FROM 3PM - 5.30PM
TICKETS £10 INCLUDING TEA
CHILDREN 11 AND UNDER HALF PRICE
FROM 3PM - 5.30PM
TICKETS £10 INCLUDING TEA
CHILDREN 11 AND UNDER HALF PRICE
Saturday 8th July
St Mary's Church, Barcombe
CLASSICAL CONCERT
St Mary's
Church Lane
Barcombe
BN8 5TS
PERFORMANCE AT 6PM
DRINKS AFTERWARDS
Programme to include Chacony by Purcell, ‘Soave sia il vento’ from Cosi fan Tutti by Mozart and JS Bach’s Magnificat
The Clockhouse Singers, Laughton Village Choir
Keyboard Will Hancox
Conductor Linda Glenn
Natalie Clifton-Griffith (soprano)
Olivia Hemmings (soprano)
Alice Simmons (mezzo-soprano)
Sam Barton (tenor)
Thomas Isherwood (baritone)
Modulus Quartet
THE CLOCKHOUSE SINGERS - LAUGHTON VILLAGE CHOIR
Based in Laughton, we are a friendly community choir. always keen to welcome new members. We rehearse 8:00-9:30pm on Mondays at Laughton Village Hall, Church Lane, Laughton, BN8 6AH. No previous choral experience is required although the ability to sing in tune is an advantage!
In 2008 The Laughton Village Choir (LVC) started with 8 local singers. Fifteen years on the choir is a mini choral society with 60+ singers of mixed vocal ability and choral experience. It is a ‘community’ choir which means it is open to anyone without an audition. Unlike most ‘community’ choirs, which learn repetitive music by ear, our repertoire draws from the best of the classical choral cannon, and the standard of performance is high despite the proportion of inexperienced choristers. At a recent concert, one of the soloists – an experienced professional musician – said with emphasis at the end of the concert “I wasn’t expecting that!”
Laughton Village Choir Founder & Director Linda Glenn
The choir is a huge happy family, supportive both musically and socially, and it has given rise to several off-shoot groups where members meet in people’s houses to practise their parts, which often involves a lot of cake. They come from a wide circumference of villages around Laughton, including Ringmer, Barcombe, Ripe, Chalvington, Deanland, Horam, Rodmell, Arlington, and as far afield as Lewes, Uckfield, Seaford, Polegate, Saltdean and Shoreham! Some home study is required so that less rehearsal time is spent note bashing individual parts, and more on music making.
This Marriage, by Eric Whitacre Performed by The Clockhouse Singers in Berwick Church
Will Hancox
William Hancox has always had wide-ranging musical interests including solo playing, chamber music, duo work and vocal coaching.
He has performed at major halls in numerous countries, held staff pianist posts at the Britten-Pears School in Aldeburgh, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and Trinity College of Music and premiered contemporary works at the Cheltenham Festival and London's South Bank.
Recordings include the complete voice and piano works of the Icelandic composer Jon Asgeirsson, contemporary violin and cello sonatas (with international cello virtuoso Rohan de Saram), the complete Morike songs of Hugo Wolf and a disc of classical lullabies with Austrian soprano Esther Levin. William has broadcast for the BBC and Classic FM. He was educated at Cambridge, subsequently studying with the Hungarian pianist Joseph Weingarten, himself a student of Dohnanyi, Bartok and Kodaly.
Natalie Clifton-Griffith - soprano
Natalie Clifton-Griffith was born in Cornwall and studied at The Birmingham Conservatoire and The Royal College of Music. She was a prize winner at Great Elm and awarded second prize in The First London Handel Festival Singing Competition in 2002.
