Directors and Staff
The Harrogate Festival Choral Course will be led by the highly experienced music team of Lynn Hudson and Thom Meredith. Sue Rosborough is Administrator.
Thom Meredith
Thom Meredith began his involvement with music at an early age, singing with Leeds Youth Opera Group and then Leeds Youth Chorale. As a treble he performed many solo roles including the Shepherd Boy in Tosca (Opera North) and the boy soprano in George Crumb's Ancient Voices of Children (Ballet Rambert). He studied singing with Jean Allister and then Arthur Reckless at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Thom graduated from Brasenose College, University of Oxford, where he was awarded an Exhibition as conductor of the Chapel choir. Following a PGCE qualification from the University of Leeds he taught Music in schools including four years as Head of Music at Colne Valley High School, Huddersfield.
Thom's career involvement with young musicians continued when he joined the staff of Kirklees Music School in September 1999 as Assistant Principal. He was appointed Principal in 2004 and has continued to champion the cause of young people's music making over the years. Thom formed and conducts the Kirklees Youth Symphony Orchestra whose recent performances have included Rachmaninov's 2nd Piano Concerto (with John Lill); Karl Jenkins' The Armed Man; Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet and Bruch's Violin Concerto No 1.
As Musical Director of Colne Valley Male Voice Choir, a position he has held since 1989, Thom has enabled the choir to achieve musical standards which have taken them to unrivalled records of success. They have twice won the Llangollen International Eisteddfod and in May 2007 won the International Male Voice Choir competition at the Male Voice Choral Festival in Cornwall.
In addition to his passion for conducting, Thom has established a reputation as a baritone soloist and an arranger of music for female, male and mixed voice choirs. He has taken solo bass/baritone roles in a wide variety of concerts, operas and oratorios including first performances of contemporary works. Recent performances include: Carl Orff's Carmina Burana; Stainer's Crucifixion; Brahms' A German Requiem, Handel's Messiah and the Requiems by Faure and Durufle. Thom has also recently released his first CD: Let Beauty Awake which features English Song Cycles by Vaughan Williams, Butterworth and Finzi.
Lynn Hudson
Lynn Hudson is a graduate of Leeds University, where she was awarded the Frank Toothill Memorial Prize for Music. She has worked extensively in music education, teaching, in various capacities, in schools in Leeds and serving, for many years, as Chair of Examiners for Music at Advanced Level for a major examining board. From 2001 - 2006 she was responsible for running the secondary music PGCE course at the University of Leeds. She still teaches part-time at Rishworth School in Calderdale.
Throughout her career she has always been involved in vocal and choral work. Highlights include commissioning and conducting new works such as Robin Walker's chamber opera Odysseus and Penelope for Lawnswood School and Geoffrey Kinder's The Seven Ages of Man for Halifax Young Singers, forming the City of Leeds Youth Choir, and taking Opus 44, a female voice chamber choir which she conducted for twelve years, to considerable success in national competitions. She has conducted community choirs, run choral courses for both singers and conductors and adjudicated at music festivals in the Yorkshire area.
Lynn has been Music Director of Halifax Young Singers since 1995. The choir numbers around a hundred young people, aged from nine to twenty-one, who sing a wide repertoire of music, including full scale works such as the Rutter Requiem, Stainer's Crucifixion and The Armed Man by Karl Jenkins, and regularly achieve notable successes in the National Festival of Music for Youth. Lynn has recently taken on a new role as conductor of CSI:Halifax, a choir for singers of all abilities in Calderdale.
Lynn is married to Thom Meredith and they have one son, Harry, who sings tenor with Halifax Young Singers and plays percussion in Kirklees Youth Symphony Orchestra.
Sue Rosborough
Sue is the Administrator of Harrogate Festival Choral Course and has worked in Arts Administration since 1992. Sue is a Director and Trustee of Halifax Young Singers, described by Dr Gordon Stewart as "one of the best youth choirs in Britain".
Sue is a Business Studies graduate from Leeds Polytechnic (now Leeds Metropolitan University). Sue works as Practice Manager at her local GP surgery. She is married to Rob and they have two daughters, Kate and Lauren, who both enjoy their music. Both sing in Halifax Young Singers and Lauren is a percussionist in the National Children's Orchestra and Kirklees Youth Symphony Orchestra.
Beryl Pankhurst
Beryl Pankhurst was born and educated in Liverpool,
and after a brief career in banking, she took up a place at the Royal Manchester College of Music, where she studied piano, organ and accompaniment. Having obtained the GRSM Diploma with Recital Endorsement, ARMCM with Distinction, and the Pinson Prize for Bach playing, she moved to Harrogate to a teaching post and has lived here ever since.
Although Beryl has performed as a soloist on many occasions, her main passion is in accompanying. She has been the official accompanist for the Harrogate Choral Society for more than thirty years, during which time she has taken part in many of their performances, including Carmina Burana, Rio Grande, Petite Messe Solennelle, Messiah, African Sanctus and The Armed Man. She is also currently the accompanist for Knaresborough Choral Society, and plays for the Gilbert and Sullivan Society.
Her extensive career includes playing for many distinguished soloists and she works regularly with members of Opera North. She is in much demand for festival and examination accompanying and for leider recitals etc.,and enjoys being repetiteur for an annual Choral Summer Course. Her musical taste is very varied, being equally at home playing light music and piano duet recitals.
Llyndall Trotman
Llyndall Trotman was born in London, but was educated abroad in Malaysia, Singapore and Germany.
Llyndall joined Scottish Opera in 1978 and moved to Opera North in 1987 where she added many more roles to her repertoire. Concert platform Oratorios include title role Holst’s Savitry, Mozart’s Requiem, Handel’s Messiah, St. Matthew’s Passion & Israel in Egypt.
She has also been extensively involved in projects undertaken by the Opera North Education department and has run workshops and master classes for The Pennine Spring Annual Festival.
During her time at Opera North, Llyndall established her reputation as a singing teacher, helping the many fellow professionals and colleagues who received vocal tuition from her. In 2002 Llyndall left Opera North to teach full time. Llyndall has successfully prepared students for college entrance, at undergraduate and post graduate levels to the Guild Hall, RSAMD and RWCMD.
Llyndall currently assists Mr Graham Smelt, Consultant Ear Nose and Throat Specialist at Calderdale National Health Trust as a vocal consultant.