Director of Music celebrates ten years of children's music-making

Wolfson Fellow and Director of Music, Lyn Alcántara is thrilled to be celebrating ten years of music-making with her children’s music charity, King’s Junior Voices (KJV). The choir will be celebrating its tenth birthday this coming Monday with a concert of works written especially for the choir, in King’s College Chapel at 7.30pm. Tickets are £10 or £5 for children and are available from The Shop at King’s. We’d love to see some Wolfson friends in the audience.

KJV was set up as an inclusive organisation with the aim of filling a gap in musical provision in Cambridge so that children from state schools could gain access to quality music making opportunities without audition or fee. A number of Wolfson College Choir members are involved as members of the Board of Trustees, and two Wolfson members have written new pieces for the choir to perform on Monday. Andrew Goldman (2011 -2016) who did his PhD at the Centre for Music and Science has set two Emily Dickinson poems for the older children and composed a fun song for the 7 and 8 year-olds called Big Dog, Little Dog. Visiting Fellow and former JRF Dr Matthew Woolhouse has set two William Blake poems, Tyger and Lamb, and will be accompanying KJV in Monday’s concert.

KJV highlights have included ten years of concerts and CD recordings in King’s College Chapel and in venues including West Rd Concert Hall, Ely Cathedral, Wolfson College and The Cambridge Corn Exchange. Its guests have included many primary school choirs, Prime Brass, Junior Prime Brass, BBC Girl Chorister of the Year - Agatha Pethers, the Young Voices of Melbourne, The Ely Imps and Cantate. It has also given fundraising concerts at Great St Mary’s Church for Rotary. The children were thrilled to have a visit from world-famous composer John Rutter last year to help prepare The Holy City, a work with solo violin which was played by Wolfson Arkansas Fellow Dr Er-Gene Kahng, and the older children met composer Jonathan Dove as part of a performance with the Cambridge Philharmonic Orchestra.

Other performances included songs by Bob Chilcott sung in King’s College Chapel, as part of the King’s 500 celebrations. The choir has twice sung in the King’s Singers A Carol for Christmas, singing the winning Community Carol which was broadcast on Classic FM. All children have sung as guests of Prime Brass in its family Christmas concerts in West Rd and the older children have performed in Wolfson’s Lunchtime Concert Series.

Lyn is pleased to have shared her love of singing and choral music with so many Cambridge children and looks forward to the next ten years.