Ian Hare - Chorus Master

(Cilla Grant - see below)

As an organ recitalist and accompanist, Ian Hare has performed widely in Britain and abroad, including France, Germany, Holland, and the USA. He has played at many of the major London venues, notably an appearance in the Proms. Recent performances have included tours of Canada and North America, engagements in Rome and Vienna, and recitals at Queen’s College, Oxford and King’s College, Cambridge. He has made several recordings, including broadcasts for radio and television. He is also a composer, specializing in choral and organ music, and has had a number of works performed and published in Britain and the USA.

From 1981 to 1989 he was Organist and Master of the Choristers at Cartmel Priory and then became Sub-Organist at Carlisle Cathedral until 1995. After founding the Lancaster Singers in 1975 he remained their Musical Director until 1989, conducting many choral works with orchestra and professional soloists. Currently, he is the Director of Music at Crosthwaite Church, Keswick, in the Lake District, where he has established the Music at Crosthwaite series of summer concerts. He also directs the Keswick Choral Society and is Chorus Master of the Cumbria Rural Choirs.

Having begun his musical training at Hymers College, Hull and at St Mary’s Church, Beverley, he became a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists at the age of sixteen and studied in Paris with André Marchal. In 1968 he became the Organ Scholar of King’s College, Cambridge, under the direction of Sir David Willcocks. Following studies at the Royal College of Music and with Nadia Boulanger in France he was appointed Lecturer in Music at Lancaster University in 1974, subsequently becoming its first University Organist. He is in demand as a teacher, is an Associated Board Examiner, including work in the Far East.

For more information, see Ian's own web site.

CILLA GRANT (Piano)

Since leaving the Royal Academy of Music, Cilla Grant worked for several years as repetiteur to two professional opera companies and as a regular accompanist to many instrumentalists and singers, particularly for Lieder recitals. She was a resident pianist for instrumental courses, played concertos and orchestral piano, and arranged standard SATB choral works for SSA. From 1992 – 1996 Cilla was Principal Pianist for the International Gilbert & Sullivan Festival in the UK and USA. More recently, together with a singer and actor, she toured with a review on the life of Daphne du Maurier and was then musician aboard a cruise ship, playing both piano and bagpipes and piping the ship off from ports all around the Mediterranean. Cilla moved to Cumbria three years ago and is now pianist for Cumbria Opera and accompanist for Cumbria Rural Choirs.