Five FREE online workshops!

Five online workshops
November 12th @ 7:30 pm (UK time) | 2:30 pm (EST) | 11:30 am (PST)
November 19th @ 7:30 (UK time) | 2:30 pm (EST) | 11:30 am (PST)
November 26th @ 7:30 (UK time) | 2:30 pm (EST) | 11:30 am (PST)
December 3rd @ 7:30 (UK time) | 2:30 pm (EST) | 11:30 am (PST)
December 10th @ 7:30 (UK time) | 2:30 pm (EST) | 11:30 am (PST)
Cost: FREE

Live concert!

December 11th @ 7:30 (UK time) | 2:30 pm (EST) | 11:30 am (PST)

The sixteen-voice Koor Singers with the Koor Players will perform Christmas portion of Messiah. If you are in London, join us in person at Saint John’s Smith Square or online from the comfort of your own home.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION


Next workshop: December 10th.


For us choral singers, what would Christmas be without Handel’s Messiah? Singing ‘And the Glory’, ‘For Unto Us a Child is Born’ and ‘Hallelujah’ is as much a part of the festive season as mulled wine, mince pies and mistletoe.

We may not be able to congregate with our choirs this year but 2020 needn’t be a year without Messiah.

We hope that you will join us for this series on online workshops in which we will not only sing the choruses from Messiah but explore the history, context and technical challenges of glorious masterpiece.

In each 1 1/2 hour workshop you can expect to learn professional techniques for warming up, vocal health and the specific technical challenges of singing baroque choral music.


How to participate

The steps to participating in this online course are very simple:

  1. Sign up for KOOR. The app is free.
  2. Subscribe to our YouTube channel where all the workshops will be live-streamed. It doesn’t cost anything to subscribe to a YouTube channel.
  3. Visit our Music Page for details on how to get the music for these courses.
  4. Sign up for our mailing list so that we can keep you informed.
  5. Join our Facebook group.

Meet the Musicians

Simon Capet
Conductor

The musicians that make up the professional performing element of Koor are hand picked singers and instrumentalists, many of whom are soloists in their own right. Koor brings together some of the country’s finest musicians who have a wealth of experience working in all the major concert halls in the UK and abroad, collaborating with many of the established ensembles and conductors of the day. Under the direction of their founder and artistic director Simon Capet, they excel in both historical and modern music.

Created in the midst of the pandemic that engulfed the world in 2020, they have a passion for faithful interpretation that goes far beyond historical understanding and aim to get to the emotional heart of the music whatever they are performing, with text being served as an equal to the music.

Emma Walshe
soprano

Emma Walshe was a choral scholar at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge and after graduating with a degree in Music she participated in the Monteverdi Apprenticeship Scheme. This led to frequent solo appearances with the group including a televised performance of Handel Dixit Dominus from the Place of Versailles. Emma’s solo work has seen her collaborate with numerous world-renowned ensembles including the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Tenebrae, Arcangelo, Gabrieli Consort and the Early Opera Company. Highlights include Bach St John Passion at the Lausanne Bach Festival, Bach Cantatas at Kings Place and St George’s, Bristol, Purcell Odes at the Potsdam Music Festival and Bach’s B Minor Mass at the British Museum. She was a featured soloist for the BBC One VJ Day event in 2020 live from the National Memorial Arboretum. Emma is a widely sought after consort singer and has been a regular soprano with the Tallis Scholars since 2014. When not performing, Emma enjoys early evening runs, walks with her family, researching new recipes and doing lots of baking!

Martha McLorinan
mezzo-soprano

British Mezzo-Soprano Martha McLorinan is a prize-winner at the Royal Overseas League and at the Thelma King Awards. Solo oratorio highlights include Bach’s St John Passion for the Taverner Players and Andrew Parrott, Bach’s B Minor Mass for The Gabrieli Consort and Paul McCreesh, Handel’s Messiah for the Academy of Ancient Music and Nigel Short and Haydn’s Harmoniemesse for The Sixteen and Harry Christophers. Opera roles include Lotinka in Dvorak’s The Jacobin and the Notary’s Wife in Strauss Intermezzo, both for Buxton Festival Opera. In Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas she has appeared as First Witch for the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Roger Norrington at the Royal Festival and Second Witch for Trevor Pinnock and Friends at the Wigmore Hall. She will tour this role with Emmanuelle Haim and Le Concert d’Astree in 2021. Her recordings include Bingham’s The Drowned Lovers with Tenebrae and Byrd songs with Fretwork (to be released next year). She has recently got married to the British tenor Peter Davoren.

