Thursday 28 March 2024
7.30pm
Milton Court Concert Hall
Guildhall Jazz Vocal Ensembles Showcase
Guildhall Vocal Jazz Ensemble
Clare Wheeler director
Guildhall Jazz Choir
Flora Medlicott director
Guildhall Jazz Singers
Scott Stroman director
Digital Programmes
Please silence your device and lower the brightness of your display.
This digital programme is intended for mobile devices, and may be viewed throughout the performance. If you would prefer to bring a hard copy with you, please download a printer-friendly version below:
Do you have thoughts on our recent switch to digital programmes? Fill out our Audience Feedback Form.
Milton Court
Please make sure that digital devices & mobile phones are silenced during the performance.
Please do not stand or sit in any gangway.
Eating is not permitted in the auditorium.
Drinks are allowed inside the auditorium in polycarbonates.
Filming or recording of the performance is not permitted.
Latecomers will be able to enter the auditorium at a suitable break in the performance.
Founded in 1880 by the City of London Corporation
Chairman of the Board of Governors
Graham Packham
Principal
Professor Jonathan Vaughan
Vice Principal & Director of Music
Armin Zanner
Guildhall School of Music & Drama
Please visit our website at gsmd.ac.uk
Guildhall School is provided by the City of London as part of its contribution to the cultural life of London and the nation.
Programme
Guildhall Vocal Jazz Ensemble
Clare Wheeler director
Free Improvisation
Ruth Lowe I'll Never Smile Again
arranged by Clare Wheeler
Schneider The Pretty Road
adapted by Clare Wheeler
Guildhall Jazz Choir
Flora Medlicott director
Nat Adderley Sermonette
lyrics by Jon Hendricks
arranged by Pete Churchill
featuring Marianne Green
Stevie Wonder Overjoyed
arranged by Flora Medlicott
featuring Olesa Zgurskaia
Gibb How Deep Is Your Love
arranged by Matthew Chalmers
featuring Charlotte Stocks
Billy Straus Change In My Life
arranged by Pete Churchill
featuring Cass Begg
INTERVAL (20 minutes)
Guildhall Jazz Singers
Scott Stroman director
Stevie Wonder Selections from Songs In The Key Of Life
arranged by Scott Stroman
I. Love's in Need of Love Today
II. Have a Talk with God
III. Knocks Me Off My Feet
IV. Summer Soft
V. Isn't She Lovely
VI. Contusion
VII. As
VIII. If It's Magic
IX. I Am Singing
Guildhall Vocal Jazz Ensemble
Soprano
Erin Bradley
Angel Wong
Daria Blyzniuk
Amena Elabd
Alto
Lucy Joy
Evie Hill
Daisy Lihoreau
Bridget Walsh
Tenor
Tiger-Lily Jonathan
James Walker
Rahul Panchal
Rob Marr
Bass
Miles Lavelle Golding
Thomas Jesty
Louis Gascoyne
Vicente Magalhaes
Piano
Chris Bland
Bass
Eliot Whitehouse
Drums
Natan Kedzierski
Guildhall Jazz Choir
Soprano
Olesa Zgurskaia
Cass Begg
Alto
Chelsea Becker
Urte Gineleviciute
Charlotte Stocks
Ellen Connelly
Emily England
Emily Masser
Johanka Petrlikova
Tenor
Taha Kagzi
Annie Morris
Bass
Josh Stidwill
Benji O'Riordan
Thomas Sladden
Piano
Milena Granci
Bass
Mo Cook
Drums
Louis Brown
Guildhall Jazz Singers
Soprano
Alex Moss
Emily Kent
Alto
Martha Abrahamson- Ball
Issy Owen
Bass
Evie Atkin
Will Inscoe
Alto Saxophone
Tom Jarvis
Tenor Saxophone
John Alcock
Trumpet
Matt Hill
Trombone
Cat Eden
Guitar
Toby Snowden
Piano
Ed Rice
Bass
Will Jutton
Drums
Finn Genockey
Clare Wheeler
With a background in both Classical music and Jazz, Clare toured with The Swingles for 11 years, and is now embarking on other musical ventures. Growing up in Kenya, she has sung in African Gospel Choirs, as well as Gospel Choirs in UK, Jazz Vocal Ensembles, Classical Chamber Choirs, Symphonic Choirs and of course The Swingles. She is a solo jazz singer, improviser, composer and arranger, as well as a workshop leader and educator.
