Choral Scholars 2021-22
Thames Philharmonic Choir is delighted to have appointed our first four choral scholars who will sing with us with effect from September 2021. They are:
Alex Bower-Brown
Bass
is a member of Recordare Chamber Choir and a regular choral singer around London. He is currently completing his last year of the Royal Academy of Music (RAM) undergraduate singing course studying with Glenville Hargreaves and Iain Ledingham, and has been a regular performer in the RAM/Khon Bach Foundation concerts. He has also been awarded a scholarship place to study postgraduate singing at RAM. He has a passion and love for choral music, is a staunch Bach fan and is particularly excited about polyphony singing.
Will Hester
Tenor
sings regularly at St Cuthbert's Church, Earl's Court and also with the Colla Voce Singers, a London-based chamber choir. Following a music scholarship at Wellington School, he became a Choral Scholar at Sherborne Abbey and worked in the music department at Sherborne School. Will then took up a Choral Scholarship at King's College London where he sang in the Chapel Choir and as part of an octet in the London Handel Festival. After graduating from King’s with an honours degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE), Will is now a full-time civil servant. He loves Leonard Bernstein's Chichester Psalms and music by Howells in equal measure.
Maya Colwell
Alto
is the current recipient of the Serena Fenwick Young Artist award with British Youth Opera, having recently completed her MA Vocal Performance (Distinction) studies at the RAM. As a soloist, she has sung from new compositions to Mozart and Monteverdi, sung extensively with Rogue Opera, where she is a listed artist, and Love Opera, a fringe company which she set up in Bristol. She has also sung solos in oratorios with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at Cadogan Hall. Ensemble singing is one of her great loves and has missed it enormously, especially this year.
Emily Beech
Soprano
is due to begin her performance Masters at Trinity Laban Conservatoire later this year. She has already performed a number of solo roles with the University of Birmingham Summer Festival Opera programme, Birmingham Proms, has toured in Berlin and Leipzig and performed in multiple BBC Proms projects. Emily has a strong background in choral singing, most recently with Covent Garden Chorus, Constellation Chamber Choir and Early Modern Vocal Ensemble, backed up with membership of the National Youth Choir and BBC Proms Youth Choir.
"We were delighted with the number and quality of the applicants", says TPC Chair Sue Mason. "In addition to the four successful applicants, five auditionees have been offered free Choir membership with free tuition sessions with Harry Bradford and James Orford, and another has been offered the opportunity to write music for one of our cathedral residencies."