Location

Herefordshire, Hereford, the Marches

Specialisms

I run workshops, community choirs, ensembles. I specialise in Renaissance music (16th/17th century).

Additional information

I am an experienced singer and choir master. I grew up in Germany in a rich tradition of secular and sacred choir music. I trained as a choir master under Ludger Heskamp and ran my first own student choir at school at the age of 15. I became a member of  Leonhard-Lechner Kreis (Renaissance  and Baroque Ensemble), sang in student ensembles and chamber choirs (Goettinger Kammerchor), and later became the bass singer in the Frank Zappa a capella rock ensemble “The Beistelltische”.  I have been runnning ensembles and community choirs  for more than thirty years.

Singing has always been my hobby and a big part of my life, and gave me balance in my work as a teacher.

When I came to England, I got involved with running community choirs in Forest Row and in Kent, and  started choirs for the lecturers of the Open University, East Grinstead,  for the students at Peredur Centre for the Arts in East Grinstead, while studying speech and drama there. Recently I ran Leominster Community Choir while their MD was on maternity leave, and  have just taken on to be the MD for the Army Wives Choir at the SAS base in Hereford, the first time ever to work with an accompanist.

I strongly believe that everybody can sing, and that singing should not be exclusive to a minority who has been given access to reading music.  There is nothing as beautiful as the sound of unaccompanied voices singing in harmony, and it is central to community building.

For 12 years I have also been singing Renaissance Music with my wife Heather as “Arcadian Voices”, arranging and performing madrigals for two voices and guitar, most recently in 2023 at the Willow Globe in Llandridnod Wells,  where we made the musicfor a Shakespeare storytelling performance.

My family moved to Herefordshire in 2020,  and I have been running regular Renaissance Music Workshops at the Steiner Academy Hereford where I currently work as an LSA.  I chose this specialisation, because I love early music, and I would love to see it shared and sung more often.

About Renaissance Music

In the time of Shakespeare (which roughly covers the Renaissance period in England),  singing was part of life for most people. There was singing in the taverns,  in the churches, in the theatres, people got together for a singsong in the homes of the citizens, and it was taught in schools. Any lady could sing and play the harpsichord, any gentleman could sing and play the harp. Reading music was a given then among educated people, and singing was an entertainment shared by everybody.  Recreating this in workshops is not so easy but I believe it is possible. If you want to find out more, come to one of my workshops 🙂