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About Us |
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THE CECILIAN SINGERS is a mixed-voice chamber choir of thirty members based in Leicester, whose broad repertoire includes music from the Renaissance to the present day.
The choir was formed in 1982 from a group of highly committed singers. All members have wide experience of choral singing and many have well-earned reputations as soloists in their own right. Since being established the group has performed with many celebrities well known in the musical world, including The Cambridge Buskers, Fairer Sax, Ian & Jennifer Partridge, Maryetta & Vernon Midgley, Peter Skellern, Rebecca Carrington, The Goldstone Duo, The Temperance Seven, Emma Kirkby & Anthony Rooley, Martyn Hill & Julie Moffat and The Midland Baroque Ensemble. Other guests have included East Midlands musicians, the saxophonist Alistair Parnell, and the accompanists John Keys and Neville Ward. In 1999 the Singers were honoured to give the first performance outside London of Jeremy Jackman’s new English version of Bach’s “St. John Passion”. |
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The Singers’ reputation and success have also rewarded them and their audiences with choral works specially written for them, including Roger Harvey of the Philip Jones Brass ensemble, and Antonin Tucapsky. Commissioned works include “Cecilia Ni Sa” by Francis Silkstone, based on Indian Ragas, and Jeremy Jackman’s “The Great God Pan”, the latter written for the 2006 concert with special guests Emma Johnson & John Lenehan.In 2003 the Cecilians celebrated their 21st anniversary with a concert featuring Black Dyke Band with presenter Brian Kay. Concerts from the 2007 and 2008 seasons highlight the diverse repertoire of the Singers. Established works included performances of Scarlatti's 'Stabat Mater' and Brahms's 'German Requiem' with The North Cotswold Chamber Choir with Barry & Nicola Rose on organ and piano. More modern works include an enjoyable association with Stoneygate School Choir performing Jeremy Jackman’s ‘Sticky-Wacky-Steely-Rock-Grip-Chop-Bounce!’, as well as participation in the Festival of Choirs at De Montfort Hall. The Cecilians continue to maintain contact with Jeremy’s choir in Norfolk, The Jay Singers, and also look forward to a reunion with Lincoln Chorale. In addition the Singers regularly participate in the Leicester Early Music Festival, at one of their appearances receiving great acclaim for their performance of Purcell’s ‘Dido & Æneas’ accompanied by The Cecilian Academy. |
During the last 12 years the choir has undertaken several foreign tours and entertained audiences in northern Germany, northern Italy, Spain, Belgium and Austria. The highlight of the 2009 tour of Paris was a concert performed in Notre Dame Cathedral. The Singers’ latest CD, “For All Seasons”, is now available to buy. For further information please contact the Secretary. The Singers owe much of their acclaim to the quality of Music Directors past and present. For the early years they were guided by Malcolm Goldring and Brian Kay, and for the past twenty years they have continued to thrive under the direction of Jeremy Jackman. However, the success wouldn’t be possible without the dedication and commitment of the thirty members themselves. |
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Jeremy Jackman Suddenly – and doesn’t time fly when you are enjoying yourself – I find that this is my 20th season as the Cecilian Singers’ Musical Director. Tradition demands that I take a nostalgic trip back in time to those early days of our relationship when I had my own hair and teeth and could move about pretty freely. My abiding memory of those first rehearsals and concerts was not, I’m afraid, a musical one: rather, a matter of identity. I seemed to spend much of my time trying to work out which of the men was not called ‘Brian’. I the end, I could only sort it out the other way round; I called them all ‘Brian’ and waited for those who were called something else to put me right. Inevitably over 20 years some members have gone, and been replaced by others. Remarkably, there are three singers in today’s group who came, went and came back again! This says more than any words of mine about the spirit of the ensemble. Over the years, in addition to the usual round of concerts, recitals, after-dinner entertainments and the like, we have made three recordings, broadcast on the radio, and undertaken tours outside the UK. (We once got as far as Italy before the authorities caught up with us.) One of the Cecilians, who recently took on a technically demanding and very exposed solo, told me that she was only able to do it because the rest of the group had been so supportive. On the night she was a star. ‘Nuff said.
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It was always likely that our relationship would succeed. After all, the first 20 years of my career in music were spent as a singer, and while a fair share of recital and oratorio opportunities came my way, it was the ensemble work that I loved. Those I sang for included the BBC Northern Singers, Westminster Cathedral Choir and fledgling versions of the Tallis Scholars and The Sixteen. All this culminated in a wonderful ten years as a member of the King’s Singers with whom I toured the globe several times over, singing in the world’s most prestigious concert halls, and making countless recordings and broadcasts. Yet increasingly I knew that the conductor in me was merely biding his time, and 1990 seemed as good a time as any to change the emphasis. The Cecilians were the first to appoint me as their Musical Director, and unless they are collectively being extraordinarily reticent, nobody seems inclined to halt the process of growing musically together. Along the way the Belfast Philharmonic Choir and the London Philharmonic Choirs have fallen into and out of my life, and I am currently the Musical Director of the English Baroque Choir and Chorus Master of OSJ Voices (the choir of the Orchestra of St. John’s). I am a published composer and arranger, and the Cecilians (do they have a choice?) sing some of my stuff. I am often asked to coach other ensembles here and abroad. The polite name for these exercises is ‘workshops’ but I usually refer to them as ‘interfering with other people’s choirs’. In all of this, my work with the Cecilian Singers is a constant thread, a road with – apparently – no horizon: and as I travel to a Cecilians rehearsal from my North London home, I think exactly the same thing about the M1. |
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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 to diploma level with Doreen Wedgewood. 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. She was involved in TV and radio broadcasts, recordings and prestigious performances on the South Bank in London. |
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Anne performs regularly with the Cecilians and other groups in the Midlands and is also accompanist for the City of Leicester Male Voice Choir.Anne was Head of Music at the Vale of Catmose College, Oakham from 1994 to 2006 and in September 2006 was appointed as Director of Music at Stoneygate School. |
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