The Choir

Constanza Chorus is a choral society based in the heart of the City of London.  The choir is open to everyone who enjoys singing - there is no audition - and is a fun and sociable group whilst striving for the highest of standards.   Constanza Chorus also aims to fundraise for charity.   The Cystic Fybrosis Trust was our charity for 2010 and in 2011 we raised money for the Downs Syndrome Association.  Our charity for 2012 is CLIC Sargent.

The Conductor

Dynamic Musical Director Joanna Bywater studied Music at the University of Bristol and then Vocal Studies at the Royal College of Music, where she graduated with distinction in the Postgraduate Diploma. Joanna combines a career as conductor, teacher and workshop leader with a busy freelance singing career. She is the Musical Director for the Ince Choir, in the City of London, and Headley Parish Church Choir. She has led vocal workshops for children and adults, including the Barbican ‘Big Sing’ and Handel House Museum school workshops. Joanna teaches singing at Hall School in Wimbledon and the Royal School Haslemere. As a singer, Joanna works as an opera, oratorio and session singer and as a choral singer with groups like the BBC Singers, Geoffrey Mitchell Choir and the Philharmonia Voices. Operatic engagements include Siebel in Faust for Guildford Opera; Olga in Eugene Onegin for Hampstead Garden Opera; Echo in Hansel und Gretel, and chorus in Roberto Devereux, Nabucco, Lakmé, Iolanta and La Gioconda for Opera Holland Park; Parisina and Ermione for Opera Rara; and Platée for English Bach Festival in the Alexandra Trianti Opera House in Athens.

Recent concert engagements include Beethoven Mass in C with the Whitehall Choir and Paul Spicer, Rossini Petite Messe Solennelle in the Menuhin Hall in Surrey, Michael Stimpson’s Songs of Innocence and Experience with the Exmoor Singers at St Martin-in-the-Fields, and Consolation I by Helmut Lachenmann, as part of the Lachenmann Festival, broadcast on BBC Radio 3. Joanna is passionate about the choral repertoire and has vast knowledge and experience in the field.

>> www.joannatomlinson.co.uk

The Venue

St Mary-at-Hill, Lovat Lane, EC3.

St Mary's was very badly damaged by the Great Fire of 1666 - the fire started in Pudding Lane just two streets away.  It is thought to be the first church rebuilt by Wren.  The church has always had a strong musical tradition;  composer Thomas Tallis was a choir boy here in the early 16th century.  You can read more about St Mary-at-Hill on their website, here.