London Adventist Chorale

LAC_photoThe London Adventist Chorale was formed in 1981, to bring together and develop the latent talents of singers from various Seventh-day Adventist Churches. Its current principal conductor is Ken Burton, who has conducted the choir for over two decades.

The choir’s first artistic director was the late John Tolman, who laid out the vision for the choir: high-standard performance of varied and challenging sacred repertoire, with a heavy leaning toward a cappella music. Fundamental to the original vision was that the choir would be of a standard to “stand before kings and queens”, a statement borrowed from a Bible verse.

Throughout its years, under several directors including Derek Hoyte and Tina Brooks, this dream has been realised; the choir has made a strong impact on the choral world internationally through its moving performances, combining, as one music critic put it, “discipline with fervour”. Its repertoire over the years has included music in Hebrew, African-American Spirituals, close harmony, and Western choral music from Renaissance through to new commissions.

The Chorale’s performances have been experienced by tens of millions world-wide on stage, screen, recordings and radio appearances. The choir has performed in most of the UK’s major performance venues. Among the many notable venues and performance are Blenheim Palace in the presence of former US President Bill Clinton, Buckingham Palace on the occasion of Her Majesty the Queen’s Golden Jubilee, Toronto’s Sky Dome before an audience of seventy thousand, and BBC Proms concerts. Its performances very often receive long standing ovations, and one Times reviewer was so taken aback, he wrote in the newspaper that he had found “the perfect choir”.

In 1994, the choir won the prestigious “Choir of The Year” title, and was awarded BBC UK Gospel Choir of the Year by the BBC a year later. Even to the present day, many of the UK’s choral directors have verbally stated that the London Adventist Chorale has had a profound effect and influence on the UK choral scene. By way of example, it is not uncommon to see the inclusion of African-American Spirituals – a genre which has been almost unilaterally preserved in the UK by the Chorale – on choral programmes and in competition repertoire. The choir has worked in collaboration with a number of notable artists including Bryn Terfel CBE, Sir Willard White, Larnelle Harris, Wynton Marsalis, Wilhelmenia Fernandez and Lesley Garrett.

The choir performs yearly Christmas concerts at the Clonter Opera Theatre and celebrity chef Raymond Blanc’s Le Manoir Aux Quat’Saisons. It has also been involved with the Kijani Kenya Trust which raises funds for HIV,Aids and Conservation projects in Kenya, through a high-calibre music festival and ongoing education programme.

Recordings to date include the debut album “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus”, “Deep River”, “Steal Away” (EMI), and “Live In Australia”.

Ken Burton

Ken Burton_photoKen Burton started his musical training at a very young age, playing piano, descant and alto recorder, violin and steel pans in his primary school and at church. He then entered Trinity School, with its acclaimed boys choir, for whom he played on a number of occasions. After his schooling, Ken pursued his BMus degree at Goldsmith’s College, University of London, and undertook professional development studies in music education, specialising in vocal coaching.

As a performer, Ken has conducted, played, sung and made many radio and television appearances at all the leading U.K. venues, as well as in Europe, Africa, Asia, North America and Australia. On an orchestral level, Ken has conducted the London Mozart Players, and members of the RPO and RLPO.

Ken’s choral activities began when he was nine years old, by accompanying the Croydon SDA Youth Choir (now the Croydon SDA Gospel Choir), and at fifteen directing the choir. Choral activities became a more integral part of Ken’s musical life, and he was accompanist for the Goldsmiths’ College Chorus, and singer in the Goldsmiths’ Chamber Choir. After completing his initial studies, Ken was appointed chorus master of the Goldsmiths’ Chorus, and, subsequently Musical Director of the Goldsmiths’ Chamber Choir. In 1990, Ken was invited to join Derek Hoyte as director of the London Adventist Chorale. He has enjoyed success in a number of competitions and awards, namely the Sainsbury’s Choir of the Year, won by the London Adventist Chorale in 1994, with the Croydon SDA Gospel Choir in second place, out of a total of 306 Choirs. The London Adventist Chorale was also voted BBC UK Gospel Choir of the year in 1995, and the Croydon SDA Gospel Choir has enjoyed first place in local music festivals.

