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With an insider's knowledge but an outsider's perspective Sarah MacDonald lifts the lid on a choral tradition which is admired worldwide but mysterious in its inner workings to most of those not involved in it. How do you train a liturgical choir-whether its
members are children or young adults-to the highest possible standard? How do
you choose the right music for them to sing? How do you get to be a member of
one of these choirs? How do you organise a choir tour or a recording? These and
many other questions are addressed, and the daily trials and tribulations of a
busy choir director-who is also a fine and active organist-are entertainingly
chronicled.
About the author
SARAH MACDONALD is a Canadian-born UK-based organist, conductor, pianist, and composer, where she is Fellow and Director of Music at Selwyn College, Cambridge, and Director of Ely Cathedral's Girl Choristers. She has been at Selwyn since 1999, and was the first woman to hold such a post in an Oxbridge Chapel. Sarah studied at Toronto's Royal Conservatory of Music Glenn Gould Professional School, and at Cambridge University, and her teachers were Leon Fleisher, Marek Jablonski, John Tuttle, and David Sanger. She has toured extensively as a conductor and organist, and is in demand internationally as a director of choral and organ courses. She has made over 35 commercial recordings, and her liturgical works (over 50 published titles) are performed regularly throughout the world. She holds the Fellowship of the Royal College of Organists (RCO), and is a winner of the coveted Limpus prize. She is an examiner for the RCO and for Cambridge University's Faculty of Music. Sarah received the honorary ARSCM in recognition of her contribution to choral music. She is a Patron of the Society of Women Organists, President of the School Organists' Association, and an Honorary Patron of the Herbert Howells Society. In 2022 she was appointed Organist to the University of Cambridge. She is the first woman to hold this historic ceremonial role. In 2023, she was elected to serve as President of the Royal College of Organists, her term beginning in June of 2024. In her spare time, Sarah is a keen amateur photographer.
