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About Us |
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Formed in 1982, the Cecilian Singers is a chamber choir numbering some thirty mixed voices whose broad repertoire includes music from the Renaissance to the present day. Based in Leicester, they owe their success to the quality of past and present Music Directors, Malcolm Goldring, Brian Kay and Jeremy Jackman. The choir was formed from a group of highly committed singers who have had wide experience of choral singing and many also have a high reputation as soloists. Choir repertoire includes new works written especially for them by contemporary composers. These include “English Folk Song Suite” by Roger Harvey (Philip Jones Brass ensemble) and “Bouquet” - a suite of Czech Folk Songs by Antonin Tucapsky for English Guitar Quartet and Choir. Commissioned works include “Cecilia Ni Sa” by Francis Silkstone, based on Indian Ragas and Jeremy Jackman’s piece “The Great God Pan” written for the 2006 Celebrity Concert with guests, Emma Johnson and The group has performed with such celebrities as The Cambridge Buskers, Fairer Sax, Ian and Jennifer Partridge, Maryetta and Vernon Midgley, Peter Skellern, 2006 concerts included participation in the Festival of Choirs at De Montfort Hall and a hugely enjoyable association with Stoneygate School Choir performing Jeremy Jackman’s ‘Sticky-Wacky-Steely-Rock-Grip-Chop-Bounce!’ During the last ten years, the choir has toured Northern Germany, Northern Italy , Belgium and Austria . They also perform concerts in the beautiful Baroque Church at Great Witley, Worcestershire. Glowing reviews followed their performances in “Millennium Sacrum Music Festival 1999” in Valencia, Spain where they were invited to represent Great Britain. Other concerts in 1999 included the first performance outside London of Jeremy Jackman’s new English version of Bach’s “St. John Passion”. |
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Jeremy Jackman sometimes describes himself as a “poacher turned gamekeeper”, though the switch from singer to conductor was never absolutely clear-cut. He has been conducting choirs of one sort or another since he was 14; and even as a member of The King’s Singers he found time in an extraordinarily busy schedule to keep his hand(s) in here and there. When he left The King’s Singers in 1990 the Cecilian Singers were the first choir of which he became the permanent Music Director. “I feel that I now have a huge advantage when I address any piece of choral music”, he says. “I know what I want a piece to sound like, and as a result of all those years as a professional singer I can show the choir how to achieve it.” |
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The partnership between Jeremy and the Cecilian Singers has been growing and flourishing for 18 years, and nobody seems inclined to halt the process. Jeremy has been Chorus Master of the London Philharmonic Choir and the Belfast Philharmonic. He is now the Director of Music for the English Baroque Choir and Chorus Master of OSJ Voices. He also conducts the Jay Singers from Norfolk, with whom the Cecilians have occasionally joined forces. He is frequently invited to be a guest conductor in the UK and abroad. He is also a noted composer, editor and translator and his work is publish ed by Faber, OUP, Music Sales and Stainer & Bell.
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Anne Marshall has wide musical experience as a singer, composer, arranger and conductor as well as a full-time teacher of music in secondary schools. She is a music graduate of Liverpool University, where she also studied singing with Doreen Wedgewood, achieving the LRAM diploma. She taught in Cheshire and then in London, where she performed extensively as a choral and solo singer in many groups, including the Michael Brewer Singers, Hampstead Parish Church, and the Pegasus Chamber Choir, specialising in contemporary music. |
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She was involved in TV and radio broadcasts, recordings and prestigious performances on the South Bank in London. A member of the Cecilian Singers since 1994, she now acts as deputy conductor and repetiteur. The Cecilians and many other choirs regularly perform her arrangements and compositions. Some of her arrangements of popular songs have featured on Radio 2’s ‘Friday Night is Music Night’. Anne has performed regularly with the Cecilians and other groups in the Midlands and in the Choir of the Orchestra of St John’s Smith Square, London. Anne was Head of Music at the Vale of Catmose College, Oakham from 1997 to 2006 and is currently Director of Music at Stoneygate School. Anne is also an experienced examiner at both GCSE and at A-Level with OCR and in 2003 was appointed to the panel of examiners for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music. |
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