Cardiff University Chamber Choir & Peter Leech
Biography Cardiff University Chamber Choir & Peter Leech
Cardiff University Chamber Choir
The choir is made up of between 25-30 singers and performs several times a year in prestigious venues in Cardiff and further afield. In 2019 the choir toured China, performing in Xi'an, Xiamen, Guangzhou and Beijing. In the summer of 2023, they undertook a tour to Malaysia, performing at several important Malaysian University concert halls (in collaboration with choral ensembles from Sunway University and UCSI Malaysia in particular), as well as at the historic Christ Church Melaka.
Under the directorship of Peter Leech the choir has championed diversity and inclusivity in programmes, with recent performances having included music by Morfydd Owen, Maria Rosa Coccia, Johanna Kinkel, Jose Mauricio Nunes Garcia, Margarita Cozzolani, Olivia Sparkhall, Marianna Martines, Undine Smith Moore and many more. The choir balances this with a selection of established repertoire from William Byrd to eighteenth-century Rome (Casali and Bolis) and up to contemporary times with works by James MacMillan, Jonathan Dove and many others.
Peter Leech
began his musical career in Australia as a treble chorister and later worked as a professional conductor in Adelaide, Melbourne, and Sydney, before moving to the UK in 1996 to undertake a PhD in Musicology with Dr. Peter Holman MBE.
In 2003 Peter won First Prize at the Mariele Ventre International Competition for Choral Conductors (Bologna), since which time he has developed a reputation in the UK and aboard for fresh, innovative and dynamic interpretations of a wide variety of choral repertoire, ranging from early polyphony to contemporary music. The list of vocal ensembles he has directed includes The Song Company (Sydney), Coro Euridice (Bologna), the City of Oxford Choir, the Cathedral Singers of Christ Church Oxford, the Bristol Bach Choir, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra Chorus, Collegium Singers, Harmonia Sacra and Cappella Fede. With The Song Company and Harmonia Sacra Peter has recorded CDs for Tall Poppies and Nimbus Alliance, and has also appeared as an ensemble vocalist on the Hyperion label.
Trained initially as an orchestral conductor (after studies in violin and keyboard) Peter has also collaborated with many leading UK period instrument ensembles including Canzona and Frideswide Ensemble. After several years as a professional singer in London, Peter has been based in North Somerset since 2009. He was appointed to an Associate Lectureship in the School of Music at Cardiff University in 2015.
Robert Court
is Cardiff University Organist and an Associate Lecturer at the University; in addition, he pursues a busy freelance career as an organist and harpsichordist.
He plays frequently with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and he has performed with most of this country's leading orchestras. Performing engagements take him all over Britain and he has also played in France, Austria, the Czech Republic, Norway and the USA (spending a week as artist in residence at Kansas State University and subsequently giving recitals in New York). He appears frequently on TV (most recently in the 2013 BBC Proms series) and radio and has recorded CDs as organist, accompanist and choral conductor.
In 1988 Robert co-founded Cardiff Organ Events - an organization dedicated to promoting the organ through recitals by celebrity recitalists and other related activities. Cardiff Organ Events, which is unique in this country, is now responsible for organizing most of the organ recitals that take place in South Wales (including those at St. David's Hall, Cardiff and the National Museum of Wales) and has been a major force in securing the restoration of local historically valuable instruments.
Robert is Organist at St. Augustine's Church, Penarth and until 2010 was music director of Cantemus Chamber Choir Wales. In 2003 he was honoured with the Archbishop of Wales' Award for Services to Church Music.
