Tag Archives: John Chillingworth

Autumn Concert on Sunday 17 November at 7 pm in Sudbury Arts Centre

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Our last “serious” concert was at 7 pm on Sunday 17th November in Sudbury Arts Centre at St Peter’s. We sang the gloriously operatic Puccini Gloria (loosely based on the Catholic Mass) with great gusto – which is what it needs and then after the interval we sang Faure’s heartstoppingly beautiful Requiem. Our fantastic soloists from the Royal Academy of Music and an orchestra made up of local professionals who really did the music justice.

Hats off to our newer and younger members of the choir – you really made a difference. Our audience was very impressed.

We hope you came to this concert – it was a wonderful evening of full on choral music. Not to be missed, particularly the duet in the Agnus Dei for the tenor and baritone soloists which was fabulous.

Here are some of the comments from our audience:

I just want to say how much i enjoyed the choir’s concert of Faure and Puccini on Sunday at the Sudbury arts centre. The Requiem is one of my favourite pieces and hearing it sing so beautifully with the gorgeous voice of the soprano was just breathtaking. Her voice was as pure as a choir boys! I don’t know the other piece by Puccini, but I really enjoyed it – there were so many exciting parts and the baritone soloist was absolutely brilliant – (so was the tenor!). We are so lucky to have this choir and orchestra in Sudbury – I will definitely come again! But I’ll get there early next time because it was so packed. Gaynor

Full disclosure first – I have been working with Sudbury Choral Society as their accompanist for a few months now, so I was really looking forward to sitting back and hearing them in full voice, as a spectator! And what a fantastic audience – yet another, thoroughly deserved full house! – at St Peter’s Arts Centre on Sunday 17th Nov.

For many in the choir it was the first time singing with an orchestra – and what a thrilling difference these professional players made. As the players responded to John Chillingford’s every nuance, the Choir rose to create a performance of real excitement and sympathy. I’ve adored the Puccini Messa di Gloria since rehearsals started but hearing the results of so much hard work, complemented by the brilliant orchestra and the 2 sensational young soloists, was indeed Glorious! Turning a little darker & more reflective for Faure, the more exposed vocal parts wobbled a little at times, but my goodness – I was proud to be listening to my friends and colleagues singing their hearts out up there! Jill

Stephen Varcoe, our president, said – Sudbury Choral Society entertained a packed house at the Sudbury Arts Centre on November 17 with another of their splendid concerts. Puccini’s challenging Messa di Gloria received a spirited performance accompanied by a hand-picked orchestra and two very impressive solo singers from the Royal Academy of Music – Owen Thomas and Johannes Moore. For Fauré’s beautiful Requiem Johannes was joined by local soprano Gill Wilson, and the choir again performed magnificently under the baton of conductor John Chillingworth.

For their Autumn concert, performed on 17 November, Sudbury Choral Society lit upon the ingenious idea of uniting compositions by two major, if musically disparate, composers who died one hundred years ago, in November 1924. Puccini’s Messa di Gloria is an early work, composed in 1880 when Puccini was 21 and still a student at the Milan Conservatory. The Messa little hints at the great operatic composer he was to become, though in the touching final ‘Agnus Dei’ for tenor, bass and chorus we experienced some of the emotional power for which Puccini was to become so noted. Fauré’s melodically appealing Requiem is a long-established member of the oratorio canon. It is amusing to read in the programme notes that such an accessible work was once ‘regarded by the conservative elements in French music as being dangerously modern.’

Once again, the Society was able to draw on talented young singers from the outstanding Royal Academy of Music vocal stable. Both tenor Owen Lucas and baritone Johannes Moore displayed well-schooled voices of attractive timbre, Moore admirably resisting the temptation to push in the lower reaches of the Puccini aria for bass. Both might have benefitted from observing local soprano Gill Wilson’s communication with the audience in Fauré’s ‘Pie Jesu.’ A certain reserve marks the performances of the Royal Academy students I have seen in oratorio. A greater vulnerability, and openness both to music and audience, would achieve yet more affecting results. John Chillingworth conducted the excellent band with his customary verve while the chorus, as ever, gave their all. Mark Glanville.

