Lincoln Sounds
Ladies Barbershop Chorus
MUSICAL DIRECTOR
Alyson Chaney, who has been our Music Director from the start of the chorus and has taken us on to become the UK's reigning Sweet Adelines 2008 Small Chorus Champion Chorus, has retired as our MD to try to find some family time in her very busy barbershop and work schedule. Hopefully this is not the end of her association with the chorus and we look forward to seeing her back at Lincoln Sounds in the not too distant future. She will be a hard act to follow but we now have a new 'Man-in-Charge' who will be stepping into her shoes:
JOHN GULL
A relaxed MD after a sing-out
John's been a professional musician all his life. Since being a boy chorister at King’s College, Cambridge, he has been professionally involved in choral music as both singer and musical director, touring extensively in the UK as well as in Europe, USA and the Middle East. He started conducting at the age of 14 as a music scholar at Eton College and went on to win a scholarship to read music at Oxford University, where he directed the choir of Corpus Christi College. He sang tenor for the Schola Cantorum of Oxford between 1998 and 2002 and with a professional barbershop group based in the Republic of Ireland from 1998 to 2004.
He was bitten by the barbershop bug while still at school when singing for a competition-winning quartet and has enjoyed performing barbership with colleagues and friends ever since. His quartet was once 'moved on' by the police while busking in Dublin - he says it was because of the large and enthusiastic crowd which gathered and blocked the street, and not due to any complaints from the public!
He currently sings with Lincoln Cathedral's professional choir, is tutor in vocal studies at Bishop Grosseteste University College and is also employed by Lincoln Cathedral as Choir Outreach Animateur working to raise the standard of singing in schools thoroughout the county.
As well as being a classically-trained singer and vocal coach, he plays the trumpet, piano and pipe organ. He's experienced in all styles from classical to jazz, and has worked as performer and conductor with premier-league brass bands. He's increasingly active as a composer and arranger of choral music in a wide variety of styles, and some of his original work has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3.
John says: "I'm delighted to have received such a warm and friendly welcome, and to have found in Lincoln Sounds such an enthusiastic, motivated and well-organised chorus. Alyson’s considerable dedication and expertise has handed me some very fine tools to work with, and I am excited at the prospect of taking the chorus on to the next level. I would like to explore more opportunities for the full chorus to perform in public over the coming year, and hope to take a bigger, bolder mid-sized chorus to Convention next May."