Just Sing! is Bunbury’s community choir and we are sadly saying goodbye to our conductor of the past two and a half years, Elaine Cook. Elaine joined us when we restarted after lockdown as the remnant of Bunbry Singers, with a new name and new outlook. We have grown under Elaine’s leadership from that core group of twelve people to a current membership of 30-35, due in no small part to Elaine’s capable and enthusiastic leadership; we are now singing more confidently than ever, and we put on two concerts a year to raise money for local charities, which are always popular and appreciated by our audiences. Elaine will be sadly missed and we wish her very well in her busy life with all her other many commitments, musical and otherwise.
However we have been very fortunate to persuade Susan Marrs to join as our new conductor/musical director. Susan graduated from Trinity College of Music, London and has enjoyed 30 years as a freelance Mezzo-Soprano and conductor; she is a Fellow of Trinity College, London.
Sue was a soloist during the Proms season of 2002, and spent 15 years singing with the Extra Chorus at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and she has also sung with English National Opera. As a member of London Voices Sue has enjoyed singing in concert halls all over the world – including Berlin, Lucerne, Paris, at the Lincoln Centre, New York and in Shanghai and Beijing. Her film score recordings have included “Star Wars” and “Harry Potter”, “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit”, “The Hunger Games” and “Fantastic beasts and where to find them”. Susan has taught singing for 35 years and has conducted Nantwich Ladies Choir for the last 10 years. She was MD of the Nantwich Singers Chamber Choir from 2020 – 2022 and the Dee Ensemble in Chester for 4 years.
We are delighted to welcome her to Just Sing! and her first rehearsal with us will be on the 21st October at 7.30pm in Bunbury School Hall; do come along and join us if you are interested; we do not audition new members and are open to anyone aged 16 and over. We use sheet music and sing in 3 parts; soprano, alto and baritone, but many of our members are not music readers, so do not exclude yourself on that basis! We will be starting Christmas songs at this time.