History
History
newCHOIR was founded in 2012 by a group of amateur musicians from within the city, who wanted to bridge the gap between the large choral society and small chamber choir. The choir’s first concert Romantic Praise, took place on 18 March 2012 in Exeter College Chapel with Janet Lincé conducting. Janet conducted newCHOIR until December 2020.
Janet Lincé, founding conductor
Janet is widely experienced as a choral and orchestral conductor, teacher, workshop leader and mentor. She was musical director of several choirs including Reading Festival Chorus, Royal Leamington Spa Bach Choir, Newbury Choral Society and OUP Choir, and in 1995 she founded her own chamber choir Choros. For sixteen years she was chorus master for the highly acclaimed Newbury Spring Festival Chorus and in 2012 was appointed inaugural conductor of newChoir. Janet is also co-conductor, with Sarah Tenant-Flowers, of the chamber choir Encoro.
In 2012 Janet formed Corona Strings, a professional orchestra that has established a fine reputation for its dynamic sound and sensitive playing. She has also conducted The Brandenburg SInfonia, London Concertante, Orchestra da Camera, Orchestra of the Swan, the Warwickshire Symphony Orchestra, Oxford Sinfonia and Beauchamp Sinfonietta. Janet has worked with period instrument ensembles such as The Monteverdi String Band, Canzona, Charivari Agréable and her own band, Corona Baroque Ensemble.
Janet trained as a singer and pianist at the Guildhall School of Music gaining her GGSM followed by a post-graduate year on the Advanced Accompanists’ Course. She worked professionally as singer and accompanist in London for a number of years before moving to Oxfordshire and establishing her career as a conductor.
Janet has a particular interest in the period instrument performance of the music of JS Bach and his contemporaries. However, her repertoire also includes the major oratorios such as Brahms' Requiem, Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius, Britten’s War Requiem, Mendelssohn's Elijah and Vaughan Williams' A Sea Symphony. She has also conducted less well-known works such as Berlioz’s L’enfance du Christ, the Choral Fantasia of Gustav Holst, Britten’s The Company of Heaven, and Janáček's Otčenáš. Always keen to promote new repertoire, Janet has commissioned works from composers such as Cecilia McDowall, Andrew Gant, Katherine Dienes, John Duggan and Janet Wheeler.
Janet is greatly in demand as a choir trainer and workshop leader and has travelled widely in the UK, working with choirs and giving workshops throughout the country. She has toured New Zealand several times and in 2003 she was engaged for three months as guest conductor for Auckland Choral with whom she performed Handel’s Messiah and settings of the Gloria by Poulenc, Rutter and Vivaldi.
As a guest chorus master with the BBC Symphony Chorus, the Philharmonia Chorus and the London Symphony Chorus Janet has worked for conductors such as Andrew Davis, Richard Hickox, Yakov Kreizberg, Kurt Masur, Mikhail Pletnev. Roy Goodman, and David Parry.
James Brown, accompanist until March 2025
James Brown has been Organist of the University Church of St Mary the Virgin, Oxford, since 2007, and teaches the organ at Abingdon School and New College Choir School. James is also a tenor lay clerk in the acclaimed men and boys’ choir of New College, Oxford. With this choir he sings six services a week during University term as well as doing many overseas tours, recordings, concerts and broadcasts on BBC radio. James also conducts the Oxford chamber choir, The Cherwell Singers, which performs three concerts a year in Oxford.
James was a music scholar at Queen’s College, Taunton, before gaining the organ scholarship at Girton College, Cambridge University. After graduating he studied organ with Lionel Rogg at the Conservatoire of Music in Geneva, Switzerland, and was Director of Music at Holy Trinity Anglican Church in Geneva. From 1994 to 1996 James was Guest Artist in Residence at First United Methodist Church, Lubbock, Texas, USA. Within its large music programme James played for the broadcast services, co-directed the various choirs, gave concerts in the Vesper Concert series and worked with guest conductors including Sir David Willcocks and Timothy Brown. James was also a Graduate Music Assistant at Texas Tech University where he worked as an accompanist and studied voice and conducting.
On returning to England, James was appointed Organist of Dean Close School, Cheltenham, where he played for services and concerts, and taught the organ. He held this post alongside that of Director of Music at Christchurch, Cheltenham, and a tenor lay clerkship at Tewkesbury Abbey. He was also accompanist to the Cheltenham Bach Choir (director Stephen Jackson) and played for them twice on the BBC's Songs of Praise. As an organist, James has played several times on BBC Radio, including as the organist to the Radio 4 Pilgrimage to Greece in 2005. His teachers have included Lionel Rogg, David Sanger, Stephen Farr and Martin Ennis.