chorusmaster

Bradshaw had just been hired as the COC's first permanent chorusmaster in 1968.

Probably the most spectacular is that of the grandiose Berlioz Requiem, which really announced to the world what an amazing organism in the CBSO Chorus Fremaux and chorusmaster Gordon Clinton, the then Principal of the Birmingham School of Music, had created.

Behind the keyboard will be Joseph Cullen, Chorusmaster at Huddersfield Choral Society since 1999, performing a selection of classical pieces.

But elsewhere, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Choir chorusmaster Ian Tracey has put together a programme that aims for the musically magical, from the clarity of Rutter's Shepherd's Pipe Carol to the unusual Do You Hear What I Hear?

Ian Tracey - celebrating his 25th year as RLPC chorusmaster - was soloist in a searing performance of Guilmant's Symphony No 1 for Organ and Orchestra.

After a long spell as a Weimar court musician, suffering under a stubborn and unsympathetic employer, Bach's new post as chorusmaster for music-loving Prince Leopold at C|then in the 1720s meant more freedom and better resources to help him explore and extend the range of instrumental music, for ensembles through his Brandenburg Concertos as well as sets of solo works for his highly-skilled players.

He is to be principal conductor, choral programme, working closely with Alan Fearon, chorusmaster since the choir was formed in 1973.

For thirty-eight years - under Dukes Albrecht V and Wilhelm V, from 1556 to his death in 1594 - Lasso served as singer, chorusmaster, and composer to the Wittelsbach Court at Munich.

One liked the singers so much - he was the BBC Chorusmaster - that he travelled to Huddersfield every week from London for over a decade to rehearse with them.

While the society is regularly drilled by chorusmaster Joseph Cullen, it was Vasily Petenko - trained from boyhood in the ways of the choral tradition and back at the Hope Street helm after a month-long jaunt in the Americas - who was in charge here, guiding them through sudden changes in dynamics (the Kyrie) or the tricksy 12/8 triple meter of the Gloria with crispness and clarity, but matched by fluidity and expressiveness.

Chorusmaster Claude Webster led the ensemble (six musicians and clarinet from McGill Chamber Orchestra plus piano) with verve, in an arrangement by Francois Vallieres.

Alan, who is also chorusmaster to the Sinfonia Chorus as well as a conductor, keyboard player and timpanist with the orchestra, is no stranger to such film-plus-orchestra enterprises.