It takes two

City of London based chamber choir, Londinium, have announced their new musical director and the role is being taken as a job share by Andrew Griffiths and Stephen Farr. Both have worked with the choir and will now take it in turns to direct concerts. The planned schedule has some interesting and exciting work: Andrew Griffiths conducting Victoria's Requiem and new music from the Baltic on 15th November, Stephen Farr doing a programme of Tippett, Lauridsen, Howells and Bingham on 9th Feb 2012, Griffiths conducting Brahms, Mendelssohn, Cornelius, Schumann (both) with Gabrieli and Schutz in April 2012 and finishing with Farr conducting Pizzetti's Requiem in July 2012.

I know a number of groups who eschew a musical director and take different conductors for each project, but these tend to be orchestras or orchestral based groups. Choirs usual have a specific musical director who is responsible for the way the choir performs, for its specific sound quality. Presumably Griffiths and Farr feel that the have similar aims and can work together to create a unified sound and attitude. It will be interesting to see (and hear) how the choir develops under this innovative routine. Further details at the Londinium web-site.