This Archive chronicles a partial history of the London Oriana Choir from 1996-2013 – the years when I had the privilege of being its second Musical Director. In it you will see details of every concert during that time, along with audio or video if available. If you wish to go straight to the Archive, please scroll to the bottom and read the disclaimer.

BACKGROUND
Ten years after leaving London for California, I received an invitation to join the choir for their 50th Anniversary. My time with Oriana had been a particularly happy 18 years of music-making and friendship and, in a fit of nostalgia, I began a long-overdue sort-through of all the jumbled papers, recordings and memorabilia that had gathered over those years. As I did so, the thought occurred, “Why not share them?”
I realised how proud I was: of the variety of choral music the choir and I were able to undertake, and which hopefully might interest any young choral director looking for ideas; of all the fun and laughs we had, portrayed in the many photographs; proud too of the wonderful young soloists that I was able to second for concerts, thanks to my privileged position as a vocal coach at the Colleges and Academies of London. So many of those young singers now have international careers! The result is a very personal archive of photos, documents, memories and media recordings of that era.

!PLEASE READ FIRST!

Before you view please acknowledge the following two important points about the recordings: 

1. Most of the sample tracks, apart from a few excerpts from our commercial CDs, were recorded during live performances, warts and all, some on hand-held devices, so don’t expect perfection.
In addition, it is worth remembering that the London Oriana Choir consists of non-professional singers. This makes the professional quality of some of our tracks exceptional, while others, complete with mistakes, are there purely because I like them, or they bring back fun memories. All are a cause for pride.

2. More importantly, WITH REGARD TO THE ORCHESTRAL TRACKS: we were given permission to record the orchestra on the explicit condition that it was SOLELY for archive purposes, which this is. 
Please respect this and understand that they are not to be downloaded or broadcast. Please enjoy them only on this site.

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