Janet conducts choirs of all sizes and singers of all ages. As MD of the much-admired Saffron Walden Choral Society for 30 years, Janet directed a huge range of the choral and orchestral canon, from the Monteverdi Vespers through to the Britten War Requiem and beyond. She has conducted the music of Bach (including the passions and the B Minor Mass), Handel, Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven (Missa Solemnis), Rossini, the Brahms and Verdi Requiems, Mendelssohn, Bruckner, Poulenc, Elgar (Dream of Gerontius), Vaughan Williams, Stravinsky, Howells, John Rutter, Jonathan Dove (There Was a Child) and many more, including her own compositions.
Janet is fortunate to have led many performances in the wonderful acoustic of Saffron Hall, where she was privileged to conduct the very first performance when the hall opened in 2013 – the Verdi Requiem with Saffron Walden Choral Society and Chameleon Arts Orchestra.
She founded chamber choir Granta Chorale in 2007 and continues to work with them on varied and exciting programmes. The choir has premièred many of Janet’s own compositions.
Janet was chorus master for Saffron Opera Group in their preparations for Stravinsky Rake’s Progress, and Wagner’s Die Meistersingers and Götterdammerung. She has worked with many other choirs including the New Cambridge Singers, the Orpheus Choir of North Herts and St Albans-based Carillon. In 2019 she made a guest appearance with chamber choir Cadenza at the Edinburgh Fringe.
While producing BBC School Radio programmes back in the 1990s Janet worked with numerous young choirs in the recording studio, developing many trouble-shooting choral strategies. Her work with young singers has included directing the youth choir SignuptoSing between 2010 and 2016, and a series of Big Sing events with combined schools in the Saffron Walden area. She continues to enjoy working with young singers and players, directing a number of school choirs and orchestras. She often writes and arranges music for the changing line-ups of her young orchestras.
She has studied vocal technique with a variety of teachers, including training in the Estill method, and is available to run choral workshops.
Click here for Janet’s composing biography.