Hart Voices
Amateur SATB choir based in Fleet, Hampshire
Musical Director - Roy Rashbrook
“If I cannot fly, let me sing.” Stephen Sondheim
Roy Rashbrook was educated at Dauntsey’s School, going on to study Music at Goldsmith’s College and Singing under Alexander Oliver, William McAlpine and Rudolf Piernay at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London.
Roy became a professional singer in 1998, joining the world famous choir of Saint Paul’s Cathedral the following year; a position which offers some precious stability in the life of a freelance musician!
In addition to the broadcasts, concerts, special events and daily services there, Roy also works as a soloist, singing teacher and conductor and more recently as a composer, arranger and video and audio producer.
He has sung with a large number of professional vocal ensembles including the BBC Singers, the King's Consort, Exaudi, the Clerks, Ex Cathedra, The Gabriel Consort and Tenebrae.
He has conducted several choirs and ensembles, including the Goldsmiths’ Chorus, The University of London Union Chorus, The Hanover Singers and Candlelight Opera. He is currently Musical Director of two choirs: Hart Voices (Fleet, Hampshire) and The Chantry Singers (Guildford, Surrey).
Roy has performed as a soloist with many of Britain’s leading orchestras including the City of London Sinfonia, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the London Mozart Players. In addition to performances in all London’s best-known concert venues, his work has taken him all over the country and throughout Europe as well as to Israel and the States. He has appeared on many CD recordings, film soundtracks and radio and television broadcasts, both at home and abroad.
Recent conducting work has of course focused primarily on taking Zoom rehearsals and creating Audio and Video content for his choirs. During lockdown he was responsible for recording and editing all the video output from the choir of St Paul's Cathedral. Other lockdown releases include "Row On" - an immersive adventure for a choir, a thunderstorm and a rowing boat, "The Angels' Song" - a Christmas song released last year in aid of the Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice, and "The Hour of the Blackbird" - a collaboration with Ninebarrow - which brought about Hart Voices' debut on national radio.
Roy is also in growing demand as an arranger and composer. His music has been performed not only by Hart Voices & Chantry Singers (for which much of it is written) but also by students at the Oxford and Cambridge Singing School, the US Navy Choir, the choir of Salisbury Cathedral School and most recently by the choir of St Catharine’s College, Cambridge.
He has a passion for Radio 4, Volkswagen Beetles and old record shops that borders on the worrying, and doesn’t possess a TV.