Carol Newton (Oboe) - Cantilena Chamber Orchestra
Carol Newton
Carol Newton was born in London and at the age of 14 moved to Manchester, having won a scholarship to attend Chetham's Hospital School of Music.
She then went on to attend the Royal Nothern College of Music for 4 years, where she studied Oboe with Richard Simpson (Halle Orchestra) and Cor Anglais with Bernard O'Keefe (BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra).
Her first professional music post was with Scottish Opera in 1980 - Sub Principal Oboe and Cor Anglais - where she stayed for over 14 years. The company toured abroad and at home. During her stay with the orchestra, she also performed with Pavarotti and Kiri Te Kanawa etc.
Whilst living in Glasgow at the time, she was also asked to join "Cantilena", a small chamber orchestra founded by Adrian Shepherd (Scottish National Orchestra) to play Baroque and Renaissance music. "Cantilena" made many recordings under the Chandos label as well as Sunday lunchtime concerts and an invited tour to a Chateau in Bordeaux.
Also, while in Glasgow, she became an external wind examiner for the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.
In 1994, she left Glasgow to live in Lancashire and qualified to become a secondary music teacher. After many short term contracts, she eventually became Head of Music at Heysham High School.
In 1998, Carol was asked to become MD of Elswick Singers, who have made her welcome and proud of their achievements for the past 25 years. She enjoys the variety of musical styles we perform and her aim is as always to get the best possible results from people who meet because they enjoy singing.
David Cookson - accompanist
David Cookson was born in Blackpool, and grew up there. He studied piano with Robert Atherton. His first professional music job
was as répétiteur with the 'old' D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. He held that post at the time of the company's Centenary celebrations
in 1975, the height of its 'Golden Era'. David worked with stars such as John Reed, Kenneth Sandford, Michael Rayner, Meston Reid,
John Ayldon, Gareth Jones, Julia Goss, and Lyndsie Holland.
Over the last 50 years, David has worked as Musical Director and répétiteur with many companies, both professional and amateur,
including three years at the Opernhaus in Zürich, Switzerland.
In 1998, David started Musical Solutions. Disappointed by the lack of accuracy of public-domain distance learning material for the
Gilbert & Sullivan operas (which still pertains), David gradually added more G&S operas to the Musical Solutions learning material.
He soon realised that such an accurate learning resource would have a great value in enabling soloists and chorus alike to learn
their rôles quickly and easily, thus ensuring accuracy as well as saving valuable rehearsal time. The complete G&S canon has been
available from Musical Solutions since 2003.
In 2006, David was a co-founder and first Musical Director of Peak Opera, a company which performs annually at the International
Gilbert & Sullivan Festival, in Buxton and in Harrogate.
David's first love is accompanying, and he is glad to be the accompanist for The Elswick Singers.