The Hill Singers Chamber Choir has a wide ranging repertoire from renaissance motets to jazz standards and music by living composers. Our regular rehearsal is in the Wesley Room, Lantern Arts Centre, Tolverne Road, SW20 8RA,. We begin our 2024/25 season with our Musical Director, Benjamin Newlove on Tuesday 24th September 2024 at 7.30pm
The choir is currently around 20 voices strong, ranging from people relatively new to choral singing to some very experienced choral singers. However, we are always pleased to see new singers and if you are interested in joining us, come to any of our Tuesday evening rehearsals, where you will receive a warm welcome. Please go to our music clips page to hear excerpts of our performances.
We started the 2023/24 Season with a concert of Seasonal music featuring Haydn’s ‘St Nicholas Mass’ Following this, our March concert featured music from a wide range of composers, covering a wide range of styles from Schutz and Buxtehude to Dvorak, Faure and Rachmaninov. Our theme for the June concert was built around John Rutter’s collection of well known Afro-American spirituals, ‘Feel the Sprit’ and also included music by Paul Simon, George Gershwin, Vaughan Williams and Bob Chilcott.
Previous recent Concerts have explored compositions from a diverse range of composers, including Byrd, Purcell, Brahms, Mozart and Vaughan Williams. We have featured music by contemporary composers, Will Todd, Alexander Campkin and John Rutter and American music has been a favourite of many choir members, with arrangements of popular classics such as ‘Autumn Leaves’, ‘Blue Moon’ and ‘Summertime’. Occasionally we have also been able to commission new works and we have sung in Welsh, Icelandic, French, German, and Portuguese
OUR REHEARSALS, STARTING ON 24th SEPTEMBER, ARE ON TUESDAY EVENINGS 7.30 – 9.30 PM, AT THE WESLEY ROOM, LANTERN ARTS CENTRE, TOLVERNE ROAD, SW20 8RA. THIS IS CLOSE TO RAYNES PARK RAILWAY STATION AND BUS STOPS FOR THE 57 & 200 BUSES.
WE ARE ALWAYS KEEN TO WELCOME NEW SINGERS TO JOIN US FOR ALL VOICE PARTS AND IF YOU ARE INTERESTED TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE CHOIR, PLEASE CONTACT US BY EMAIL hillsingers@aol.com OR CALL OUR SECRETARY tel: 0208 644 3794.
Alessandro Mackinnon-Botti - Musical Director
The Hill Singers are delighted to welcome Alessandro as their Musical Director.
Alessandro studied Music at Oxford University under David Maw and was senior organ scholar at Oriel College, taught by Alex Flood. He was Repetiteur for the New Chamber Opera and played harpsichord continuo in the production of Acteon before assuming the role of Assistant Musical Director in the opera King Arthur and Conductor for Prospero’s Books Suite and The Draughtman’s Contract Suite. In 2022 he was Assistant Musical Director in the Oxford Playhouse production of An American in Paris where he also played the piano solo part.
Alessandro was part of the Libera boys choir, which had a lot of international success allowing him to travel all over the world. During secondary school he joined the Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School Schola Cantorum. Then learning the organ in year 10 led him to become an organ scholar at Oriel College. He says: “It was under the guidance of Professor David Maw that I definitely found myself and he helped me find myself musically as well”.
During the Covid pandemic Alessandro, inspired by the people across the world learning new skills, decided to try beatboxing. “I thought, if I sit here and do nothing, it will be a waste. I’ve got to make the best of this scenario and I stumbled across this video of beatboxing and I just immersed myself completely into the world of it.” This led to him winning the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra’s 2024 Composers’ Workshop with his work Voice-Leading, scored for Solo Beatboxer and Orchestra. He was inspired by his newfound love for beatboxing, his years of classical music training and encouraged by his composition tutor, Dr Luke Lewis, Alessandro decided to write the beatbox concerto, which won him the Prize. “I think composition should be fun. Something that you enjoy doing and something that you think the audience will enjoy. Maximum enjoyment is what I am going for.”
Later this year Alessandro will start his MA in Composition at the Royal Academy of Music.