Amici Chamber Choir

Thursday 5th June 2008 - 19:45
Tickets: £10 (£8)

DAVID BRAY - Conductor
ANDREW EARIS - Piano & Organ

PROGRAMME:

The Amici Chamber Choir gave its first concert in March 1987 and consists of 30 enthusiastic and experienced amateur singers drawn from the Harrow and Watford areas.  The repertoire comprises both sacred and secular choral music, from Renaissance church music and madrigals to music of the present day.

The choir typically gives three concerts a year in venues in London and the Harrow area, and also seeks opportunities to perform in other parts of the UK, visiting St Petrox church in Dartmouth in 2005 and Y Tabernacl in Machynlleth in mid-Wales in 2007.

With its guest conductor David Bray, the Amici Chamber Choir is delighted to be part of the Pinner Music Festival, and to present this programme of music on the theme of UN World Enviornment Day.

DAVID BRAY - Conductor David studied composition, piano, organ and conducting at the Royal College of Music, London. After a spell as composer-in-residence at St Edmund's School, Canterbury, he worked for the Royal National Institute for the Blind, editing and transcribing music into Braille. In 1995, he joined Trinity College London, the international examinations board, where he became Managing Editor. In 2001, he moved to city law firm, Berrymans Lace Mawer as Publications Manager. David is currently Head of Publishing for music publishers Boosey & Hawkes. He specialises in vocal coaching and musicianship skills, has a considerable reputation for choral training, and works regularly with choirs and vocal soloists. From 1988 to 1995 he was a member of the Musicianship faculty at the Royal College of Music Junior Department. He conducted the BBC Club Singers for several years before joining the Meistersingers in 2001. Recent compositions have included works for the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival and commissions for the Vasari Singers, BBC Club Singers, Stephen Cleobury (King.s College Cambridge), and St Edmund's School, Canterbury.

 ANDREW EARIS - Piano & Organ
Andrew Earis is Director of Music of St Sepulchre-without-Newgate, the National Musicians’ Church, in the City of London.  He graduated in 2000 from Imperial College and the Royal College of Music, and has recently been awarded a PhD from the University of Manchester. From 1998 until 2000 he held the Sir George Thalben-Ball Memorial Organ Scholarship at St Michael’s Church, Cornhill, in the City of London. 

Andrew has given organ recitals in venues including King’s College Chapel, Cambridge, Westminster Cathedral, Westminster Abbey and Washington National Cathedral, and has performed as soloist in performance of Poulenc’s Organ Concerto and Saint-Saëns’ Organ Symphony. He frequency appears on BBC TV’s Songs of Praise programme as a choir director, organist and music advisor. 

Andrew is on the academic staff of the Royal College of Music and Royal Holloway, University of London. He sits on the publications committee of the Royal Musical Association and is Treasurer of the Church Music Society. Andrew is an Associate of the Royal College of Organists and Fellow of Trinity College London.