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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. The choir will be fund raising for charity and working with people in the community. 
The Conductor Dynamic Musical Director Joanna Tomlinson 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.
The Accompanist Merel van der Knoop studied with Marjes Benoist at the Amsterdam Conservatoire and with Michael Davidson at the Rotterdam Conservatoire where she graduated in 2004. In June 2007 Merel completed her Masters in Music, specialising in Piano Accompaniment, at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, where she studied with Robin Bowman and Eugene Asti. Merel has participated in masterclasses given by Helmut Deutsch, Rudolf Jansen, Kelvin Grout and has been coached by Julius Drake, Roger Vignoles, Robin Bowman and Graham Johnson. She also played in the Rotterdam Young Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Valery Gergiev. In the summers of 2007 and 2008 Merel was a participant of the 5 week Meisterkurz of the Franz-Schubert-Institut and took part in a masterclass by Elly Ameling in Amsterdam in September 2007. Also in 2007 Merel was a finalist of the Kenneth Loveland Gift. Recently Merel has performed in Spain and the Netherlands and in the Oxford Lieder Festival in the UK.
The Venue St Mary Aldermary, Walting Street, EC4 |
Constanza Chorus - The Choir in the Heart of the City
