The Choir
Constanza Chorus is based in the heart of the City of London. The choir is a fun and sociable group whilst striving for the highest of musical standards.
Founded in 2010, Constanza Chorus have grown into one of the most
exciting amateur choirs in London. They have performed large-scale
works such as the Requiems of Verdi and Brahms as well as Vaughan
Williams’s A Sea Symphony, Mendelssohn’s Elijah and Bach’s Mass in B minor, alongside professional orchestras including the London Mozart Players and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.
Other projects have included the recording of three CD albums,
singing at the BBC Proms in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Holst’s The Cloud Messenger and Mahler’s Das Klagende Lied alongside the BBC Symphony Chorus, singing Mass at St Peter’s Basilica in Rome and in Bach’s Thomaskirche in Leipzig as well as performing a range of
smaller-scale and a cappella works and a number of new commissions.
Constanza Chorus support a different charity each year and are proud
to have raised thousands of pounds over the last 15 years.
Do you want to stay updated on all things Constanza? Then sign up to join our Friends of Constanza mailing list to get the latest information on concerts and ways to support us.
The Conductor
Constanza Chorus is conducted by dynamic Director of Music Joanna Tomlinson.
Joanna founded Constanza Chorus, with Libby Tomlinson in January 2010.
Joanna Tomlinson has established an outstanding reputation for her work as singer, vocal coach and conductor of choirs of all ages and sizes.
With Constanza Chorus she has conducted regularly at Cadogan Hall, with orchestras including the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and London Mozart Players. With Whitehall Choir she has conducted at St John’s Smith Square with London Baroque Sinfonia.
Joanna is Artistic Director of the Military Wives Choirs – a network of over 70 choirs worldwide bringing together women who have connections to the military. She often features as guest conductor with the BBC Symphony Chorus, the Epiphoni Consort and at the Royal Opera House on their Sing at the ROH programme. She has also delivered workshops and community singing programmes for Glyndebourne Opera, the Association of British Choral Directors and the Association of Teachers of Singing.
As Principal Conductor of National Youth Choir’s Female/Non-Binary choir for fie years, she made numerous recordings and conducted at venues including the Royal Albert Hall in London. In her time as Artistic Director of the internationally renowned Farnham Youth Choir, the choir won two gold medals in the 2019 European Choir Games and featured in the live final of ITV’s X-Factor in 2018.
Having gained a Distinction in Singing from the Royal College of Music, Joanna brings to her work the knowledge and experience of singing with world-class professional choral groups such as the BBC Singers, London Voices, Gabrieli Consort, Philharmonia Voices and Sonoro.
The Accompanist
Gavin Roberts enjoys a varied career as a pianist and organist.
He has partnered with singers
in recital at Wigmore Hall, Barbican Hall and the Royal Festival Hall and is Artistic Director of Song in the City.
He has appeared at the Cheltenham Festival, Dartington International Festival, the Ludlow Weekend of English Song, the Ryedale Festival and the Oxford Lieder Festival. He works regularly with soprano Lucy Hall, with whom he won the Oxford Lieder Young Artist Platform, and actor Rosamund Shelley, with whom he performs her one-woman shows Novello & Son and War Songs.
He has played for the BBC Singers, the Joyful Company of Singers, Constanza Chorus, Kingston Choral Society, the Hanover Band and Tiff Boys’ Choir, and as a repetiteur for Sir Roger Norrington and the late Richard Hickox.
Gavin has appeared regularly on BBC Radio broadcasts as a soloist and accompanist, often giving premiere performances of new works. He has played on numerous recordings for the BBC, ASV, Guild and Priory Records. A recent project is the recording of London-themed song commissions for Song in the City.
Gavin studied piano with Andrew West and Eugene Asti at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where he is now a Professor. He had previously read Music at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he also held the organ scholarship. Following this, Gavin gained a Master’s degree from King’s College London. Gavin was Organist and Director of Music at St Marylebone Parish Church from 2014–2022.
More details: www.gavinroberts.org; www.songinthecity.org
The Venue
We rehearse at St Mary-at-Hill church in the heart of the City of London on Monday evenings with a short break over Christmas and a longer holiday over the summer.
St Mary’s was very badly damaged by the Great Fire of 1666 – the fire started in Pudding Lane just two streets away – and is thought to be the first church rebuilt by Christopher Wren. The church has always had a strong musical tradition – composer Thomas Tallis was a choir boy here in the early 16th Century.