Highlights of her solo career include Bach’s Magnificat (Barbican Hall, ECO), St John Passion (Three Choirs Festival) and Cantata 82a (Hanover Band), Mass in B Minor (Lyon Early Music Festival and Valletta baroque festival, Malta) Cantata 209 Non sa che sia dolore (Purcell Room and CBSO centre), and Handel’s Messiah at most major cathedrals in England, Apollo e Dafne and Alexander Balus (London Handel Festival) Gloria and Laudate Pueri (Welsh Baroque Orchestra). Classical repertoire includes Haydn’s Creation (Bath Abbey), Nelson Mass (Lichfield Cathedral), Missa Sancti Nicholai, Salve Regina and Mozart’s Exsultate Jubilate ( CBSO Symphony Hall and English Haydn Festival) and Mass in C Minor (ECO)
Natalie appears as a soloist with The English Concert (Biber Missa Christi Resurgentis, Handel’s Dixit Dominus QEH, Bath Festival, Bach Magnificat , Schutz Christmas Story - Angel and Vivaldi’s Gloria) and Ex Cathedra on CD and concerts including Lalande’s Dies Irae (BBC Proms), Handel’s Solomon and Purcell’s Fairy Queen and Bach’s St Matthew Passion (Symphony Hall).Also with CBSO Baroque Ensemble, Armonico Tributo, and Capilla Cayrasco (Madrid and The Canary Islands)
Other concert engagements have included Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream (CBSO), Vaughan Williams Serenade to Music Three Choirs Festival, Canteloube’s Chants D’Auvergne, Villa Lobos Bachianas Brazilieras V, Paul Spicer’s Easter Oratorio (ESO) and Advent Oratorio, John Joubert’s Wings of Faith (CBSO) Orff’s Carmina Burana (Birmingham Royal Ballet, English Symphony Orchestra) Patrick Hawes Song of songs and Mater Gloriosa in Mahler’s Symphony No.8 (Symphony Hall). Natalie has also performed with consort vocal groups such as Ex Cathedra, Tenebrae , I Fagiolini, Exaudi, The Sixteen and The BBC Singers.
Operatic roles include The Queen of the Night (The Magic Flute) Timea (La Liberta Contenta), Venus (Venus and Adonis), Despina (Cosi fan Tutte), and Princesse (L’Enfant et les Sortilleges).
Natalie has recorded for EMI Classics (Rodrigo), Hyperion (De Lalande, Charpentier and three discs of South American Baroque music), Archiv (Biber), Signum records (Poulenc) and Lammas (Karg-Elert with the Gough Duo) She also appears on Ex Cathedra’s live recording of Bach’s St Matthew Passion and featured in Early Music News’-‘Rising Stars’.
More recently Natalie sang for London Voices in the BBC Proms in the semi chorus for Per Norgard’s Symphony no 3 and in Computer Game and film soundtracks including Rise of the Guardians, The Hunger Games, Interstellar, The Boss Baby, The Hobbit, Maleficent and Mission Impossible!
Current engagements include Faure Requiem, Magnificat Bach and Rutter, Handel Dixit Dominus and Mozart Mass in C Minor.
She hopes to repeat a recital of Strauss’ Four Last songs (with organist husband Alexander Mason) in Norway in the near future.
Since moving to West Sussex, Natalie teaches singing at St John’s School (Leatherhead) Bedales and Lancing College, passing on her knowledge of Bel Canto technique which she is grateful to have learned from her own teachers Barbara McGuire and Elizabeth Robson.
Olivia Hemmings - soprano
Olivia is a Sussex born soprano currently studying with Pippa Dames-Longworth. She graduated in 2019 with BMus (hons) from The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (RCS) where she studied with Helen Lawson.
As a member of Pippa Dames-Longworth’s ‘Singing Salon’ she has performed in multiple concerts including scenes from The Marriage of Figaro (Cherubino), Candide (Cunegonde), L'incoronazione di Poppea (Nero), Alcina (Alcina) and Dido and Aeneas (Dido). In addition, she performed scenes from Così fan Tutte (Dorabella) with RCS. She took part in a Baroque Obbligato Course during which she worked with Howard Beach and Julia Bishop and performed in a Lieder course with Adrian Thompson. Olivia sang the role of Bird-Girl, a small role in an imaginatively devised production of Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel which was performed at the world-renowned Charleston House and Gardens. Her Oratorio performances include Fauré’s Requiem, Handel’s Israel in Egypt and Bach’s Magnificat.
In addition to her work as a singer she works for The Music in Secondary Schools Trust a charity that delivers a classical music curriculum to schools with a disadvantaged intake. She is passionate about making classical music tuition accessible to all children across the country.