Clare taught music theory and harmony at the Academy of Contemporary Music before joining 5 time Grammy winning vocal group The Swingles in 2007. She performed with the group, writing music and making albums for eleven years, having the chance to sing with artists such as Rumer, Jamie Cullum and Labrinth, as well as performing in some of the world’s most prestigious music venues and working with legendary conductors.
She has been a guest host of the BBC Radio Two show The Choir, as well as arranger and vocal coach on the BBC One show Pitch Battle in 2017, working in the final with vocal group Scot Soul and soul legend Chaka Khan.
As a singer Clare performs all over the world, as a soloist, in choirs and vocal ensembles, singing Early Music, Jazz, Gospel, Contemporary Classical and Pop, following her love of music from across all genres, from singing backing vocals for Jacob Collier’s Prom Performance in 2018 with the Metropol Jazz Orkester to brand new original tri-lingual, tri-genre setting of Te Deum by John Featherstone across Europe.
Clare writes prolifically for vocal and instrumental ensembles, runs workshops and masterclasses, as well as adjudicating vocal competitions around the world. In September 2019 she joined the Jazz Department staff of Guildhall School of Music & Drama, where she is Faculty Chair of Jazz Voice, teaches improvisation, aural and transcription, vocal jazz and directs the Vocal Jazz Ensemble. She is passionate about empowering singers to achieve their potential within solo or ensemble contexts.
Flora Medlicott
Flora is an experienced jazz singer, and has performed, recorded and workshopped with many world-class jazz musicians, including Ian Shaw, Claire Martin, Mike and Kate Westbrook, Nikki Iles, Scott Stroman, Pete Churchill, Malcolm Edmonstone, Lee Gibson, Steve Brown, Dave Whitford, Anita Wardell, Kurt Elling, Michele Hendricks, and the late Jon Hendricks.
Flora has also performed at numerous top venues including Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club, Royal Albert Hall, 606 Club, The Jazz Cafe, Spice of Life, King’s Place, The Barbican’s Milton Court, Vortex Jazz Club, Saint Peter’s NYC and Crazy Coqs.
As well as performing with The Flora Medlicott Quartet, Flora sings in several vocal ensembles, including Silk Street Singers – a female close-harmony group, and the London Vocal Project – one of the UK’s leading contemporary vocal ensembles led by jazz composer and director, Pete Churchill.
Following the completion of a Masters in Jazz Performance at Guildhall School of Music & Drama in 2014, Flora was subsequently named a Guildhall Jazz Fellow. Flora is now a Professor in the Jazz Department at Guildhall School, directing the Guildhall Jazz Choir.
Flora also teaches music at a leading London girls school as well as through private one-to-one vocal tuition.
Scott Stroman
Scott has been a Professor in the Jazz Department at Guildhall School of Music & Drama since 1983 and was made a Fellow of Guildhall School in 1988. US-born but long based in London, he is a composer, conductor, singer, trombonist and educator, and Director of the London Jazz Orchestra, Eclectic Voices, and Artistic Director of Highbury Opera Theatre (HOT). As a trombonist, singer and conductor he has performed with numerous jazz and world music artists including Youssou N’Dour, Goran Bregovich, Ramamani, Phil Collins, Billy Cobham, Dizzy Gillespie, Kenny Wheeler, Dave Liebman, Norma Winstone, Bobby Wellins and Rufus Reid. He conducts baroque to contemporary music with orchestras, choirs, and opera in the UK and Europe and directed the London Philharmonic Orchestra's innovative cross-genre Renga and Hit Squad ensembles.
He directed the first European performances of all of the Gil Evans - Miles Davis collaborations, created and directed new versions of Coltrane's Africa/Brass, Ellington's Second Sacred Concert and Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers Moanin’, and this season directed the Guildhall Jazz Orchestra in the first live performance, since Miles Davis recorded it with the Danish Radio Orchestra in 1989, of Palle Mikkelborg's Aura.
A prolific composer, he has written numerous works for jazz ensemble, choir, orchestra, and the stage and recently premiered his second opera, The Weekend, based the book by Michael Palin. He received a BASCA gold badge award for services to music from the Ivors Academy in 2018.
Donate
We hope you have thoroughly enjoyed today’s performance at Guildhall School. If you felt inspired by our students and would like to support world-class training for these talented performers and production artists, we would be grateful for a voluntary donation.
Join the Guildhall Circle to access priority booking, exclusive events and more while providing vital support to our students. Join us at gsmd.ac.uk/circle.
Alternatively, you can make your gift using our contactless GoodBox devices located at the Box Office and foyer bars. Thank you.