Pamela Cook

Pamela Cook (director) is regarded as a leading authority on vocal and choral techniques, and is much in demand for solo and choral workshops at home and abroad. These have included working with choirs in Israel, Finland, Belgium and Canada and in the USA, where 400 ladies from the Ivy League Colleges of Radcliffe, Harvard, Smith, Mount Holyoak and Amherst were involved. She is also an external examiner for University and Conservatoire final degrees.

Many students from around the world have visited Mansfield to observe the methods used in training Cantamus, the girls choir with which she has gained 22 first and 4 second prizes in 24 international choral competitions. Among these are a double first (jury and audience) in Montreux (1978), the City of Vienna trophy for best choir in Vienna (1982), BBC/Sainsbury’s Choir of the Year (Adults) 1986 and the same in the Youth Section in 1994, the Grand Prix in Riva del Garda 1996, Choir of the World (Llangollen Eisteddfod) 1997, as well as championships and two gold medals in the World Choral Olympics in Bremen, 2004, repeated in China in 2006.

She has lectured in Physiology, Use and Care of the Voice at the World Symposium in Choral Music and served on judging panels of international choral competitions in Europe, as well as for BBC2 and Welsh Television. Articles by Pamela Cook have been published in the IFCM Journal, ABCD magazine, Masterworks magazine, The Singer and Music Teacher; she has also written a handbook on vocal technique.

Pamela Cook has taught in Universities and Colleges of Education, including the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester. She was formerly the Senior Lecturer in Voice at the Birmingham Conservatoire. Her current private studio includes professional opera singers from all over the UK and abroad, professional choralists and those girls aged over 16 from Cantamus who choose to pursue a career in singing. It is a source of pride that since 1970 every girl in Cantamus who has chosen to read music in a Conservatoire or University has been successful in her application, and many of these have gone on to grace the operatic stages of Great Britain, the Continent and USA.

In 1984 she was awarded the MBE, was made an Honorary Associate of the Royal Academy of Music in 1990 and an Honorary Fellow of Birmingham Conservatoire in 1993. Later the same year International Rotary conferred on her the Paul Harris Fellowship. In 2003 she was made a Vice-President of the Association of British Choral Directors alongside John Rutter and Brian Kay, and now serves on the Music Advisory Board of the National Youth Choir of Great Britain. Mansfield District Council conferred a Civic Honour on her for performance, teaching and Cantamus in 1989, and in 2006 she was awarded the honorary freedom of the District along with Cantamus and their aides “as being exemplary ambassadors across the world and performing to the highest standards of choral music through four decades.”

Philip Robinson

Philip Robinson (accompanist) was born into a musical family in which music was a part of everyday life. At the age of 9 he went to Durham Cathedral where he became Head Chorister.

Later at the Royal College of Music he studied organ and piano and was awarded a First Class degree. Since 1980 he has been based in the East Midlands where he has retained the balance between teaching and performing.

Philip has been accompanist to the Nottingham Bach Society and the Nottingham Harmonic Society. He is the accompanist for an annual singers course in Northern France and plays regularly for instrumental and vocal recitals. He is an examiner for the Associated Board and for AQA.

Philip recently returned to the post of Musical Director of Grantham choral society and is part of a duo The Parnell Phil with the saxophonist Alistair Parnell, whose theme is the reinterpretation of classical music.

In 2006 he was honoured to take up the post of accompanist to Cantamus which fulfilled for him a long standing dream.

Michael Neaum

Michael Neaum (arranger) obtained a first class Honours degree in Music at Birmingham University, where he won both the undergraduate and graduate Barber Scholarships.

He is greatly experienced as an accompanist in both piano and harpsichord, having worked with both nationally and internationally renowned singers and given Master Classes in accompaniment.

Between 1972 and 2007 he was the regular accompanist for Cantamus, having appeared with the choir on television and broadcast with it on many occasions.

Many of his skilful arrangements for female voice, published by Goodmusic Publications, Banks of York and Oxford University Press, are being performed by choirs world-wide.

Several choirs of all types have commissioned arrangements and compositions from him for special occasions, including the Newfoundland Symphony Youth Choir for the quincentenary celebrations of Cabot’s landing in Newfoundland attended by Her Majesty the Queen.

Much of his time nowadays is spent in coaching singers and accompanists.

