HCS as a student singer…

I first joined Huddersfield Choral Society in October 2018 shortly after moving to up to Yorkshire to read Music at the University of Huddersfield. I left in 2021 after completing my degree and moving to London. Despite being a first study trombonist at university, I quickly took a keen interest in singing, and was inspired to develop my voice further. Singing has always been something I have loved. Having an organist and choir master for a father, it has been rather unavoidable for me, however, I thought that nothing could take away my love of orchestral music. Although this still remains true, singing in a high standard choral society certainly sparked a passion and appetite for choral music. I was immediately taken, not only with the wonderful sound of the society, but by how welcoming and friendly everyone was.

Successfully auditioning for HCS allowed me to develop my confidence as a singer as well as nurture my love and knowledge for choral works. I soon became familiar with standard repertoire such as Handel’s Messiah and Mozart’s C Minor Mass, to more challenging, contemporary works such as Adams’ Harmonium and Britten’s War Requiem. The first piece I learned with Huddersfield Choral Society was Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem, which has since become one of my favourite choral pieces. A personal highlight during my time at HCS certainly has to be singing with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, under the direction of Vasily Petrenko and again at Huddersfield Town Hall with Martyn Brabbins, where a few of my friends and family came to hear me sing. Those are certainly moments which I will never forget.

In my second year, I was fortunate enough to be one of HCS’s choral scholars, along with a few others, which not only was a wonderful opportunity to both directly contact our sponsors who were so keen to financially support young musicians but also gave me the confidence I needed to develop both as a singer/musician and personally. Huddersfield Choral Society has always been keen to support me and so wonderfully provided me with both the confidence and experience I needed to kickstart my musical career.