President
Gavin Henderson CBE
Vice Presidents
Valerie Bolton
Naomi Sack
Committee
Chair; Hilary Brown
Secretary: Hilary Woodward
Treasurer: Val Gray
Charities Liaison: Richard Martini
Vicki Lywood Last
Vera Stiefler Johnson
Librarian
Amanda Shepherd
Rehearsals
We rehearse from 7.30 – 9.30pm on Wednesday evenings, mostly during school term times, at the Friends Meeting House, Ship Street, Brighton.
We are a friendly, welcoming, inclusive, non-religious group that welcomes new members. So, why not apply to join us? You don’t have to be a perfect sight reader, that develops with practise, but you do need to be able to read vocal music, have good pitch and the ability to feel the music’s harmony and rhythm. You are expected to practise between rehearsals.
Charitable Work.
One of our objectives as a charity is to assist other charitable institutions. We do this by having a collection at all our concerts. In recent years we have raised funds for a range of charities such as Moulsecoomb Forest Garden & Wildlife Project; Medecins Sans Frontieres; the Clock Tower Sanctuary; Lunch Positive; RNLI; The Martlets Hospice; The Red Cross and Food and Friendship, Hove.
We also sing Christmas Carols at Brighton Station each year, often in support of a charity supporting the homeless. Click on our social media accounts at the bottom of this page to see us singing to raise money for The Clock Tower Sanctuary 17th Dececember 2025.
We have recently entered into partneships with three local charities and you can read more about them by clicking on this link https://www.brightonorpheus.org/charitypartners
Musical Director: Nick Houghton
Conductor and organist Nicholas Houghton first conducted us in 2019 and became our Musical Director in 2022.
Nick is a full-time freelance player, accompanist and choral director, with his own 17th century style chamber organ (built for him by Goetze and Gwynn in 1985) and Bizzi harpsichord.
Having begun his musical career at the age of seven as a chorister at Coventry Cathedral, Nick studied organ with David Lepine, Robert Weddle and Nicolas Kynaston, and music at Bristol University. He went on to hold a variety of teaching roles in both the independent and state education sector including five years as Head of the East Sussex Academy of Music (ESAM) in Lewes.
Nick has been conducting choirs and running choral workshops for over forty years, including eight years with the Reading Haydn Choir and fifteen with the Downland Chorale in Surrey. As well as conducting Brighton Orpheus Choir, Nick is also MD of East Sussex Community Choir, Brighton Singers and the Lewes Singers.
Since 2012 Nick has been the Director of Music and Organist at St Michael’s in Lewes, founding the Sunday Recitals series there a year later. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists.
Accompanist : Rachel Fryer
Rachel is in demand as a pianist throughout Sussex, as a soloist, accompanist and chamber musician. Rachel has a diverse pedagogy, having studied at the Royal College Of Music, Kharkiv Conservatoire, Ukraine as well as with pianists including Steven Kovacevich, Joanna MacGregor and Howard Shelley.
Rachel has performed at Croydon's Fairfield Hall, for the Beethoven Piano Society and on various cruise liners including the QE2 Millenium Cruise and has performed concerti with Hertfordshire Philharmonic Orchestra and more locally the Horsham Symphony Orchestra.
Rachel is the Concert Director for Music & Wine at St.Luke's, a concert series in Queens Park, Brighton, which Rachel helped set up.
She has an active teaching practise and is involved with music education work with groups including Orchestra of Sound and Light and Kidenza. Rachel is also training as a conductor and regularly conducts a youth choir, Lewes Harmony Voices.
When she's not music making Rachel enjoys gardening and she is also Director of the Newhaven Green Centre, working to help people reduce waste and consumption and save money.
