Roy Rashbrook
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. After a brief but rewarding flirtation with a career in classroom teaching, 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 has also sung regularly with groups such as The King’s Consort, The Clerks, Ex Audi and Ex Cathedra, combining their various performing, touring and recording schedules with his work as a soloist, singing teacher and conductor.
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 a regular guest conductor of The Waverley Singers and directs two choirs of his own: Hart Voices (Fleet, Hampshire) and The Chantry Singers (Guildford).
Roy has sung as a soloist with a number 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 major 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.
During lockdown, he focused his attention on providing good quality content for his amateur choirs, composing, producing and arranging multi-tracked, remote recordings and videos of new music, some of which achieved national radio and television airplay. His most recent project is a collaboration with the Librettist Euan Tait in the composition of a new cantata to celebrate the 50th anniversary of one of his choirs. The resulting work, “Song Rushes In”, received its premiere last November and was described by the music critic Malcolm Hicks as “Beautifully crafted . . . A kaleidoscope of fluent musical invention.”
His daughter Lili is a choral scholar in her second year at Lancing, whilst Roy lives with his wife, Polla, in Woking, Surrey, where he spends such spare time as he can find with his hobbies of (very gentle) kayaking, country walks, learning Hungarian and feeding his increasingly irrational and obsessive enthusiasm for old vinyl L.Ps