As a recording musician, Ken’s activities have been extensive. His first recording was with Gospel band, Ekklesia, in 1986, with an album release mostly containing Ken’s original pieces. Further recordings have been made with choirs and bands. Among them are Croydon SDA Gospel Choir’s Until We Reach, Perfect Love, and The Very Best of Gospel; the London Adventist Chorale’s Deep River and Steal Away; Graham Kendrick’s Rumours 0f Angels, and Illuminations, Southampton Community Gospel Choir’s Southern Praise (a commission). Ken is continually working on a number of projects.

Radio and television broadcasts have been numerous, not only in the U.K. but all over the world. Ken has conducted, performed, interviewed, and had his compositions of his own played on television and radio stations in Europe, Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, America, and Australia. Workshop activities are also very regular events for Ken. His workshops are in demand around the world, in Europe, America, The Caribbean and Africa. As a composer, his music is published by Faber Music. Currently, there are two volumes of arrangements for choir, the first – the best-selling –‘Feel the Spirit’, and the second, released in the new Millennium ‘Good News’. A third SATB volume will be available soon. In 1997, he was commissioned to write a Gospel work for the Southampton Community Gospel Choir. This was entitled Southern Praise, and the work received both television and radio coverage, as well as being recorded and released on CD. Ken’s compositions cover a broad range of musical styles and types, including orchestral, band, solo vocal works ranging from 17th century through to 20th century idiom, a cappella choral cantatas, jingles, and many more.

As an educator, Ken has led and continues to lead many workshops, seminars and lectures in concert halls, schools, colleges, universities, churches and to private choral groups, on an international level. In the course of his career, Ken has also served as head of music at a north London church school.

Currently, Ken teaches performance to students at John Ruskin College in Greater London, directs the chamber choir at Goldsmiths’ College University of London, adjudicates for competitions, including the BBC Television series ‘Choir 0f The Year’ and is musical director and orchestrator for several television programmes, including the BBC series, ‘Songs of Praise’.

Rhys and Owain Boorman

Rhys and Owain

At the 2017 Kodály Summer School, Rhys and Owain will present a fun and interactive introduction to Cotswold Morris Dance, the most graceful, dynamic and complex of the Morris Dance forms alive in England today. Morris Dancing has easy-to- grasp structures, which are filled with a vocabulary of steps and arm movements distinctive to each “tradition”, and a number of figures and group movements shared between traditions. We will learn one or two accessible dances to explore the beauty of this tradition.

Rhys and Owain Boorman have both been dancing since the age of 12; they are 24 now. Their first side was Mad Jack’s Morris from Hastings, which was their only team for six years before going to university. Since then, Rhys has joined various teams, notably Morris performance group: Morris Offspring and Molly Team: The Seven Champions Molly Dancers. With Morris Offspring he has performed on various stages, including the Royal Albert Hall for the 2014 Folk Awards and has performed in shows in America and Canada.

Owain was just as busy at university, joining and leading two sides in Southampton: Red Stags and King John’s, who dance Border and Cotswold Morris, respectively.  He also formed a new mixed Cotswold side in the Autumn of 2014 called Clausentum Morris.

Rhys and Owain won the famous John Gasson Double Jig Competition in 2015 representing Clausentum, with Owain winning the Solo competition that same year; Rhys was placed 2nd in 2015 and 2016.

Steve Roud

Steve Roud_photoSteve Roud is a retired Local History Librarian and now a freelance writer and researcher specialising in the social history of traditional song and other folkloric topics. His publications include The New Penguin Book of English Folk Songs, The Lore of the Playground, The English Year, and the Penguin Guide to the Superstitions of Britain and Ireland. He is also the creator of the internationally-used Folk Song Index online database.

Gerard Klaassens

Gerard_photoGerard Klaassens lives in Limburg, in the South of Holland. He has a B.Ed. in Music Education and has studied solo singing. Since 1993 he has attended all the International Kodâly Seminars at the Kodály Institute of the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music in Kecskemét, Hungary where he has attended many solo singing courses led by Dr.János Klézli and Roland Hadju.

