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 and Ceremony of Carols, 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.

JOHN HANCORN (baritone)

John Hancorn has enjoyed a successful career as a professional singer in oratorio, opera and consort and recital work. He has extensive experience performing and recording in the field of oratorio, opera and consort singing, and has sung principal roles with Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Glyndebourne, and Welsh National Opera. John is a very active locally as Music Director of the East Sussex Bach Choir and Sussex Baroque Players. John is also conductor of the Eastbourne Choral Society, and is closely associated with the Brighton Early Music Festival, where last year he directed Purcell's Dido and Aeneas and Tarik O'Regan's Scattered Rhymes with the Orlando Consort. This July he will be conducting the premiere of The Finnish Prisoner, a new work by Orlando Gough, and in October he will be directing Handel's Israel in Egypt with the Brighton Early Music Festival Singers. John is on the staff at Trinity College of Music, The East Sussex Academy of Music, and is Head of Vocal Studies at Christ's Hospital. He also regularly directs chamber choir courses at Dartington International Summer School.

Gavin Henderson joins us in this concert to play the trumpet. Now honorary President of the Brighton Orpheus Choir he can remember in the distant past playing in the Brighton Orpheus orchestra at a number of concerts. Since then his contribution to musical life has extended very widely.

From 1983 to 1994 he was Artistic Director of the Brighton Festival. He retired recently from being Principal of Trinity College of Music, but in September starts as Principal of the Central School of Speech and Drama. He continues as Artistic Director of the Dartington International Summer School. Gavin is Vice President of the British Arts Festivals Association and in October 2003 was elected as President of the European Festivals Association.

In our own area he has been a Governor of the University of Brighton from 1987 onward, and is an Honorary Fellow of both the Universities of Sussex and of Brighton. He is chairman of the Regency Society in Brighton and Hove, chairman of the Brighton Youth Orchestra, and a member of the board of the Brighton West Pier Trust.

Muriel has been an accompanist to the Brighton Orheus Choir for over sixty years. 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!