Ann Irons

Ann Irons read her degree at Bath where Singing was one of her main subjects. She returned to Mansfield to become Head of Music at High Oakham School, where she led a lively Music Department, directing prize-winning choirs and mounting numerous staged works.

She then went on to St John's C of E Primary School and in 1996 her school choir was selected to be the Mansfield Music and Drama Festival representative at a Festival of Festivals held at Warwick University. From there she took up a post at the Joseph Whitaker Comprehensive School, Rainworth, running two choirs and being involved with the school orchestra as well as ambitious musical theatre performances.

Ann is now teaching at Nottingham High School for Girls, has a flourishing private teaching practice and sings in concerts and oratorios.

Ann is a regular conductor for the National Youth Choir of Great Britain (girls aged 11-16 years) and recently conducted them in the Choir’s 25th Anniversary concert in Birmingham Symphony Hall.

Joy Nicol

Joy Nicol was a Vocal Tutor with Cantamus from 1992 until her untimely death in January 2010.

Joy was such a support to all who crossed her path; so many students have been helped and guided by her. She was a marvellous teacher and a tower of strength to her pupils and her friends. Cantamus has lost one of it strongest supports whose loyalty, commitment, musical abilities, fun-loving and witty personality enhanced the Cantamus family.

Her work and inspiration lives in all of us, either as a pupil, friend, member or supporter of Cantamus. We all have very special and individual memories of Joy and are able to share them with each other and the staff. We are finding it hard to believe that this wonderful, talented bundle of energy is no longer with us but we know her memory will never be forgotten and we will once again smile together as we recall her many kindnesses and humorous quips. We can never forget all that she was, all her many gifts and her absolute generosity. She is a loss to many organisations and schools but none more so than to Cantamus where she was a light in our midst for 18 years.

Elaine Guy

Elaine Guy (vocal tutor) was a member of Cantamus until 1982. She began teaching Cantamus girls in 1981 and gained her LRAM singing teaching award in 1983. She has sung as a contralto soloist.

Elaine has made a career of sharing her love of music and singing with young people in the local area. As well as her involvement with Cantamus she teaches music at Saville House School in Mansfield Woodhouse and is Director of two choirs at Ashfield School, Kirkby in Ashfield. The junior choir is for years 7 and 8 and senior choir covers year 9 to post 16. The choirs give concerts in the local area and have undertaken concert tours on both the continent and in the UK.

Elaine is also the vocal coach for Ashfield School productions and coaches GCSE and A level Music and Performing Arts students. She is the organist and music group leader at St. John’s Methodist Church, Sutton in Ashfield.

Sheila Haslam

Sheila Haslam is a qualified teacher and was a Lecturer in Business Studies and Management at West Nottinghamshire College of Further Education for 22 years before taking early retirement.

She is the Co-ordinator of the Mansfield Music and Drama Festival and was awarded a Gold Medal in Public Speaking with Distinction from the London Associated Music and Drama Board in 1986.

A trained singer, Sheila has a always had a passionate interest in the art, and when Cantamus was first founded, volunteered to be the Secretary, a position she still holds.

For all enquiries, contact Sheila by:

e-mail sheilahaslam@ntlworld.com

phone 01623 627764

Wendy Cook

Wendy Cook, MA (Performing Arts) was trained at the Laban Studio and the London Contemporary Dance School. Formerly Principal Lecturer in Performing Arts, Middlesex University, she is now a freelance choreographer, director and teacher working with many different organisations.

Theatre work includes many productions for the National Youth Music Theatre performed in London, Edinburgh, Greece, and Japan. Her work includes dance/movement workshops for primary and secondary school students, youth groups and adults in the UK and abroad. She has worked with orchestras on performance projects with schools, most recently on a choreographed version of Haydn’s Symphony no. 26 with the London Mozart Players. Her work with singers and choirs has gained momentum in the last ten years. In addition to Cantamus, she also works with Amabile, Cantate, the Cheshire Youth Choir, the CBSO junior choir, and has given many singing and moving workshops with Lin Marsh, composer and singer.

She co-wrote a new music theatre piece Torchbearers (Faber Music 2006), a finalist in the Vivian Ellis 2000 Awards, and a guide to putting on a musical The Show Must Go On! (Faber Music, 2001). She is currently preparing a community production of Britten’s Noye’s Fludde for Colyton Parish Church in Devon.

Updated 22 February 2010