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Our Music Director
NICHOLAS BANNANNicholas is an experienced musician and voice researcher who has recently returned from teaching at the University of Western Australia, where he directed The Winthrop Singers and led an international research project on the evolutionary origins of the human singing voice. He was also Assistant Director of the choir of St Mary’s Cathedral, Perth.
For Nicholas, there is simply no such thing as ‘tone-deafness’. The singing voice is as natural as the speaking voice, and arguably older: after all, babies vocalise musically before they acquire the ability to speak |
In the 1980s, Nicholas featured in the Find Your Voice movement that set up a national programme in the UK of classes to get people singing who believed they could not. In the Thames Valley, this initiative contributed to recruiting significant numbers to the five choirs who sponsored a series of workshops for adult beginner singers. In 2004, Nicholas led a project for the Alzheimer’s Society, Singing for the Brain, which established that singing can remain a medium of vocal communication for those who are losing the ability to speak, which was captured in a BBC documentary.
Nicholas was a chorister at Canterbury Cathedral who studied Music at Cambridge University. He taught at schools in Windsor and Maidenhead prior to working in teacher education at the University of Reading, and played a prominent part in setting up the Southern region of the Association of British Choral Directors. As a composer, he has written for the Choir of St Paul’s Cathedral, La Chapelle Royale de Paris, The Guildhall Strings, the Allegri Quartet, and for two BBC Radio plays. He is very much looking forward to taking on The Castle Choir and contributing to musical life in the area.
The choir will be recruiting new members to commence its 2023 season in early January. No audition is required, just the enthusiasm to contribute to a vibrant community group with a wide repertoire of songs and musical numbers that performs regularly in the Berkhamstead area.
Nicholas was a chorister at Canterbury Cathedral who studied Music at Cambridge University. He taught at schools in Windsor and Maidenhead prior to working in teacher education at the University of Reading, and played a prominent part in setting up the Southern region of the Association of British Choral Directors. As a composer, he has written for the Choir of St Paul’s Cathedral, La Chapelle Royale de Paris, The Guildhall Strings, the Allegri Quartet, and for two BBC Radio plays. He is very much looking forward to taking on The Castle Choir and contributing to musical life in the area.
The choir will be recruiting new members to commence its 2023 season in early January. No audition is required, just the enthusiasm to contribute to a vibrant community group with a wide repertoire of songs and musical numbers that performs regularly in the Berkhamstead area.