Janet Wheeler

Janet Wheeler is a freelance composer, choral conductor and teacher. A junior exhibitioner at the Guildhall School of Music from the age of 10, Janet went on to read music at Cambridge, where she studied composition with Robin Holloway and Hugh Wood. After running a secondary school music department, she became a music producer for BBC Schools Radio primary music for eight years.

Janet has conducted choirs of all sizes and singers of all ages, including the New Cambridge Singers, the Orpheus Choir of North Herts, Carillon and numerous choral societies. She also continues to work with several primary and secondary school orchestras and choirs, and enjoys arranging and composing music for them.

Her practical approach to choral training has evolved from a wealth of choral experience as both singer and conductor, together with trouble-shooting experience while recording choirs for the BBC and more recent training in Estill Voicecraft, courses with the Voices Foundation and individual singing tuition with Colin Baldy. She is a member of the Association of British Choral Directors.

Janet has maintained a long working relationship with Saffron Walden Choral Society as their Musical Director. During this time SWCS has developed into a much-admired chorus - giving exceptional performances of the standard choral works. Recent highlights have included the Monteverdi Vespers, Rossini's Petite Messe Solennelle and the Brahms Requiem. The choir also branches out regularly into more contemporary repertoire and a range of different singing styles.

As well as directing SWCS in choral and orchestral repertoire Janet also works with the choir to plan and direct large-scale community singing events, such as Wingbeats, a partnership project with RSPB and SWCS. For this she composed a cantata about the albatross On the Breath of the Sky with writer Nick Warburton, having previously collaborated with him on the cantata Train in the Rain and a children's musical Orpheus for BBC Schools Radio. Her largest work is the 40 minute choral and orchestral composition Sea Tongue, first performed in 2004 and repeated the following year in King's College Chapel, Cambridge. It sets a text by Kevin Crossley-Holland, telling the story of the disappearing village, old church and crumbling coastline of Dunwich.

In October 2007 Janet formed an adult chamber choir, Granta Chorale. She also directs several youth and children's choirs including SignuptoSing and the Chamber Choir at Saffron Walden County High School, where she also helps to run an annual Big Sing with local primary schools.

Janet's most recent compositions are two choral cycles The Joy as it Flies and Time Becomes a Song. The latter is a cycle of John Clare settings commissioned in part by OCR to celebrate the life and work of the poet. The work was given its first performance by the Granta Chorale in October 2009 and has received many subsequent performances.

Janet is currently completing the commission for a large-scale Magnificat. She is also composing a new work for combined choirs and the Britten Sinfonia for MazeMusic as part of the Music Nation project. The first performance will be on 3 March 2012.

Richard Carr

Richard Carr began his musical career as a county music scholar at the High Wycombe Music Centre, where he studied piano and cello. After two years as Organ Scholar at All Saints Parish Church, High Wycombe, Richard won an Organ Scholarship to study music at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. Whilst at college, he directed the chapel choir in their weekly services and on foreign concert tours to Germany, Belgium, Ireland and the USA, studied organ with John Wellingham and Anne Page.

After graduating in 2003, Richard spent two years as Musician in Residence at Ardingly College in West Sussex, teaching music, and directing music for productions of Les Miserables and Candide.

Since 2005 he has been a freelance organist and piano accompanist, based in the Cambridge area. He is currently Director of Music at St Michael's Church, Bishop's Stortford, where he directs choirs of children and adults, and oversees the church's music programme. Richard also teaches piano and organ to many students, both privately, and as a visiting music teacher at King's College School, Cambridge.

Richard is in great demand as a piano accompanist, most recently accompanying the trumpeter Crispian Steele-Perkins, as well as workshops for choral directors, including John Rutter and Bob Chilcott. He is the regular accompanist for the Saffron Walden Choral Society, and Assistant Musicical Director to the SignuptoSing Youth Choir.

His work has taken him across the UK, USA, and, most recently, to the south of France. Recent solo performances have included concertos by Bach, Schumann, Rowley, Walter Leigh and Poulenc.