Who’s who?
Musical director: Hilary Campbell
Hilary Campbell is a freelance choral specialist. She is Director of Music at Kellogg College, Oxford, founder and Musical Director of Blossom Street, Musical Director of Bristol Choral Society, West London Chorus and West London Chamber Choir, Assistant Chorus Director of London Symphony Chorus and Associate Conductor of Ex Cathedra. Her project work has included guest conducting ensembles such as the BBC Singers, Trinity Laban Chamber Choir and the Fourth Choir, chorus mastering the BBC Symphony Chorus and Royal Academy of Music Symphony Chorus, and she runs regular choral workshops for the Royal Opera House. In 2021, Hilary was delighted to be awarded Making Music’s prize of Best Vocal Group Musical Director, and she and Bristol Choral Society were jointly awarded the RPS Inspiration Award.
Hilary gained a Distinction for an MMus in Choral Conducting at the Royal Academy of Music (RAM); she was also awarded the three choral conducting prizes. Following her studies, she returned to the RAM as the Meaker Fellow, the first choral conductor to have been thus honoured. In 2018, Hilary was thrilled to be made an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music. In addition to her regular conducting work, Hilary also acts as an adjudicator, workshop leader and guest conductor, and she leads summer choral weeks for Helicon Arts and Music for Everyone. She is a published and prize-winning composer, and has released several award-winning Naxos recordings
There’s more about Hilary on her own website.
Accompanist: Marija Stručkova
Lithuanian pianist Marija Stručkova is active as a soloist, accompanist and chamber musician, and has won numerous accolades at international piano competitions and festivals. After receiving her master’s in piano performance at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, Marija worked as a repetiteur at the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre as well as the Vilnius City Opera.
In 2014, Marija was awarded a full scholarship to attend the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland to study a Master’s in Repetiteurship under the tutelage of Paul Plummer and Jonathan Plowright. In 2016/17, she was a Scottish Opera Emerging Artist where she worked on La Bohème and Le Nozze di Figaro, as well as playing with the Scottish Opera Orchestra in productions of Bluebeard’s Castle and Glass’s The Trial. Most recently, Marija worked on Opera North’s season of Six Little Greats, where she was chief repetiteur for Osud and Cavalleria rusticana.
Marija joined the West London Chorus as its accompanist in 2019.
Patron: Cecilia McDowall
In 2022, the well-known choral composer Cecilia McDowall agreed to be the choir’s Patron.
Born in London, 1951, Cecilia has won many awards, been short-listed eight times for the British Composer Awards and in 2014 won the Choral category of the British Composer Awards for her haunting work, Night Flight, which celebrates the pioneering flight of the American aviatrix, Harriet Quimby, across the English Channel. McDowall’s distinctive style speaks directly to listeners, instrumentalists and singers alike. Her most characteristic works fuse fluent melodic lines with occasional dissonant harmonies and rhythmic exuberance. Her music has been commissioned and performed by leading choirs, including the BBC Singers, The Sixteen, Oxford and Cambridge choirs, Kansas City Chorale, ensembles, and at festivals worldwide.
Recent commissions include When time is broke (Three Shakespeare Songs) for the BBC Singers and Adoro te devote for Westminster Cathedral Choir, London. Three Latin Motets were recorded by the renowned American choir, Phoenix Chorale, conductor, Charles Bruffy; the Chandos recording, Spotless Rose, won a Grammy award and was nominated for Best Classical Album. The National Children’s Choir of Great Britain commissioned a work focusing on ‘children in conflict’, called Everyday Wonders: The Girl from Aleppo. This cantata is based on the real-life escape of Nujeen Mustafa (who is wheelchair-bound) and her sister from war-torn Aleppo; it tells of their harrowing journey across 3,500 miles, through seven countries, eventually arriving in Germany with relief and great gratitude.
In May, 2019, Wimbledon Choral Society and the Philharmonia Orchestra premiered McDowall’s large-scale choral work, the Da Vinci Requiem, to coincide with the 500th anniversary of Leonardo’s death. The work received its first performance on 7 May in the Royal Festival Hall, London. McDowall’s works are regularly broadcast on BBC Radio and readily available on CD.
In 2013 Cecilia McDowall received an Honorary Doctorate from Portsmouth University and in 2017 McDowall was selected for an Honorary Fellow award by the Royal School of Church Music. In 2019 she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from West London University. In 2021 the Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge, released a CD of her choral music on the Hyperion label. In 2020 McDowall was presented with the prestigious Ivor Novello Award for ‘outstanding music collection’ for a ‘consistently excellent body of work’. This was a ‘Gift’ from The Ivors Academy (formerly the British Composers’ Academy).
In 2021 McDowall was given the coveted annual commission by King’s College, Cambridge, to write the carol for the Choir of King’s College and their music director, Daniel Hyde, to be part of the much-loved Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols broadcast world-wide on Christmas Eve. The carol, There is no rose, is published by Oxford University Press.
In April 2023, the West London Chorus performed Cecilia’s work A Time for all Seasons.
Management
The Chiswick Choir is registered as a Charity No 278765 whose objectives are to educate the public in the arts and sciences, and in particular the art and science of music, by the presentation of concerts and other activities. It is managed by a Committee of members who meet formally each term and host an Annual General Meeting in October.