ABOUT US

Lymington Choral Society exists to allow singers in the New Forest area and beyond to enjoy making music together. The essential qualifications for membership are enthusiasm and commitment, and although no entry auditions are held the Society is proud of the high standard it has achieved.

During the last decade, Lymington Choral Society has been successful in engaging promising young singers on the threshold of a professional career.   They have included recipients of the Kathleen Ferrier Awards, and experience indicates that most now have advancing careers in opera, the main concert venues in London and the provinces and in broadcasting.  To enhance these high standards, a professional orchestra accompanies our varied repertoire.

MICHAEL GOLDTHORPE - Conductor

Michael Goldthorpe was born and educated in The City of York. He sang as a boy treble at St Michael-le-Belfrey (opposite the Minster) and played horn in York City Brass Band. He quickly reached a high standard of piano playing and was in demand as an accompanist for local singers. He studied at Trinity College Cambridge where he served in the OTC and the college choir and orchestra, whilst reading for an English degree. He then moved to London where he studied at King's College for a Post-Graduate Certificate of Education, and taught in various secondary schools, from 1966-7 studying at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where he won the Mirsky Memorial Prize for Lieder before joining the BBC Singers and the music profession in 1968.

Michael has travelled widely with Intimate Opera, The London Opera Group, Kent Opera, The Chelsea Opera Group, The English Bach Festival, L'Atelier Lyrique de Tourcoing and The Royal Opera Company Covent Garden. He has broadcast recitals and concerts for the BBC and stations in Europe and Singapore, becoming closely identified with the French Baroque revival of the seventies and eighties, and making many records and television appearances.

He has taught for London University, The London College of Music and Trinity College of Music. For many years he directed solo and choral singing classes for Wandsworth Adult Education Institute, where he also conducted the Ladies Choir. He has taught voice for both Oxford and Cambridge Universities, and currently teaches singing privately in London and Lymington, where he now lives, and for Roehampton University.

Michael is delighted to be taking over as Musical Director of Lymington Choral Society. His priorities will be

· to develop the already high standard of performances

· to increase the number of performance opportunities

· to find fresh, varied and challenging repertoire

· to draw in new choir members, especially young ones

· to make rehearsals both instructive and enjoyable

· to offer promising young professional soloists a platform