Susan Hollingworth

A graduate of the Royal College of Music, where she studied voice, Susan divides her time between her work as a Choral Director and Music Educator. In 1990 she was awarded a Churchill Fellowship for her work with choirs. In 2010, she was awarded "Choir Master of the Year" by the Gramophone Magazine. This is a community music award, given to those who have made the greatest impact in their singing communities.

As well as being the Conductor of Sine Nomine International Touring Choir, Susan is Musical Director of Scunthorpe Co-operative Junior Choir. This open access choir won the overall title of BBC Radio 3 Choir of the Year in 2008. They took part in the BBC Proms in September 2009 singing Handel’s Messiah and received rave reviews. In 2000 they travelled to Sydney to take part in the Olympic Torch Processions; they sang at the opening night celebrations of the Millennium Dome and at the first Holocaust Memorial Service at Westminster. The Choir was chosen to make a BBC programme called "Take a Bow" about interesting activities children do after school and was the subject of a documentary on Radio 4. Recently, younger members of the choir made recordings for the Sing Up magazine and website.

Susan’s Music Education work includes being Advocate for the government funded Sing Up. She regularly gives workshops for Making Music, 20,000 Voices based in Northumberland, Sing for Pleasure and Youth Music. She has conducted Noye’s Fludde at the Three Choirs Festival and has created and conducted children’s concerts at the York Early Music Festival. She has also conducted the Minster Minstrels Vocal Ensemble for the National Centre of Early Music. With this organisation, she conducted 550 York school children at the Schools Proms to celebrate the 350th Anniversary of Henry Purcell. In December 2009, BBC Radio 3 invited her to lead performances of the Hallelujah Chorus in Glasgow and London, with participants who were new to singing and who were encouraged to join a choir. For the BBC, she also conducted an afternoon Family Prom in the Albert Hall, sharing the direction with Julia Regan, a former member of the Scunthorpe Cooperative Junior Choir. She has also adjudicated for BBC Radio 3 Choir of the Year, Coleraine, Elgin and Don Valley festivals.

Sine Nomine International Touring Choir

Sine Nomine was formed in 1988 by James Wild from members of ‘Sing for Pleasure’ – The National Choral Organisation, former students from Bretton Hall College, Yorkshire, and friends. The intention in forming the choir was to create a group of singers which could reach a high standard with just three or four rehearsals each year, and enjoy touring, both in Britain and abroad. Since then the choir has grown in size, with singers travelling to rehearsals from all over the country.

The choir is perhaps unique in that it includes a large number of singers who are themselves conductors, of adult and/or children’s choirs. Some have made a name for themselves in their own right, with two former winners of the BFYC ‘Conductor of the Year’ award and many others with award-winning choirs.

The choir sings a very varied repetoire, which includes music to suit all tastes, from sixteenth century motets and madrigals from different countries, through 19th and 20th century part songs, to spirituals, popular items and African repetoire. Sine Nomine has had the great privilege of participating in workshops with Jonathan Rathbone (former director of the King's Singers) and was proud to be asked to record a CD of compositions by Alan Bullard for OUP.

Sine Nomine has undertaken many foreign tours, including Belgium, Norway, Canada, France, Switzerland, the Czech Republic and Italy. Whilst in Vaison-la-Romaine in the South of France, the choir performed in an ancient amphitheatre to an audience of over 5000! Sine Nomine has also enjoyed performing at a wide variety of venues throughout the UK, including a concert at Dunblane Cathedral as part of a mini-tour of Scotland, at The Sage, Gateshead and at the Worcester Three Choirs Festival. The choir is honoured to have twice been invited to be guest choir at The Presteigne Festival.