What was your route to where you are today?
I had an excellent start in music education through an inspirational primary school teacher, who taught using the Kodaly method and Dalcroze Eurhythmics. At 14 I gained a place in the National Youth Choir, and then two years later I joined the Royal Academy of Music’s Junior department, where I studied singing and piano. I went on to study Music at Oxford University, where I was a choral scholar at The Queen’s College.
After university I needed to start earning, so despite my desire to go back to the Academy for postgraduate studies, I launched myself into the world of work. I spent a couple of years working for a small agency for classical musicians, where I gained a valuable insight into the financial and managerial elements of the music industry before I took the plunge and began freelance singing.
I cut my teeth working with Ex Cathedra in Birmingham, and slowly found employment with many of the UK’s professional choirs. In my twenties I spent some time living in Hamburg where my husband was working, I had two sons, and then worked for 15 years singing and touring with the likes of The Tallis Scholars and Tenebrae. Finally in 2017, after surgery to remove my thyroid and a long period of careful vocal rehabilitation, I auditioned for a position with the BBC Singers. I now share one of the five soprano jobs in the choir with another Academy alumna, Clare Lloyd-Griffiths (Singing, 2010).
Tell me more about the day-to-day life of being a BBC Singer.
It’s no exaggeration to say that every week is different. Alongside regular education and outreach work, we tackle a huge variety of repertoire, working with a different conductor every week. Projects tend to turn over roughly on a weekly basis and usually end with either a concert or studio recording of the music that we have spent the week preparing.
In the last year we have appeared on Hey Duggee on CBeebies, recorded backing vocals for Strictly Come Dancing, appeared with Sir Simon Rattle singing Poulenc’s Figure Humaine at the BBC Proms and recorded a programme of English Renaissance polyphony for William Byrd’s 400th anniversary. The vocal variety is hugely rewarding, if demanding at times. The work can be challenging, particularly when we are working in unfamiliar languages (recent highlights include Japanese, Ancient Greek and Swedish all in the same piece), and when singing music by some contemporary composers, but I love the stretch of it.
Is there a particular highlight of your career so far?
There are a number of proms and concerts with the BBC Symphony Orchestra which spring to mind and performing at the first and last nights of the 2020 Proms with the BBC Singers was a privilege. The pandemic restrictions really limited our performing work that year. The Proms ran for only 2 weeks, with no audiences. We sang from the stalls in the Royal Albert Hall, distanced from each other at two metres on all sides, with only our BBC Symphony Orchestra colleagues for company in that vast space. At that time singing was deemed to be dangerous, and we were one of the first choirs to venture back into the rehearsal room that summer. We felt we were singing for so many who could not.
Beyond the BBC, another very special memory I have is of touring a staged version of the Bach St John Passion with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, directed by Peter Sellars and conducted by Sir Simon Rattle. When you sing new music every week you become very reliant on your eyes and visual learning, but we memorised the entire Passion before rehearsals started. Returning to a reliance on my ears and body was absolutely liberating, and getting right into the bones of the music for several weeks was one of the most rewarding experiences of my career.
The Academy has been working with BBC Singers for nearly 20 years and you recently visited the Academy for one their masterclasses. Can you tell me more about what those sessions mean to you?
Every year we spend a day in Duke’s Hall working with postgraduate students on the Choral Conducting course. The masterclass is usually run by our Chief Conductor, Sofi Jeannin, and we act as a guinea pig choir.
Choral conducting is a very particular skill, and it’s fascinating to watch the students come to understand that their gesture goes far beyond management of what’s on the page and can have a profound effect on the way a choir breathes and sounds. Small changes of an arm or hand position can transform a performance by altering the way a singer supports and colours their voice, and this is something which I have learned through working with the Academy students. I know that it is a highlight of the year for the BBC Singers, and we all care deeply about maintaining the vital and rich British choral tradition and passing on that which we have learned. Coming back each year means that we see every student twice and seeing how they have developed over 12 months is always a joy.
What did studying with Junior Academy bring to your career and further training?
Music was not a strong subject at my secondary school. I was one of two GCSE music students in my year, and the only person studying music during my entire Sixth Form. Arriving at the Academy was like arriving at Hogwarts! Suddenly I was surrounded by highly skilled and passionate musicians, who loved what I loved. My academic music teacher at Junior Academy, Cyril Lloyd, discovered that I was considering applying to Oxford, and took me under his wing. He gave me additional lessons and set me a long list of music to listen to (including a lot of Schoenberg and Stravinsky) and books to read, including many that had nothing to do with music (Brave New World by Aldous Huxley and I Claudius by Robert Graves stick in my mind). I’m certain that his encouragement and guidance contributed significantly to my application to Oxford because he made me a more rounded musician and person.
Do you have any favourite memories of attending Junior Academy?
I think my favourite memories are the weekly choir rehearsals and performances with Jonathan Willcocks. The rehearsal began each week with some fearsome aural games, and the discipline of practising singing minor 9ths each week has definitely helped me at the BBC! I also clearly remember hearing the orchestra play a Shostakovich symphony. I’d never heard Shostakovich live before, and it was totally arresting.
What advice do you have for anyone looking to follow a similar career path to you?
Professional choirs in the UK work fast, so there’s no escaping the fact that sightreading is an important skill. Luckily, it’s a muscle that can be strengthened fairly quickly with practice, so I would definitely advise nurturing that as a proficiency.
Secondly, and most importantly: never stop training and having singing lessons. It’s very important that you understand how voices grow and develop as you get older. What comes easily in your twenties may not come easily in your forties or fifties, but other things will become easier. This is particularly true for women. If you go through a pregnancy your voice will change, and it will change again as you enter the perimenopause. Singing in a choir requires very rigorous vocal discipline, and the key to a long career in choral singing is flexibility and adaptability. Be alert to the changes that will come and embrace them!
What projects are you currently working on?
The focus at work over the next few months will be the BBC Singers’ centenary celebrations, which will take place in the autumn of 2024. There are some very exciting projects in the pipeline, including new music and a big celebratory concert. I can’t tell you much about it at this stage, but there’s a lot to look forward to!
Photographer credit: Helena Cooke