West Norfolk Singers at Long Sutton May 2014

There have been many musical directors and accompanists over the years and for a dozen or so years,up until May 2018, Nigel Wickens was our Musical Director and William Moss has been our accompanist. With Nigel retiring, we had to seek out a new Musical Director and were recommended Roger Dear who lives in Heacham. He took us through our Autumn 2018 series of Concerts until Jean Hornbuckle arrived to take over from the Spring 2019 Concerts. Our NEW Musical Director - Jean Hornbuckle Jean studied at the Royal Academy of Music and later at Reading University, gaining an M Mus degree. She worked with Scottish Opera, English National Opera and companies in France and Holland, as well as touring abroad with British groups. Roles performed include Azucena,(Il Trovatore,Verdi) Rossweisse (The Valkyrie, Wagner)Anna (Mary Stuart, Donizetti)Mamma Lucia (Cavalleria Rusticana, Mascagni)Hata(The Bartered Bride. Smetana), Gilbert and Sullivan and other assorted mezzo/contralto characters from various operas. She also performed in concert and has sung the contralto solos in most of the well-known oratorios. She has broadcast and recorded both as a soloist and with the BBC Singers and other professional groups. Jean conducted two choirs and was a Singing Tutor at the City Literary Institute in London. Other work included running a group of players at Hatfield House performing Tudor evenings during which she either played Queen Elizabeth I or a court musician. She was involved in the Living History project for school children also at Hatfield. Our Accompanist - William Moss William Moss who presently lives in Hunstanton, West Norfolk, was born in Castleford, Yorkshire and studied Music at the Royal Academy of Music in London with Vivian Langrish for piano and James Iliff for composition. After winning several prizes including the Albanesi Prize for a performance of Scriabin’s 5th Sonata and a Thomas Jennings Exhibition for composition he graduated in 1972 and pursued further studies with Nadia Boulanger, a celebrated pupil of Louis Vierne and Gabriel Faure, and later with James Murray Brown and John Gardner at Durham University. Based in London he worked as a tutor in Music Theatre at Morley College, and touring pianist with the Society for the Promotion of Modern Music, giving concerts throughout the country including the Wigmore Hall and Purcell Room with the group Electric Candle. In 1974 William Moss took up a full time lectureship at Newark College, and in 1990 moved to Norfolk as Head of Music at City of Ely and Downham Market Colleges until 2004. He joined the panel of examiners for the Associated Examining Board in 1982 and is presently an examiner in composing for the Oxford and Cambridge Board. William Moss studied organ principally with Anne Marsden-Thomas at the St Giles International Organ School, and with several leading players including Daniel Roth (Saint-Sulpice), Susan Landale (Saint-Louis des Invalides), Marie-Louise Jacquet-Langlais (Saint Clotilde), Jon Laukvik (Norwegian Academy of Music, Oslo) and David Sanger. He is currently organist at Long Sutton Parish Church in South Lincolnshire and a deputy organist at Westminster Cathedral and the Wesley Chapel in the City of London, and has undertaken several recitals abroad including France, Germany and South Africa.

WE HAVE A NEW MUSICAL DIRECTOR Jean Hornbuckle