.

Members

Members speak about NLC (click on name for video)

Paul Filmer - Author of programme notes

Marian Bunzl - Publicity

Join Us

Like what you see? Then find out more about joining!

Musical Director

Murray Hipkin

Murray Hipkin studied at York University, the Guildhall and the National Opera Studio before joining the Music Staff of English National Opera (1983–8) and then working for Opéra de Lyon, La Monnaie, Opera Factory, Scottish Opera (recording Street Scene) and Opera Brava (as Musical Director).

Since returning to ENO in 1995, he has appeared in Mahagonny, The Silver Tassie, Leoncavallo La bohème and The Rake’s Progress, and worked extensively as Senior Répétiteur (his productions have included Deborah Warner’s production of Death in Venice, Phyllida Lloyd’s Ring Cycle and Terry Gilliam’s The Damnation of Faust) and Assistant Conductor, including, most recently, The Passenger and The Death of Klinghoffer. He is currently working on The Flying Dutchman and Caligula.

He has conducted La bohème (Surrey Opera, Opera Box), Salieri’s Falstaff, Haydn La vera costanza, (Bampton Classical Opera), Mozart Apollo and Hyacinth and Gluck Le Cinesi (BCO at the 2009 Cheltenham Festival), and for ENO, The Pirates of Penzance, The Mikado, The Gondoliers and Kismet with Michael Ball. In July 2010 he was Associate Conductor of the ENO/Punchdrunk collaboration The Duchess of Malfi by Torsten Rasch, which won the 2011 RPS Award for audience development.

His freelance work as vocal coach, accompanist and chorus master includes assisting the composer John Adams and conducting on location for the award-winning Channel 4 film The Death of Klinghoffer, Pierrot Lunaire with Björk at the Verbier Festival, coaching with British Youth Opera as well as numerous community and education projects with ENO Baylis.

In February 2009 Murray completed an eight month sabbatical from ENO as Musical Director of The Sound of Music at the London Palladium, conducting over 170 performances.

In October 2010 he was appointed Musical Director of The Pink Singers. Future plans include Hand in Hand, a Choral Festival of LGBT choirs at the Troxy, Limehouse on 13 July.

At ENO, his next project is playing the solo piano in a revival of Britten’s Death in Venice (ENO/Amsterdam).

He has recently celebrated the 10th anniversary of his association with the North London Chorus, during which time he has conducted a wide range of choral works and received very positive recognition in the local press.

Accompanist

Catherine Borner

Catherine Borner studied piano and flute from the age of ten at the junior department of the Royal Academy of Music. After graduating from the University of York, she trained on the repetiteur courses at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Catherine has performed concertos with York University Chamber Orchestra and James Allen Community Orchestra and has appeared on BBC Radio 3 In Tune. She has also played Petrushka with Bromley Symphony Orchestra. Repetiteur work includes Aida (Kentish Opera), Anna Bolena (Tower of London Festival 2005), A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Cunning Little Vixen, Romeo et Juliette (British Youth Opera) as well as The Gondoliers, La Traviata and The Marriage of Figaro while trainee repetiteur at English National Opera. Catherine joined NLC as their accompanist in September 2005. She teaches piano privately and at the James Allen Saturday School for the Performing Arts. Her most recent performance with NLC was Petite Messe Solenelle in June 2011.

Patron

Janis Kelly

Janis Kelly studied at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music & Drama in her native Glasgow and at the Royal College of Music in London. She is recognised as an excellent actress with a wide-ranging repertoire across the fields of opera, operetta and the musical and is a regular guest with English National Opera, Opera North and Grange Park Opera in repertoire ranging from La Traviata and Der Rosenkavalier to Showboat''.

Janis has performed at the BBC Proms and with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London Festival Orchestra, Hallé Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, The Sixteen and the London Sinfonietta.

Her extensive repertoire includes Britten Les Illuminations, Ravel Sheherazade, Canteloube Songs of the Auvergne, Strauss Four Last Songs and many major oratorios from the baroque, classical, romantic and 20th century periods.

Recent appearances include Pat Nixon (Nixon in China) for ENO and Athens, Mrs Naidoo (Satyagraha), Kuma (The Enchantress) and Elisabetta (Maria Stuarda) at Grange Park Opera, Romilda (Xerxes) and Iris (Semele) at both ENO and Vlaamse Opera. She also appeared as Liu (Turandot), in the Hollywood movie The Life of David Gale and in the series Kombat Opera by Richard Thomas (Jerry Springer, the Opera) for BBC TV, which was broadcast in March 2007. She is ‘The Voice’ in the award-winning Inspector Morse TV series and albums.

Recordings include Tchaikovsky Incidental Music to Hamlet' with the London Philharmonic Orchestra (Chandos), Street Scene, A Little Night Music, Showboat and Brigadoon (TER), four award-winning albums for the Inspector Morse television soundtracks on Virgin Records and The Maid of the Mountains on Hyperion. Janis has recently released her own CD, The Moment.

NLC Patron since 2005, her most recent appearance with the choir was in our June 2011 concert.

Read Nikki Lloyd's interview with Janis Kelly

The Committee