George Vass music director

georgevass.co.uk

Described by BBC Radio 3 as ‘the saviour of contemporary classical music’, respected English conductor George Vass studied at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and the Royal Academy of Music, London and was appointed Music Director of St Albans Choral Society in 1994. Vass made his professional conducting debut at St John’s Smith Square in 1979 and, as Artistic Director of the Regent Sinfonia of London, Orchestra Nova and Nova Music Opera, has appeared at many of the UK’s major concert halls and festivals and has broadcast for BBC Radio 3 and Channel 4 television.

Vass’ discography of over thirty recordings encompasses a wide variety of British music with groups including the Bournemouth Symphony, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Royal Scottish National and Ulster orchestras, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the Choir of Royal Holloway.  He was appointed Artistic Director of the internationally renowned Presteigne Festival in 1992, having recently celebrated his 30th year in the role, and his legendary support for British contemporary composers and their music was rewarded in 2017 with a BASCA Gold Badge Award.
 

EDWARD KEMP-LUCK accompanist

Edward Kemp-Luck began his organ studies in Harwich, Essex, and then trained with Harrison Oxley at St Edmundsbury Cathedral. He was an organ scholar of The Queen's College, Oxford, under James Dalton and gained his Fellowship Diploma of the Royal College of Organists while studying with Catherine Ennis at St Lawrence Jewry. He won the coveted Walford Davies organ prize at the Royal College of Music where he also studied harpsichord; he participated in international masterclasses, and studied historic organ performance practice in Holland with Jacques van Oortmerssen supported by a scholarship from the Rotary Foundation.

He was organist of St John's Notting Hill and later St Mary's Paddington Green, and is now a freelance organist in east and north London.

He has given solo concerts at St Paul's Cathedral, Southwark Cathedral, St George Hanover Square, Union Chapel Highbury, St John the Evangelist Islington and many other churches in London, also at Reading Town Hall, Liverpool Anglican Cathedral, St Nikolaas Basilica Amsterdam, Bourges Cathedral and St Nikolai Church in Stralsund.

Edward is also a continuo player and choral accompanist and has performed with choirs in and around London, also at the Presteigne Festival and in Cork, Barcelona, Budapest, Salzburg, Seville and Paris. He was appointed accompanist of St Albans Choral Society in July 2024. 

Naomi Jones assistant conductor and chorus master

In addition to George Vass’ strong advocacy of living composers, he is passionate about supporting emerging music professionals. In recent years this has extended to the world of conducting and in September 2022 George recruited Naomi Jones as his assistant and chorus master. The choir has enjoyed working with Naomi over the past two years.

Naomi studied under Omar Ebrahim and John Wakefield at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, graduating in 2005. After a brief career in vocal performance and film work including ‘The Magic Flute’ (Kenneth Branagh) and a short stint in the West End, Naomi took up a PGCE (Secondary) at Reading University and began her teaching career in 2006.

She continued to perform as a soloist and ensemble singer and was a member of St Albans Choral Society, singing as an occasional soloist as well as conducting the St Albans Singers. With the City of Canterbury Chamber Choir under George Vass, she sang at the 75th Birthday Concert for the late John McCabe and was also a member of the 2016 Presteigne Festival Chamber Choir.

Since moving to Bedford in 2016, Naomi has sung with Locrian Choir under Justin Thomas. As a pianist, Naomi accompanies her own school choirs and productions and was MD for ‘Return to the Forbidden Planet’ (2008), ‘Oliver!’ (2010), ‘Joseph and his Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat’ (2012), ‘High School Musical’ (2013), ‘Grease’ (2014), ‘Fame’ (2015), ‘Legally Blonde’ (2019), Little Shop of Horrors (2021) and Six (2022).

Naomi is Head of Music at Mark Rutherford School in Bedford and conductor of the North Bedfordshire Youth Choir (which she established in 2018) and the East Bedfordshire Chamber Choir.

Naomi’s first concert with St Albans Choral Society was in February 2023, when she conducted a programme of hymns and anthems.