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Website maintained
by David Hopkins -
last update 27/06/08 |
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Snippets in the life of the Singers |
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Chris Haughton - Bass
(...& Chair....)
Music has been a part of my
life from earliest memories sitting as a small boy in the choir at St Peter's Church, Wolviston, near Stockton on Tees. The vicar's son was already a chorister at Durham Cathedral so I suppose someone must have
suggested it for me too. My very first experience of Durham's 'grey towers' was the beginning-of-term choir practice on a dark, icy and very scary Saturday night in January 1963. No underfloor heating in those days.
There are so many striking memories even after so long - but singing in the televised Maunday Service in 1967 attended by the Queen, ranks amongst the most vivid.
After twenty years at sea (which was a bit of a
musical wilderness, although I did conduct an officers' carol concert on the QE2 one Christmas), I settled in Lancashire to teach at the Nautical College in Fleetwood. I joined the Lancaster Singers in the early 90s and
have thoroughly enjoyed the mix of music and performance since then.
Living with my partner Jane, in Presall, life revolves around family, the 'Uni' - where we both work - travelling (Jane lived in 'Oz' and has
family there), theatre and the garden. I also help out as chorus master for our local youth drama group, the St Oswald's Dramatists. This is 80 strong and has been performing musicals since 1995. Working with them is
invigorating and always challenging. Sons Peter and Nick were members and both continue to enjoy making good music which continues to make the journey rewarding and worthwhile. |
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Richard Williams - Tenor
Musically my only claim to fame was as a boy when I was lucky enough to sing in two of the Royal Chapel choirs, principally the Savoy Chapel under
William Cole of Associated Board fame. I was fortunate in having a good treble voice and did a lot of solo work both at the chapels and in the London concert halls. Since my voice broke I have meandered through playing
the bassoon, singing alto in my school choir and tenor under Ivor Keys at Birmingham University (where incidentally I read Chemistry).
After a break of 18 years (in which I became a Chartered Accountant, lived and
worked in Africa and Australia, married Paula, moved to Lancaster and had our two children!) Denis kindly let me sing with the Lancaster Singers.
I now live in Halton with my wife Paula and children (Max-7years and
Kate-5 years) and, apart from the Lancaster Singers, spend my time running our small manufacturing business, entertaining our children, gardening, hill walking, cycling and reading. |
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Charlie Lewis - Bass
I live in Gressingham with Rosie ( a special
education teacher in Heysham and 'extra' for the altos when the Singers need to swell its ranks) and our two children: Tom and Camilla.
I spent my childhood avoiding the music lessons that my mother arranged
for me, but discovered singing as a teenager on the terraces at White Hart Lane and again ten years later when Rosie persuaded me to try the Nottingham University Choir. It was rehearsing some Bach motets and I
sat with the Tenors for the first half. I couldn't get any of the notes but I was smitten with singing - I think that the fact that Rosie and I had only recently started going out had something to do with
it. Since then I have sung with the Nottingham Harmonic Choir and Reading Festival Chorus, before joining the Singers when we moved here in 1989.
When I'm not playing football or singing, I teach at the
university and do research on family relationships (particularly the role of men in families) and on pre-school children's social and intellectual development. |
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Annik Taylor - Alto
(....& Membership Secretary)
I was born in Bolton of parents who were immensely fond of music and keen to nurture this in their children, so I was used to hearing plenty of music at home right from the start. (My
mother was Belgian which is how I got my French first name).
I evidently enjoyed singing from an early age. On one occasion when I visited the local library with my mother when I was three years old, I caused a
disturbance by singing the theme of 'Brahms' Variations on a theme by Haydn' until the library staff asked us to leave!
I sang in choirs throughout school and university and joined the Lancaster Singers
soon after I moved here in 1983. Since then, the choir has been an enriching and important part of my life in Lancaster.
I work in the Department of European Languages and Cultures at Lancaster University in an
administrative capacity, dealing mainly with undergraduate admissions and first-year courses.
My own degree was in French and German which I studied at Hull University - but I'm very rusty in both languages now.
When I'm not singing or listening to music, I enjoy a variety of other hobbies such as walking, gardening, reading, cinema, theatre, yoga and swimming. |
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Lauren Proctor - Soprano
I was lucky enough to grow
up surrounded by music, although mainly of the Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan variety that my parents would listen to. Although I loved music I was more into ponies and, much to my parents' despair, chose riding lessons
over music lessons. In my final year of high school I decided to take music seriously and crammed my associated board exams and learned piano in about a year so I could apply to study music and ended up at Lancaster
University, going for a music degree. I sang in the student choral society and the music department chamber choir and doing a bit of solo work before graduating in 1995.I then worked and travelled abroad
for several years funding travel by working summers as a tour manager for a music travel company in London. I was then offered a full time job in their London office and for the next four years set up music tours for
amateur and professional choirs and orchestras and toured around with some of them. Through this I met some of our well known composers and musicians at workshops and events and was involved in ABCD and other
organisations of that ilk here and abroad. London was great but as I had grown up in the Scottish Borders I was keen to get back to the countryside and managed to get back to Lancaster which I had so much
enjoyed as a student. I now work at the University in the adminsitration of the Ruskin Centre.
Singing with the Singers has been delightful; as well as our diverse repertoire my other musical interests include
popular music from the 15th-16th Century, especially Henry VIII's song book. I also enjoy listening to music from North and West Afica, a taste nurtured after several trips tothe Sahara including a music festival in the
middle of the desert north of Timbuktu!
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