Hannah Brine – Founder, Musical Director
I absolutely love conducting choirs. Something truly magical happens when you have multiple voices coming together – both musically and emotionally.
In addition to High Peak Singers, I have founded four choirs (Victoria Park Singers, Fosse Singers, Finsbury Park Singers, and Bollington Singers), which have performed at the BBC Proms, Olivier Awards and Royal Variety Show. Since 2022 I have conducted the Wilderness Festival Choir.
Works conducted include Will Todd’s Mass in Blue with full band, Bob Chilcott’s Little Jazz Mass with trio, Ole Gjeilo’s Lake Isle with quartet & Luminous Night of the Soul, and Faure’s Requiem with full orchestra as well as commissioned music When All Was Young by emerging composer Ben Lee. I have also launched ITV Voices. One of my proudest moments was working with men from Pentonville Prison.
I hold an LRSM with distinction in Choral Conducting (2014) and have studied with the Association of British Choral Directors on their advanced programme. I am also an advocate of good vocal health and up to date vocal teachings. I recently studied on the Estill EMT (Estill Master Trainer) course with Anne Marie Speed.
Read more about my work at my website.
Ed Simpson – Accompanist
Ed has lived in Derbyshire all his life. He studied at Chetham’s School of Music for 10 years from 2001. For five of those years, Ed trained as a chorister at Manchester Cathedral. He toured Paris and sang at Notre Dame and Saint Sulpice; he also toured America and performed in New York City.
Ed sang for the Queen’s Golden Jubilee service in 2002 and sang for BBC Songs of Praise. He regularly sang for BBC Radio 3 broadcasts and made several recordings. As Ed’s voice changed he had to re-audition as an instrumentalist at the age of 13 and focused on the Bassoon as his first study. He also studied the Organ and Contra Bassoon as his additional studies. His love for Jazz meant that he could study Jazz Piano in his last two years of school.
Since the age of 18 left when he left school, he has been building his business as a Piano/singing teacher and accompanist for choirs in the local north Derbyshire area where he lives, in Hayfield. Teaching at New Mills High School, several primary schools and at home.
Judith Ogden – PA to Hannah Brine
Judith grew up in Oxfordshire and studied for a degree in Music at Bristol University, graduating in 1994. She worked for a marketing production company in Bristol, and then for a marketing consultancy in Bath, before becoming a freelance arts administrator, and graphic and web designer in 2002. She has appeared as a singing extra in Christmas specials of Call the Midwife and Casualty, and on the soundtrack for TV ads and drama series, as well as on the sci-fi film Annihilation. She is married to the conductor and composer David Ogden, and has four children aged from 17 to 28 years.