Jeremy Budd
tenor

A former Head Chorister from St Paul’s Cathedral and a graduate from the Royal Academy of Music, Jeremy is much in demand as a soloist, working with many of the UK’s leading professional choirs such as The Sixteen, Tenebrae, The Gabrieli Consort, the Choir of the Age of Enlightenment and Aurum Vocale. Recent solo engagements have included trips to the USA and Australia performing repertoire such as Monteverdi Vespers 1610, Bach Christmas Oratorio, Bach St Matthew Passion and Haydn Masses. He has sung with both English National Opera and the Royal Opera, Covent Garden and Jeremy has worked with many of the world’s leading conductors including Sir Mark Elder, Sir Antonio Pappano, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Masaaki Suzuki and Zubin Mehta. Away from the concert platform Jeremy supports Tottenham Hotspur and is often to be found on the motorways of the UK on his motorbike.

Jonathan Brown
bass

Born in Toronto, Jonathan Brown studied at the University of Western Ontario, the Royal College of Music and Cambridge University, He is also an alumnus of the Britten-Pears school for Advanced Musical Studies with Sir Thomas Allen. He is a member of the choir at Westminster Abbey, while his opera roles include Marchello and Yamadori at the Royal Albert Hall. Further afield he has performed in Orfeo at Lille Opera for Emmanuelle Haim and as The Trojan in Idomeneo for Sir Simon Rattle. He has numerous recordings to his name as a soloist including Bach cantatas in Sir John Eliot Gardiner’s 2000 Pilgrimage, Purcell for Rene Jacobs and Philippe Herrweghe. Jonathan lives in South East London where he fruitlessly searches for Canadian moose.

Peter Foggitt
pianist

Peter Foggitt is a conductor, composer and keyboardist: he made his concerto debut at fourteen, and his Radio Three debut at twenty-one, playing Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No 3. Peter trained at Chetham’s School of Music, then as a choral scholar at King’s College, Cambridge, after which he undertook postgraduate study in London as both a singer and a pianist. He has worked in a variety of fields: in opera – most notably at the Royal Danish Opera as Chorus Master, and at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden as Assistant Conductor – in  sacred music – he is currently Director of Music at Hampstead Parish Church and Director of Chapel Music at Emmanuel College, Cambridge – and in concert – he has appeared at the principal UK concert venues as a singer, player and conductor. Peter’s music is published by Stainer and Bell, and by Music Sales, and commissions have come from choral societies, cathedral choirs, and opera companies. He is currently finishing doctoral studies at Durham University. Notable collaborations include work with the Monteverdi Choir, Aurora Orchestra, London Contemporary Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia and the Academy of St-Martin-in-the-Fields. He enjoys an international reputation as an improviser on the piano and organ, and was a finalist in the St Albans International Organ Competition. He enjoys seeing cute pictures of puffins and cats on Twitter. Such is the life of a musician.

Ian Tindale
pianist

British pianist, Ian Tindale was awarded the Pianist’s Prize in the Wigmore Hall/Kohn Foundation Song Competition in 2017, following studies at Selwyn College, Cambridge and the Royal College of Music. Ian is a Samling Artist and a Britten-Pears Young Artist. Ian has performed across the UK and Europe, at venues including the Wigmore Hall with Soraya Mafi, and with baritone Jose-Ramon Olive in Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw and Palau de la Musica in Barcelona. Other recent highlights include giving the world premiere of Daniel’ Kidanes cycle Songs of Illumination with Nick Pritchard at the Leeds Lieder Festival, and a “Rising Star” recital with Harriet Burns in the International’s Lied Festival Zeist. Ian has recently found more time for walking and gardening, and is cultivating a passion for looking after Acers (trees not laptops!).

William Vann
pianist

A multiple-prize winning and critically acclaimed conductor and accompanist, William Vann is an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music, a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists, the Director of Music at the Royal Hospital, Chelsea, Musical Director of Dulwich Choral Society, a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Musicians, the Chairman of Kensington and Chelsea Music Society, Guest Conductor of the English Chamber Choir and a regular conductor and vocal coach at the Dartington and Oxenfoord International Summer Schools. His discography includes recordings with Albion, Champs Hill, Chandos, Delphian, Etcetera, Nvona and SOMM. William enjoys writing short biographies with really long sentences.


Join our mailing list

We’d like to keep you informed about these workshops as well as future activities that we are planning.


Practice with members of Koor Voices at home

Now that you’ve signed up for this course wouldn’t it be great if you could bring these wonderful, professional singers into your home to help you practice? Well that’s exactly what you can do with Koor.

Using the app you can learn your notes by engaging with interactive recordings made by members of Koor Voices. You can isolate your part or create a personal mix with the other voices. It’s like having a choir in your living room.

If you haven’t already got a Koor account, you can sign up by clicking here. The app is also free.