An occasion where the enthusiasm of an amateur choir, working with professional soloists, conductor and musicians , and playing to a packed house – Sudbury Arts Centre/ St Peter’s – provided a performance which had a true sense of occasion, exceeding  all reasonable expectations, and provided an uplifting and joyful musical experience.

Soloists in the Puccini, Owen Lucas, tenor, and Johannes Moore , baritone, were superb, always excellent in their expression, projection and diction . The barione was joined by Gill Wilson as the excellent soprano soloist  in Faure’s ethereal Pie Jesu .

Ensemble work of choir and orchestra  was always well integrated , with conductor John Chillingworth , marshalling together soloists, musicians and choir on the day, providing tempi  and phrasing which always maintained clear balance,  crisp rhythms ,and well- phrased direction and line ; a result which was a splendid advert for his( and the accompanist’s) work over  the choirs several weeks’ rehearsals. Graham

Welcome to our new conductor John Chillingworth!

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John Chillingworth is formally to become conductor of Sudbury Choral Society in April 2021.  However, in the unusual circumstances of lockdown and the suspension of normal choir activities, he is going to run online rehearsals from June 2020.  “I hope to make singing fun but rewarding for choir members.  I encourage hard work in rehearsals, but always with a light-hearted touch, to bring challenging works to performance standard and I believe the members of choirs involved find the end result is often beyond what they thought they could achieve.  I am already conductor of Lexden Choral Society and have been having online rehearsals with them for over two months.  The online sessions, despite frustrations, have been very popular and members there feel that they have learned more about the music than in normal rehearsals, and also got to know each other better.  I hope the experience will be equally rewarding for Sudbury Choral Society.”

I am a cellist, organist, pianist, instrumental, theory and composition teacher, orchestral and chamber music coach, conductor and arranger.

I studied the cello and organ at the Royal College of Music and later the cello with William Pleeth, teacher of Jacqueline Du Pre.  For seven years I was the cellist of the Guadagnini String Quartet performing and broadcasting all over Europe and Canada.  I was an Artist-in-Residence at Southampton University followed by two years at Lancaster University.  While in the quartet, I was very fortunate to study chamber music with some of the finest musicians in the world.  Following the disbanding of the quartet, I became Assistant Principal Cello of the BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra, which became the BBC Philharmonic during my time in the orchestra.  For twenty-five years I was Principal Cellist at English National Opera.  I have also worked as a guest principal cellist with many other orchestras, including the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Opera North, Northern Philharmonia, London Mozart Players, London Sinfonietta, BBC Welsh Orchestra and Camerata Ireland. 

 Having decided to leave ENO, I moved to Essex and am now pursuing a varied career as a free-lance cellist, a teacher of the cello, organ and piano and as an accompanist for recitals and exams. I teach for Essex Music Services at Colchester Royal Grammar School, privately, and at St Joseph’s College in Ipswich and at Ipswich High School.  I live in a thatched cottage in Suffolk.

I became a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists at the unusually young age of nineteen, am a Diploma examiner for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, work as an adjudicator for Music Festivals, coach at the London Music Colleges and teach young professionals, helping them prepare for audtitions or recitals.

I am very much looking forward to becoming conductor of Sudbury Choral Society, am already conductor of Lexden Choral Society, and of the newly formed Essex Youth Choir and Essex Youth Consort, two choirs for students up to the age of nineteen.   My latest project is starting a big band.  I was looking forward to conducting Southend Symphony Orchestra, but sadly, like all other live performances, that has had to be cancelled.

As a composer, I have had a musical written for primary schools performed by a group of primary schools in Felixstowe, an organ piece performed in the Sunday evening series of organ recitals at St John’s College, Cambridge, a piece for massed strings played by the strings of Essex Young People’s Orchestra and Lexden Choral Society have performed a work for Remembrance Day; as an arranger, I have had many arrangements performed by a variety of different groups including the Gents of St John’s.

I am married with a selection of children across the ages, from fifteen to thirty-six, and one granddaughter.  In the small amount of time left to me when I am not involved in musical activities, I enjoy cycling and cooking, especially Mediterranean cooking and baking sour dough bread.”

John Chillingworth