Alice Simmons - mezzo soprano
Alice is a Wiltshire-based musician and enjoys solo and ensemble works, from early and baroque music through to contemporary classical and more popular styles. Recent performances include Alto soloist in Bach’s B minor mass, and Magnificat with Vivaldi’s Gloria with Phoenix Choir and Baroque Orchestra, Brahms Zwei Gesänge, Mendelssohn’s duets, songs from Cheryl Frances Hoad’s One Life Stand, and Paul Elwood’s Safernoc for voice and violin. Alice has recently completed a folk song project “Songs of Winter”, co-written with composer and banjoist Paul Elwood and recorded with Paul, Eric Thorin, Eric Wiggs and Dylan Fixmer in Colorado, to be released later in the year. She also enjoys where music meets other art forms and has performed in works by artists Tino Sehgal and Leonor Serrano Rivas.
Sam Barton
Sam Barton is a conductor, pianist, tenor and double bassist based in Brighton. Sam began his professional career in Canada, studying conducting with Dr. Hilary Apfelstadt at the University of Toronto (2010-12). After his degree he developed a great reputation as a musician, becoming the founding Musical Director of Scarborough Community Players (2013-15) and Musical Director of the Scarborough Choralaires (2012-15). He was also a regular guest conductor for That Choir, the St James’s Cathedral Choir, and the All Saints Kingsway Choir. His other engagements have included extensive work with the Estonian community in Toronto, where he was guest conductor of the Toronto Estonia Choir. He was also Assistant Music Director of the University of Toronto’s Master Chorale and Men’s Chorus.
Sam returned to the UK in 2015. In addition to his role at Worthing Choral Society, is the Musical Director of Resound Male Voices in Brighton, Ashdown Singers in Uckfield, and West Norwood Community Choir in London. He was the Assistant MD of Brighton Festival Youth Choir from 2017-2020. He is also the organist at First Church of Christ Scientist (Brighton), and accompanist for the Clockhouse Singers of East Sussex.
Sam’s credits as a tenor soloist include Mozart’s Requiem, and Haydn’s Creation, and Puccini's Messe di Gloria with Worthing Choral Society. He has also performed numerous opera roles in workshops including Mime in Wagner’s Das Rheinghold, Hot Biscuit Slim in Britten’s Paul Bunyan, Beppe in Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci, and Der Junge Diener in Strauss’ Elektra.
Thomas Isherwood
Thomas Isherwood is one of the most promising and exciting young baritones in the UK, possessing a young dramatic voice of great colour and presence.
His interest in music began at a young age following his introduction to the music of Gilbert & Sullivan by his Grandma. He began singing when he performed in local amateur productions and the National Youth Music Theatre.
Thomas completed his undergraduate studies at the Royal Northern College of Music and graduated with Masters distinction from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in 2016, where he studied with Prof. Susan McCulloch. In 2020 he graduated from the Royal College of Music Opera Studio.
Recent engagements include baritone soloist for St. Matthew Passion by Bach and From Darkness to Light by Jonathan Willcocks performed at Chichester Cathedral, the title role in Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street for RCM Students Union, King Minos in the world premiere of If I Had Wings by Will Todd at the Royal Albert Hall and Marcello for the West End revival of the King’s Head Theatre’s production of La Bohème at Trafalgar Studios, which was nominated for best new opera production at the 2018 Olivier Awards.
In 2015/16 Thomas was a member of the chorus for Grange Park Opera, performing the role of Happy in La Fanciulla del West by Puccini and spoken roles in Fiddler on the Roof with Sir Bryn Terfel, which received a one off performance at the 2015 BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall. In 2021 Thomas worked for both Grange Park Opera and Glyndebourne Festival Opera, performing the role of Male 2 in the world premiere of The Life & Death of Alexander Litvinenko by Anthony Bolton.
Prizes and awards include the 2011 RNCM Oncken Song Prize, the 2013 Alexander Young prize, the 2011 Kathleen Ferrier Bursary for Young Singers and the 2016 London Song Festival British Art Song Award.
Modulus Quartet
Modulus Quartet specialises in performing original string quartet repertoire written in close collaboration with a number of international composers. Drawing on its collective experience, the quartet seeks out music of an individual style, developing creative relationships with composers and artists. The quartet explores new ways of presenting music, performing in unusual venues and incorporating visual arts and multi-media technology.
Jonathan Truscott (violin 1) Craig Stratton (violin 2)
James Hogg (viola) and Nick Allen (cello)