America!

William Petter Conductor

William Petter (1982–2016) was Musical Director of the Sine Nomine Singers from 2013 to 2016. A chorister at New College School, Oxford, he read neuroscience at University College London before studying as a tenor at the Royal Academy of Music, and sang with Philharmonia Voices, the choirs of Westminster Abbey and Westminster Cathedral, The Sixteen, Britten Sinfonia Voices and London Voices. He directed the professional choir of St Magnus the Martyr for ten years, as well as Concordia Voices and Sine Nomine, and in his last years composed a body of sacred music, recorded after his death. He died on 10 October 2016, a month after his 34th birthday; the choir's concert of 17 December 2016, Sing Lullaby, was given in his memory.

More at williampetter.org.

Rebecca Lea Soprano

Rebecca Lea grew up in Macclesfield and attended the King’s School before going on to study at The Queen’s College, Oxford, the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and latterly the Royal Northern College of Music. She has appeared as a soloist in concert and on BBC Radio 3 with Manchester Camerata, Northern Sinfonia, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Ensemble 10/10, Psappha, and the NDR Radio Choir, Hamburg. Recent performances include Purcell’s King Arthur in the Laieszhalle, Hamburg; Louis Andriessen’s Dances with Ensemble 10/10 in Liverpool; Judith Weir’s The Consolations of Scholarship at The Sage, Gateshead; King Harald’s Saga at the Wigmore Hall; recitals at the Lake District and Chester Summer Music Festivals; and William Bolcom’s Cabaret Songs at the Royal Albert Hall as part of the BBC Proms Lates Series. She also works as a consort and ensemble singer with the BBC Singers, The Sixteen, Britten Sinfonia Voices, Exaudi, Stile Antico, The Choir of the Enlightenment, and Platinum Consort. Rebecca is Artistic Director of the award-winning music theatre company Re:Sound (www.resoundmusictheatre.co.uk). Recent work includes After Party, a new production about the life of composer Franz Schubert at the Oxford Lieder Festival and Battles Within and Without, a staged performance of Judith Weir’s choral masterpiece Missa del Cid, performed in London, Manchester and the Lake District. Company plans for 2015 include The Midnight Stories, three new operas for singer-instrumentalist ensemble, developed as part of the Aldeburgh Open Spaces Scheme, a three-year residency at Snape Maltings, kindly supported by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, Help Musicians UK, and the RVW Trust. Rebecca lives in London with her husband William (our musical director) and baby daughter Rose.

From the programme of 4 July 2015.

Alice McVeigh ’Cello

Alice McVeigh was born in South Korea, of American diplomatic parents, and lived in South-East Asia until she was 13, when the family returned to the suburbs of Washington D.C. She then began to learn to play the ’cello, winning among other competitions the Beethoven Society of Washington ’Cello Competition, as well as being selected as a finalist in the Music Teachers National Association Young Soloists Competition and the National Symphony of Washington Young Concert Artists Award. She achieved a B.Mus. with distinction in performance at Indiana University School of Music and in the 1980s came to London to study privately with Jacqueline du Pré’s “’cello daddy,” William Pleeth. Since then she has freelanced with orchestras including the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic and Sir John Eliot Gardiner’s Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, all over the E.U., America and the Far East, including Carnegie Hall. In addition, she has performed ’cello concertos (among them, concertos by Dvořák, Elgar, Saint-Saëns, Don Quixote, and Schelomo) with orchestras including the Bromley Symphony Orchestra, the Waveney Sinfonia, the Stoneleigh Youth Orchestra and the Sussex Philharmonic. She has been the ’cello principal of the Bromley Symphony Orchestra since 1983. Alice is accompanied today by Tracey Renwick.