LEWES JUNIOR CHOIR

The Lewes Junior Choir is a 40 strong choir of children aged 8-11, many of whom are participating this evening. It meets in the Priory School Chapel, Lewes on Saturday mornings during term -time as part of the Lewes Area Music Centre which in turn is part of the East Sussex County Music Service. Stella Hull conducts the choir in addition to its older associated organisation, the Lewes Youth Choir.

After obtaining a BMus from Birmingham University, Stella began teaching music to A Level in secondary schools in Worcestershire and the West Midlands. After teaching music in various primary schools in Staffordshire she became the County Advisory Teacher for Music.

Stella studied singing in London with John Carol Case and is a contralto soloist. She teaches singing privately and within the East Sussex County Music Service and conducts the Lewes Junior Choir and the Lewes Youth Choir. She began conducting the Brighton Orpheus in September 1999 and has since then directed all its performances including Vivaldi's Gloria, Handel's Messiah, Poulenc's Gloria, Purcell's Come, ye sons of Art, the Requiem of both Brahms and Fauré, Mozart's Mass in C, Puccini's Messa di Gloria, Britten's Saint Nicolas, Vaughan Williams' Benedicite and Fantasia on Christmas Carols, Rutter's Feel the Spirit, Requiem and Psalmfest, Haydn's St Nicholas Mass, Dvořák's Te Deum, Bach's St Matthew Passion and Elgar's The Kingdom.

Muriel has been an accompanist to the Brighton Orheus Choir for over sixty years this year. She has spent all her life in Brighton and has thus become well-known in local music circles. She was awarded an MBE in the 2005 New Year's Honours, for services to music in Brighton & Hove.

For twenty years she taught at Patcham Junior School, specialising in music, and has seen several past pupils become highly regarded professional musicians. After a year as a lecturer at the former College of Education, she became Music Adviser for primary schools in the Brighton, Hove and Portslade area. During this time she was also responsible for three levels of training orchestras which fed the Brighton Youth Orchestra.  She now directs the Golden Age Singers in Lewes and a U3A Singing Group. For many years she has been an active member of the Sussex Musicians' Club and is its Honorary Secretary. Accompanying singers and instrumentalists is her special interest. She is also a very keen gardener!

PETER MANSFIELD

Pianist and trombonist Peter Mansfield read music at York University under Wilfred Mellers and studied piano with Alan Vicat in Shoreham. Peter teaches keyboard and brass for the East Sussex Music Service and assists Stella with the Lewes Youth Choir.