Gerard teaches Kodály Musicianship and recorder at the Myouthic Institute for Art and Culture, Thorn and is also a music teacher at the Music Primary Schools of Hout-Blerick, Montfort and Linne. As a conductor, he directs a children’s choir, an adult choir and a concert band; his adult choir have performed in Poland, Vienna, Salzburg and Baden-Baden.

In Holland he is in demand as a lecturer in Primary Music Education and has given workshops on Kodály teaching at the Utrechts Conservatorim. Last August, he was invited to meet the Minister of Education to discuss music education in the South of Holland. Together with Paul Mestrom he has written a method for recorder based on Kodály principles and is now working on a book about music listening.

Gerard has a great interest in multicultural songs and has travelled (and continues to travel) to many different countries to collect songs.

BKA Patron Bob Chilcott

The BKA are pleased to welcome the renowned composer and conductor Bob Chilcott as our new patron.

bobchilcottThe BKA commissioned Bob Chilcott to write a new choral piece for children called “A Tree of Song” for the Kodály Celebration Concert in March 2017. The concert marks the 50th anniversary of the death of Zoltán Kodály and celebrate 50 glorious years since the introduction to Britain of the Kodály approach to music education.

Bob ran a workshop in January for the BKA, featuring “A Tree of Song”. After the workshop the BKA were delighted when Bob agreed to be our newest patron.

Composer and conductor Bob Chilcott is one of the most widely performed composers of choral music in the world. He has a large collection of works published by Oxford University Press which reflects both a wide taste in music styles and a deep commitment to writing music that is singable and communicative. After a career as a singer, and twelve years as a member of The King’s Singers, he turned to conducting, and between 1997 and 2004 conducted the chorus of The Royal College of Music. Since 2002 he has been Principal Guest Conductor of The BBC Singers. He has conducted choirs in 30 countries over the last decade, recently in Russia, Canada, USA, Japan, Czech Republic, Germany, Netherlands, Italy, Poland, Sweden, Iceland, Denmark, and Norway.

See profiles of all the BKA Patrons here

Nicola Gaines

Nicola Gaines_photo

Nicola Gaines, BPhil(Hons), listed Cecchetti, is a specialist performer and teacher of Early Dance.

Nicola will be running two dance workshops, on Sunday afternoon and evening. The first is French Baroque Dance – steps and rhythm. Nicola will focus on the Minuet, showing how experiencing the steps of this typical Baroque dance can illuminate the music.

In the evening we can let our hair down with some English Dances from the 17th century – patterns and fun! In 1651 Playford published “The English Dancing Master” or “Plaine  and easie Rules for the Dancing of Country Dances, with the Tune to each Dance.” These dances were intended as light relief from the more formal dances of the age and were all about “meeting and passing”.

A graduate of the London College of Dance and Drama, and the Royal Ballet School’s Teachers Training Course, she worked for many years with the late Belinda Quirey MBE. In 1998 she recorded a highly acclaimed video on Baroque dance with Christopher Tudor.

Nicola has worked and performed on numerous educational projects with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. She has also led educational projects for the Victoria & Albert Museum and Viva (East of England Orchestra). Nicola has also delivered workshops for EPTA, BKA and the Purcell School of Music

Nicola is the Dance Leader and Administrator for the Early Dance Faculty of the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dance and has taught and demonstrated Early Dance on numerous courses run for dancers and musicians.

Nicola is also a senior teacher for the Junior Associates Scheme at the Royal Ballet School where she is responsible for the use of Early Dance material in the JA training programme and performances.

 

 

Kodály 4 All

Fleet, Hampshire

Two twilight sessions (4 – 6.30) on the application of the Kodály principles to classroom music teaching (Early Childhood and Primary – easily adapted for instrumental use)

Tutor: Len Tyler

Location: Court Moor School, Spring Woods, Fleet, GU52 7RY

Dates:
Part 1: Wednesday 11th January 2017 from 16:00 to 18:30
Part 2: Wednesday 18th January 2017 from 16:00 to 18:30
Single session attendance by arrangement. Priority give to those attending both sessions.

Who is this workshop for?
Anyone interested in classroom music teaching (preschool and primary). There is no need to be a music reader. This workshop is also suitable for instrumental teachers who want learn the Kodaly principles. Very useful for “whole class” teaching.

