King’s Junior Voices to join New Cambridge Singers at Christmas concert
Australian-born mezzo-soprano Lynette Alcántara will lead the popular children’s choir at the performance at Emmanuel United Reformed Church on December 14.
Cambridge resident Lynette Alcántara, who runs a successful singing teaching practice in the city and is a fellow and director of music at Wolfson College, is the director of King’s Junior Voices.
The New Cambridge Singers’ (NCS) Christmas concert at Emmanuel United Reformed Church, backed by the Cambridge Independent, will feature her talented charges.
“NCS very kindly invited us to be their guest, so we’ll be performing some works with them: some congregational carols and a work by Cecilia McDowall called Christus Natus Est,” Lynette said.
“But we’ll also be singing some songs on our own by Bob Chilcott, who’s a very well-loved contemporary composer. He was a member of the King’s Singers and before that he sang in the choir at King’s College, and I’ve worked with him at the BBC.
“We’ve got three of his Christmas songs which we’ll be performing on our own and a piece by Zoltán Kodály, the famous Hungarian music educator.”
Lynette originally trained as a classroom music teacher. “I did my training in Australia and worked with the Australian Boys Choir,” she recalled. “I co-founded a choir called the Young Voices of Melbourne and then when I came over to the UK, I continued teaching and was thrilled when I was asked to set up King’s Junior Voices almost 10 years ago.”
She added: “I also teach the boy choristers at King’s College and I passionately believe that all children should have the opportunity to gain access to singing and quality music education. King’s Junior Voices is aimed at all children, there’s no audition and there’s no fee – we fundraise to cover all costs so that no child is excluded.”
Next year, King’s Junior Voices, who are sponsored by Girton Town Charity, will celebrate their tenth anniversary with a special concert at King’s College Chapel on Monday, July 9.
Lynette said: “We’ll be inviting former choristers to come back and sing with us and we’ll be performing some of the compositions that have been written for us over that time. We’ll also be premiering some new works which will be written especially.”
NCS’s celebration of Christmas is on Thursday, December 14, 7.30pm, at Emmanuel United Reformed Church, Cambridge. Tickets: £15, students £6, under-18s free. Box office: 01223 357851 or visit cambridgelivetrust.co.uk.
Visit kingsjuniorvoices.org.
Visit newcambridgesingers.org.uk.
