|
|
I am
delighted to announce that at its meeting on 18th September,
the PCC voted unanimously to appoint Mrs Nicola Roman to be our
Director of Music Development.
Nicola is
a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music, London, where she won the
ABRSM Scholarship. Nicola has a wide and varied operatic career
throughout the UK and Europe where she has been the principal artist for
many major operatic houses. As a soloist, Nicola has sung oratorio all
over the world including the Messiah and The Creation at the Royal
Albert Hall with Sir David Wilcocks and the English Chamber Orchestra
and a programme of Beethoven and Wagner as guest artist with Kent Nagano
and the orchestra of Opera De Lyon in Lyon, St Etienne and Geneva.
Nicola is in demand as a recitalist and has performed regularly at St
Martin’s in the Field, The Queen Elizabeth Hall and the Purcell Room,
London, as well as in the United States, Canada and Europe. Nicola also
specialises as a performer of contemporary music, premiering many works
by composers such as Elena Firsova, Stephen Albert and Roxanna Panufnik.
She performed the US premiere of a piece by Jonathan Wilcocks and has
appeared extensively with the BBC Singers, including a peace concert and
radio broadcast in Zagreb during the recent war. Radio and television
work has included numerous recitals for Classic FM, the BBC and Tele
France. Nicola is a winner of the Royal Overseas League International
Singing Competition.
Nicola
(stage name Nicola Howard) will be working two days a week at St
Cuthbert’s to further develop the existing musical tradition of the
church. This will include increased use of the church as a venue for
concerts. (She has plans for a Lytham Brass Band Festival to be held at
St Cuthbert’s next year.) Nicola will also have responsibility for
building on the excellence of our current choral team by developing a
youth choir for girls aged 13 – 18 (very recently formed and called St
Cuthbert’s Cantamus) together with a training choir of 8-12 year olds
and an adult choir which will perform on special occasions. (This is not
to forget that we have recently been instrumental in helping the Lytham
CofE School to start a choir that will be shared between St John’s and
St Cuthbert’s. Conducted by John Mitchell, rehearsals in school are
currently attracting 30 – 40 pupils.)
This is
without doubt a very exciting and important development for our life as
a church. We are thrilled that Nicola has taken on this post to start
with immediate effect and we look forward to working with her in the
future. And I am most grateful too, to the Churchwardens and PCC for
their enthusiasm and vision for the future. Anyone – children or adults
– who would like any further information, please contact Nicola.
|
|
