Welcome to FORTISMERE PERFORMING ARTS CENTRE
Fortismere MUSIC Centre
Join in with Choir
Fortismere Community Choir started in 2009 and is based in Muswell Hill, north London. It is an ambitious choir which comprises singers from a wide range of musical backgrounds. We do not have formal auditions - the only requirements are a love of music and singing and the ability to hold a tune!
Over the past 12 years, the choir has performed major works such as the Requiem Masses by Mozart, Duruflé and Fauré, Haydn's epic oratorio The Seasons, Beethoven's Missa Solemnis and Bach's Magnificat.
If you are interested in joining us, you are welcome to attend one or two rehearsals without obligation. Termly subscription fees for members are £75 per adult, or £50 for students.
Rehearsals are weekly, at Fortismere School in the Music Concert Hall in North Wing, on Wednesday evenings from 7 pm to 9 pm during school terms. Access is through South Wing (off Tetherdown). There is a break for tea/coffee halfway through the rehearsal.
The choir performs a major choral work once a year (usually in St Andrew’s Church on Alexandra Park Road) with the Fortismere Community Symphony Orchestra and professional soloists. Every December (this year will be Sunday 8th December) there is a Christmas concert where the choir performs a classical piece in the first half and the second half is a mix of choir and audience carols. We are joined by the Fortismere Junior and Youth Choirs for this concert as well.
The choir is incredibly lucky to be part of the wider Fortismere Music Centre and benefits from a great musical director, accompanist, resident orchestra and soloists.
If you are interested in joining, please email fmcinfo@fortismere.org.uk to arrange to attend a rehearsal on a trial basis.
Rehearsals begin in the Autumn Term on Wednesday, 11th September at 7 pm.
Cathal Garvey
Interim Musical Director
Cathal Garvey began his career as chorus master for most of Ireland’s major opera companies, including Opera Ireland, Opera Theatre Company, Anna Olivia Opera Festival, Lyric Opera, and Opera South, working on over fifty productions.
In Dublin, he regularly conducted the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Orchestra of St Cecilia, Dublin Symphony Orchestra, and the Dublin Baroque Players. Between 2001 and 2009 he was Principal Conductor of the Dublin Orchestral Players and Dun Laoghaire Choral Society.
He moved to the UK in 2009 to take up the position of Chorus Master with Grange Park Opera. Since then, he has conducted London International Orchestra, Covent Garden Chamber Orchestra, Southern Sinfonia, Charivari Agréable, London Repertoire Orchestra, Leicester Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra of the Reform, Isle of Wight Symphony Orchestra, Winchester Symphony Orchestra, I Maestri, BYMT Staff Orchestra, London Medical Orchestra, and Morley College Choir, as well as successively holding the post of Musical Director of Newbury, Billingshurst, and Wokingham Choral Societies.
Cathal teaches orchestral conducting to postgraduates at the Royal Academy of Music. He was appointed Honorary Associate of the Royal Academy of Music (Hon ARAM) in 2019.
John Eady
Répétiteur & Accompanist
John studied music at King's College London, the Royal Academy of Music and cello at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. In 2002 he started to learn the organ at the St Giles International Organ School and in 2006 he became a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists. He is a freelance cellist and organist, manages his string quartet named Four Strings Attached, and is organist at St Magnus the Martyr, London Bridge.