What will the workshop include?

  • Use of the basic Kodaly principles
  • Lots of songs, routines, and handouts
  • Examples of easy to produce resources
  • Loads of practical ideas (all tried and tested)

Comments from previous delegates

  • Everything was marvelous and extremely useful
  • All very exciting as my first experience of music teacher training. Loved the practical exercises
  • Having done pre-school music for the last 10 years, and being a professional musician there were surprisingly quite a few things that I hadn’t thought about
  • So many great ideas. It was all useful to me
  • Len was excellent in how he explained the course. Good to listen to and very precise. I enjoyed it immensely.
  • I found Len very inspiring and helpful.

Download the Kodály 4 All Flyer

To register your interest or book a place
Contact: Theresa
Email: enquiry@lentylermusicschool.co.uk
Phone: 01276 504666

This workshop has been set up specifically to support classroom teachers in preschools and primary schools in Fleet (Hants) and the surrounding area and is open to all in both the state and private sector. While there is no need to be a music reader to attend this workshop there will be plenty for the music specialist. As the Kodály principles are easy to see in early years and primary this workshop is ideal for any instrumental teacher wanting to find out how this approach works. The composer Zoltán Kodály (1882 – 1967) discovered that music education in his native Hungary was not good, and certainly not as he had personally experienced music as a child. As a result he set out to improve things by seeking out “best practice” around Europe while travelling as a professional musician/composer. It was in 1964 that the Incorporated Society of Music Educators held their annual conference in Budapest. At that event the world saw for the first time the great benefits of music the education system in Hungary. There are now Kodály organisations in many countries including USA, Canada, Australia, UK and of course Hungary.

Borbála Szirányi

Borbála Szirányi graduated in music education and choral conducting at the Liszt Academy of Music in 1997. In her final academic year, she participated in Professor Peter Erdei’s conducting master course in Oxford.

From 1996 to 2015 she worked at the music school of the Hungarian State Opera House Children’s Choir as classroom music teacher and choir conductor. In 1999 she conducted demonstration lessons for the Kodály Institute.

Since 2000 she has regularly taught as a visiting professor at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, where the Kodály programme was launched under her direction. The Conservatory’s female choir and mixed choir were founded with her guidance. They performed several concerts with both Western European and Chinese programmes, worked together with the Chinese conductor, Muhai Tang and released a CD.

In 2000 she was a visiting professor on the Kodály programme at the Holy Names College in Oakland, California. She has conducted Kodály courses in Shanghai (2001), Canton, (2005, 2006), Dublin (2013, 2014), Singapore (2013, 2014) Wales (2015, 2016) and Bucharest (2016).

In 2010, she conducted a choir workshop for the Hong Kong Treble Choir.

Since 2010 she has worked as a teacher at the Kodály Institute of the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music and she regularly directs post-graduate courses for Hungarian music teachers. Since 2014 she has also taught at the Kós Károly Általános Iskola as part of the Mintaiskola project led by the Liszt Academy of Music. In this project she and her colleagues experiment with new music methodological techniques based on the Kodály concept in order to refresh and renew Hungarian music pedagogy, making it more adaptable to the 21 st century classroom.

Laurel Swift

Laurel will present an fun and interactive introduction to Cotswold Morris Dance, the most graceful, dynamic and complex of the Morris Dance forms alive in England today. Morris Dancing has easy-to-grasp structures, which are filled with a vocabulary of steps and arm movements distinctive to each “tradition”, and a number of figures and group movements shared between traditions. We will learn one or two accessible dances and explore the musicality of the form.

Laurel Swift is an inspiring instigator of creative new projects and performances rooted in the folk arts.  Laurel has choreographed and devised national touring dance productions for Morris Offspring, co-created and performed Under Her Skin with Debs Newbold, advised theatre & film companies on using folk music and dance material, performed and taught at festivals in the UK and America, founded an organisation to develop youth folk arts projects, teaches and contributes to education projects in London and nationally, and regularly performs with her acts including Ben Moss, Gadarene and The Gloworms.

Photo Credit (Ian Anderson, fRoots)