  graduated from Royal Birmingham Conservatoire of Music in 2012 with a BMus(Hons) in Vocal and Operatic Studies, having
undertaken some of her training at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Lyon, France. She is the Director of Choirs at Work Ltd, an award-winning company providing choral training to organisations across the UK, as well as a choral director and singing teacher at
Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Junior Department, Elmhurst School of Dance (in association with Birmingham Royal Ballet), and King Edward VI Five Ways Grammar School. Alexandra held a Choral Scholarship at St Martin-
in-the-Fields in London and has been a choral lay clerk at St Chad’s Cathedral in Birmingham since 2008, where she also co-runs a choral outreach programme for young singers. Alexandra was a member of Genesis Sixteen (The Sixteen’s choral training programme led by Harry Christophers) and now performs regularly as a soloist and ensemble singer.

Alto: Hope Pugh is a Mezzo-Soprano from rural Hereford and now based in Birmingham. Hope completed a BMus(Hons) in Vocal Studies at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire in 2022, studying with the world-renowned operatic soprano Amanda Roocroft with a scholarship. Hope has a particular interest in Historical Performance and Choral and Consort singing.
Hope is currently an Alto Lay-clerk at St. Philip's Cathedral, Birmingham and is part of The Sixteen's Young Artists Programme: Genesis Sixteen. Hope was the Ex Cathedra Alto Student Scholar for 2021/2022 and has performed with them in many concerts all over the UK, and remains part of the choir. She was the first female Alto Choral Scholar at Worcester Cathedral in 2019/20 and held an Alto Scholarship at St. Chad's Cathedral, Birmingham (2019-2021) .
From a young age she was involved with many choirs in Herefordshire such as: Hereford Choral Society, Hereford Cathedral Voluntary Choir, the Three Choirs Festival, Hereford Gilbert and Sullivan Society and held an Alto Choral Scholarship at Holy Trinity Church, Hereford.

Tenor: Benjamin Thompson was born in Birmingham, and began his singing career as a chorister at Birmingham Cathedral, before leaving for Durham University where he read Music. Whilst at University, he sang as a Choral Scholar with the St. John’s and University Chapel Choirs for a year, before filling the role of Tenor Choral Scholar at Newcastle Cathedral for the remainder of his studies.
Benjamin returned to Birmingham Cathedral as a Lay Clerk in 2021, where he works as a freelance musician. Recent solo performances include Handel Messiah with Birmingham Cathedral; Charpentier Messe de minuit pour Noël with Sutton Coldfield Choral Society; Dvořák Stabat Mater with the Birmingham Bach Choir.

Bass: At 28, Charles Murray has recently finished his studies at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire when he studied with Yvonne Sandison and Paul Wingfield graduating with a distinction.
Charles’ first degree was from the University of Huddersfield where he graduated with a first-class honours degree in music, majoring in performance. While studying he was under the tutorship of Internationally renowned opera singers Andrew Slater and Rachel Nicholls. During his time in Yorkshire, he held the position of bass choral scholar at Bradford Cathedral for 2 years.
In February 2020, Charles undertook the role of Don Giovanni is Leeds Youth Opera's production of the Mozart opera and was awarded the 2021 LeedsCAN Guild award for best leading male.
More recently, Charles has sung roles with Hull Urban Opera in their production of 2 short operatic pieces, Louis Mander’s Whistle and I’ll Come to you, my Lad and Lente Verelst’s Crocodile.
Charles' most recent highlight has been singing in the 2022 Waterperry Opera Festival as one of their Young Artists in their production of Le Nozze Di Figaro.

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