Concordia Singers Biographies

Introducing Anne Howells... We are delighted to announce that Anne Howells will become Concordia Singers President for the 2007/08 season. Anne is a distinguished mezzo-soprano who has led an exciting international career in the field of opera. Anne is also a Professor of singing at the Royal Academy. When asked if she would take over the reins from our current President, Mark Wildman, she was delighted to accept. We are delighted that she will be lending her support to our Society in the 2007/08 season. Read on…… Anne Howells made two notable debuts as a mezzo-soprano while still in her mid-twenties: as Erisbe in Cavalli’s L’Ormindo at Glyndebourne, and as Flora in the Visconti/Guilini Traviata at the Royal Opera House. She continued to sing regularly at both of these houses throughout a career which took her to almost every major opera house and concert hall in the world. These include the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Opera houses of both San Francisco and Los Angeles, the four Parisian opera houses, the Grand Opera of Geneva, the Salzburger Festspiele, the Vienna Staatsoper, the Carnegie Hall and the Musikverein of Vienna. Directors with whom she worked include Peter Hall, Nicholas Hytner, John Schlesinger, Jean-Pierre Ponelle, Gunther Rennert and John Copley. Conductors included Colin Davis, James Levine, Georg Solti, Silvio Varviso, and Andre Previn. She is especially noted for her portrayals of Mozart’s Dorabella in Cosi fan Tutte (Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Chicago, Royal Opera House, Glyndebourne), Melisande (Scottish Opera, Royal Opera House), Conception in Ravel’s L’Heure Espagnole (Amsterdam and Opera Comique, Paris) and Octavian – she sings the title role on the Solti/Schlesinger DVD of Richard Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier by the Royal Opera. Other roles at the Royal Opera included Giulietta in Tales of Hoffman, Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Despina as well as Dorabella, and Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro She accompanied the Royal Opera on three tours: As Ascanius in Berlioz’ Benvenuto Cellini and Annius in Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito at La Scala Milan, and Despina in Cosi fan Tutte in Japan. She sang Helen in Tippett’s King Priam in the Royal Opera’s tour to the Herod Atticus Theatre in Athens. Anne Howells also took part in many other contemporary operas: Cathleen in Maw’s Rising of The Moon at Glyndebourne, at the Royal Opera as Lena in Rodney Bennett’s Victory, Ophelia in Searle’s Hamlet, Thea in Tippet’s Knot Garden, and Lady de Hautdesert in Birtwistle’s Gawain and the Green Knight.

Philip White, Concordia’s Musical Director and Conductor Philip took over as Musical Director/Conductor of Concordia in 1996. His friendly but demanding style has maintained the high standard of the choir's performances and widened its horizons. Philip studied composition, trumpet and conducting at the Royal Academy of Music where he is now Registrar & Projects Manager. Philip gained ten prizes as well as a Leverhulme Scholarship and a Munster Trust Award. His music has been performed in many concert halls in the United Kingdom and has also been played on BBC Radio Three, BBC Radio Four and Channel 4 TV. In March 2001 he was elected a Fellow, an honour conferred upon ex-Academy students and limited in number to 250. Philip has performed extensively as a conductor particularly on London's South Bank including the Royal Festival and Queen Elizabeth Halls. His piece Intrada and Variations for Two Trumpets and String Orchestra has been performed twice at St. John's, Smith Square. His Violin Concerto was premiered by the Insurance Orchestra with Maureen Smith as soloist at the Royal Festival Hall under his direction, as was his tone poem The Day Will Come. Philip's cantata When all the Earth is Paradise was premiered in November 1997 at the Dorking Halls with soloists James Bowman, Alan Opie and Julie Kennard. A new set of Wedding Voluntaries for trumpet and organ are soon to be published by Brass Wind Publications. As well as his work for the Academy, Philip is an examiner for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music and an adjudicator for The British Federation of Festivals. He is also founder and director of the Marylebone Sinfonia which accompanies Concordia for larger-scale concerts.

Richard Pilliner, Concordia’s Accompanist Having gained an LRAM at the age of sixteen, Richard Pilliner won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music,later winning all the prizes there for organ playing, accompaniment and improvisation. Whilst still a student, he made a highly praised recital debut at the Royal Festival Hallas a Greater London Arts Association Musician. As a solo organist,he has travelled widely and is an annual recital visitor to the United States. In 2007/8,he will be playing in Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Reno, San Francisco and Washington DC, as well as concerts in Hong Kong and Australia. Active as a teacher, former students have sung in cathedral choirs and have held scholarships at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. Richard Pilliner is organist at Kingston Liberal Synagogue and Shirley Parish Church on the borders of London and Surrey, where there is a fine organ by Frobenius.