
Tuesday 4th July at 8pm
St Michael’s Highgate
Finsbury Park Singers conducted by Charles MacDougall
George Ireland pianist
Please ensure your phone and any other electronic devices are switched to silent. Enjoy the concert!
Programme
Finsbury Park Singers
I Say A Little Prayer For You Burt Bacharach
Now Is The Month Of Maying Thomas Morley
I Sing Because I Loved You Once Will Todd
Sing The Darkness Away Angela Reith (first performance of this piece which was commissioned by Finsbury Park Singers)
Finsbury A Cappella
Only In Sleep Ēriks Ešenvalds
Ubi Caritas Ola Gjeilo
Landslide Fleetwood Mac arr. MaryAnne Muglia
Shenandoah arr. Burt Szabo
Ksenitia tou Erota Giorgos Kalogirou
Finsbury Park Singers
Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay Otis Redding / Steve Cropper arr. Gitika Partington
Follow The Heron Karine Polwart arr. Baz Chapman
Autumn Leaves Joseph Kosma, Johnny Mercer, Jacques Prévert arr. Joanna Forbes L’Estrange
Over the rainbow Harold Arlen, E.Y. Harburg arr. Joanna Forbes L’Estrange
Finsbury Park Singers
Finsbury Park Singers is a mixed-voice community choir based in North London, founded in September 2018. We have performed for Jeremy Corbyn at an open evening and at Fonthill Christmas Market. We kept busy during lockdown, singing via the wonders of Zoom, creating several virtual choir videos, and continuing our charity fund raising efforts.
In 2019 we were honoured to take part in the BBC Proms performance of In the Name of the Earth by John Luther Adams, and in 2020 we graced the Barbican stage, together with the LSO orchestra and a massed choir to perform Andre Thomas’ Symphonic Gospel Spirit. Our Autumn term starts on Tuesday 19th September and new members are welcome.
Finsbury A Cappella
Finsbury A Cappella is a new upper voices vocal ensemble, founded in January 2023. The ensemble welcomes new members by audition for the summer term which begins on Tuesday 19th September – for more information, visit www.finsburyacappella.co.uk
Charles MacDougall
Charles MacDougall, known equally for his singing and his transformative work with choirs and singers, was appointed director of Finsbury Park Singers in early 2023.
A former member of internationally-acclaimed vocal ensemble VOCES8, he now sings for a number of other ensembles, including Gabrieli Consort and Players, London Voices (appearing on numerous film soundtracks) and London Early Opera (including as a soloist on their releases Handel at Vauxhall, Vol.1 & 2, Signum Classics), as well as undertaking solo engagements internationally.
An accomplished choral conductor and vocal coach, he is Chorus Director for Gabrieli ROAR, Vocal Ensembles Coach and Tutor in Vocal Studies at Junior Trinity (Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance) and directs 3 choirs in London. Recent directing highlights include conducting the world premieres of both Errollyn Wallen’s MAP: Songs For Children Everywhere for Britten-Pears Arts in Hull and Snape Maltings, and David Bruce’s Songs of Home for the 25th anniversary of The Voices Foundation at St John’s Smith Square. He is extremely active as a workshop leader, presenting sessions for the BBC Singers, UK Choir Festival, Association of British Choral Directors, LSO and Stay At Home Choir.
As an educator, he was part of the team that received the Music and Drama Education Award for Excellence in Primary/Early Years 2018 and he helped devise and deliver the daily Virtual Sing for children on lockdown in 2020. In 2021 he wrote the first volume of Inside Singing, a choral resource for primary school choir leaders, shortlisted for Outstanding Music Education Resource in the Music and Drama Education Awards 2023.
A fierce advocate for the importance of music and music education, he is the Choral Director of Voices Foundation, an Ambassador for Britten-Pears Arts, a Trustee of IntoOpera, and a Director and Trustee of the Choral Foundation, Chapel Royal, Hampton Court Palace.
George Ireland – pianist
Noted for a “superbly voiced instrumental partnership of his singer” (Sussex Express) and “spectacular, sensitive and vivid accompaniment” (The Latest), George Ireland is in demand both as a recital partner with some of the finest singers of his generation, and as a repetiteur in Opera and Choral music. From a non-musical background, he began to play the piano from scratch, self-taught at the age of 14. He is now 28 and recently graduated with distinction from the Royal College of Music where he studied collaborative piano under Simon Lepper and Roger Vignoles. He also studied conducting, continuo and vocal coaching.
A 2022-24 Oxford Song Young Artist, George and Rebecca Leggett won the British Art Song Competition in December 2022. George has also accompanied the winning recitals of Oksana Lepska, Hugh Cutting and Jessica Cale at the National Mozart Competition, and the Kathleen Ferrier Awards, subsequently performing and recording at the Wigmore Hall, on BBC Radio 3, The Theatre Grevin in Paris, and the Brighton, Bloomsbury, Bledington and Beaumaris Festivals. In Opera he has worked with West Green House Opera, Waterperry Opera Festival, British Youth Opera, St Paul’s Opera and the Youth Companies of Glyndebourne and The Royal Opera House.
Acknowledgements
A huge thanks to all the singers involved in tonight’s concert for their hard work. An especially big thank you goes to the team of volunteers from the choir who have helped make this event possible.
Thanks to the staff at St Michael’s and to you, our lovely audience, for supporting us.