Director John Wilderspin has recently announced his intentions to leave Worcester and move back to Warwickshire, his home county. The Baroque Singers therefore had their final rehearsal together on Tuesday 21st March 2023. The Elgar School would like to thank John for his many years of service and direction, and wish him well. We would also like to thank the singers who have made and sustained this group to such a high standard over the years.
Director - John Wilderspin
Born in Royal Lemington Spa and educated in Durham University, John moved to Worcester in 1980 and for over thirty eight years has been actively involved in music throughout the area. He is Organist to the Worcester Cathedral Voluntary Choir and over the years has had the privilege of recording three
CDs with the choir and playing for them on a number of prestigious visits to cathedrals in Germany, Brussels, Ypres and Paris as well as St. George’s Chapel Windsor and Durham Cathedral. John also plays for the Worcestershire based Oakville Singers and has accompanied them in many cathedrals up and down the country including visits to St. Paul’s and Westminster Abbey. Most recently he has played for the choir at Lichfield, Norwich and Southwell.
John has also conducted orchestral concerts at Pershore Abbey as well as other venues, and among the works he has conducted are Haydn’s Creation, Beethoven’s Mass in C, Mozart Requiem and Vespers and Handel’s Messiah in recent years. John has also performed with Pershore Choral Society and has played in Rossini’s Petitte Messe Solonelle and continuo in Bach’s Christmas Oratorio as well as in other smaller scale works with the society.
The Elgar Baroque Singers has been performing for two years and is looking forward to increasing its range of works which extend from the Tudor period through to the Restoration, Baroque and early classical. Based at the Elgar School of Music, performers are drawn from both the Elgar School and from further afield. Beyond musical spheres, John has spent many years exploring the whole of England completing a massive topographical survey of the country as well as acquiring the London Knowledge.
