Vocal Staff
- Centre Management Team
- Classical Music Staff
- Pop and Jazz Staff
- Music Technology Staff
- Performing Arts Staff
- Academic Support Staff
- Technical Support Staff
- Instrumental Staff
- Vocal Staff
HEAD OF VOCAL STUDIES
Ian Ray
FRCO, LRAM, ARCM
Ian Ray is very active as a voice teacher, and regularly performs as a pianist and organist. As a choral director over the years he has worked with many of the most distinguished solo singers in the UK, including Elizabeth Harwood, Brian Rayner-Cook and more recently Jeremy White, Justin Lavender and Sally Silver. He has a passionate interest in ensuring healthy phonation in all styles of music making, and he is an enthusiastic advocate of the Estill principles of singing technique. Ian advises on singing teaching at Colchester Institute, directs the choirs and opera/music theatre workshop. He also directs the music at Lion Walk Church in Colchester where he organises a popular series of lunch time concerts and conducts the Colchester Choral Society.
VOICE (JAZZ/POP), GOSPEL CHOIR
Nicola Bull
BA (Hons)
Nicola has taught voice in the South East for the past ten years, regularly teaching for performing arts schools and colleges and providing vocal workshops. After graduating from Colchester Institute in 2001, Nicola has worked as a freelance vocalist performing with function bands and recording session vocals. She currently performs with vocal duo Cherry Sundae and is lead vocalist with the band Bassistry, performing with some of the most respected jazz musicians in the country with whom she has recorded the album "In Time" (2004 High Barn label) and is currently recording new material.
VOICE
Vanessa Cozens
Vanessa studied Performance of Singing at Trinity College of Music and since then has had a busy career performing throughout the country and further afield as a freelance soloist and as part of a close harmony trio. She has come to Colchester with 15 years of teaching experience and enjoys coaching in various musical styles especially musical theatre. She is presently Head of Singing at a Performing Arts College in Southend-on-Sea and runs a successful and demanding private singing practice.
VOICE
Patrick McCarthy
Patrick McCarthy has been a notable figure on Colchester’s musical scene for over twenty years. He was trained as a singer at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the London Opera Centre. His operatic and singing career has taken him all over the British Isles and Europe. Some music lovers may remember him replacing an ailing soloist at a televised Albert Hall Prom performance of Carmina Burana with the LSO and Chorus under André Previn back in 1974. Patrick currently has a busy schedule as musical director of the Witham and Dovercourt Choral Societies, the Ipswich Bach Choir and the Ipswich Chamber Orchestra, the Harwich Festival and, of course, the Colchester Bach Choir and Orchestra and the Colchester Philharmonic. He was for a time also conductor of the Clare and Maldon Choral Societies. Patrick is still often heard as a tenor soloist, having recently performed The Creation in Germany twice, Elijah at Brentwood Cathedral and the Monteverdi Vespers, and released a fourth CD for Hyperion with Peter Holman and the Parley of Instruments.
VOICE
Becky McCracken
Becky is a certified Speech Level Singing teacher from America and has studied voice in both the United States and Europe. Since moving to the UK in 2001, she has performed with several bands in London and also works an experienced session singer, helping various song writers to record and get the best sound on their demo material to send to record companies and labels. Becky is one of two lead vocalists in indie/folk band Booth, whose first album is currently on sale through iTunes. Her main love is jazz and she has performed in London with the Bob Stuckey trio, Joe Stilgoe and others. Becky also teaches at Voxbox Vocal Arts in Camden and The Academy of Contemporary Music in Guildford. She has set up her own company The Voice Shop, where she teaches from her own vocal studio in Queen’s Park, London.
VOICE (JAZZ/POP)
Louise Sofield
BMus (Jazz)
Louise was trained in Jazz Singing at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and also in Acting/Singing at the London Actors Centre. Her freelance professional singing career includes TV: Eurovision Song Contest (Belle and the Devotions), Top of the Pops, Pebble Mill, Breakfast Time, Song for Europe, Saturday Morning Picture Show, Tour for Europe(1984), Cheggars Plays Pop, and various featured TV commercials, photographic shoots and pop videos. In film: Sid and Nancy directed by Alex Cox 1985 and on stage: all major London jazz venues including Ronnie Scott's, Rhythmic 606, Vortex with the 18-piece band 40 Feet Forward and as lead vocalist for jazz quintet. Louise has also performed at Pizza on the Park with Clark Peters UK/German Tour of opera Hotel 1996/7 and is a regular member of 18-piece acapella choir The Shout, Contemporary Opera, Caleb Williams with the Shared Experience and the London Community Gospel Choir.
VOICE (PERFORMING ARTS)
Neil Somerville
BA (Hons), DipABRSM
Neil is an active singing teacher, voice coach and musical director. His interests are primarily in musical theatre and his work as a musical director has taken him to New York, London and Edinburgh. As a singer he has appeared in all of the professional concert stages in Edinburgh and Glasgow and, as an experienced flautist, has worked as a session musician and freelance orchestral player all over Scotland.
