BENJAMIN WOLF

Benjamin Wolf studied at University College, Oxford, Trinity College of Music and King’s College, London. As an orchestral conductor he has worked for the BBC Proms and performs regularly with The Wallace Ensemble, a young professional orchestra of which he is co-founder. Recent performances with this orchestra have included a concert of Israeli/orchestral Klezmer music at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, the first performance of his piano concerto, L’Chaim and the inaugural Wallace Ensemble composition prize. He has also participated in masterclasses with Benjamin Zander and the London Soloists Chamber Orchestra, Kenneth Montgomery and the National Symphony Orchestra of Lithuania and Stephen Cleobury and the BBC Singers.

Since becoming Musical Director of The Zemel Choir he has performed at a number of major London venues, including the Queen Elizabeth Hall, St. John’s, Smith Square, St. James’ Church, Piccadilly and the Victoria and Albert Museum.  In January 2005 he conducted The Zemel Choir in a special edition of the BBC’s Songs of Praise. In November he conducted the Choir in their 50^th anniversary concert at St. John’s Smith Square. He is Musical Director of the Rushmoor Choir of Aldershot, and regularly conducts the Quorum Chamber Choir.

Increasingly active as a composer, he was recently commissioned to write the incidental music for an adaptation of Christina Rossetti’s Goblin Market at the Southwark Playhouse. Other credits include music for Frederic Lonsdale’s Canaries Sometime Sing (performed in London and France in 2003). He was commissioned to write a setting of two psalms for a Zemel choir concert in June 2004, and completed his first piano concerto, L’Chaim, in November 2003. Other works include choral motets, piano solo works, chamber pieces and songs.

As pianist, he performs regularly with a number of singers and instrumentalists. He works regularly with opera singer Ruti Halvani, with whom he has performed in a number of venues in the UK and Europe.

He is currently studying for a PhD in the social history of twentieth-century music

MAUREEN CREESE

Maureen Creese studied at The Royal College of Music where she gained the GRSM Degree. She found herself much in demand accompanist and now divides her time between teaching and performing.   As well as choral training, one of Maureen's main interests is Opera. She has been associated with the Harrow Opera Workshop for a number of years.

Maureen joined The Zemel Choir in 1976, initially as its accompanist and has now worked with six of the Choir's Musical Directors. In 1979 she was appointed Assistant Musical Director, has toured extensively with the Choir, and has appeared at all its major concerts both in England and abroad. 

During the 1993‑1994 season, Maureen successfully stepped in as Acting Musical Director while the Choir sought a new permanent appointment. She conducted a number of concerts during this time, including the Commonwealth Day Observance at Westminster Abbey, where she was honoured by being presented to H.M. The Queen. .

Again in 1998/99 Maureen fulfilled the position of Acting Musical Director, after the resignation of Robert Max and before the appointment of Vivienne Bellos as Musical Director. She continues to give loyal support as Assistant Musical Director to the Choir’s current Musical Director Benjamin Wolf, and as its regular accompanist.

DUDLEY COHEN

Dudley Cohen attended the City of London School and the Guildhall School of  Music.  He  formed a youth choir, the first to bear the name Zemel  (Tsafon Ma'arav London) in 1948 which lasted for about eighteen months. After his National Service, during which time he played the clarinet in the RAF Fighter Command Central Band, and acted as Asst. Bandmaster, he reformed the  Zemel Choir in 1955 where he was its conductor and Musical Director until 1975.

Dudley was the first Director of Music at Carmel College and the founder of the Carmel Boys Choir, which functioned from 1957 until 1959. He has also held the post of choirmaster and organist at various synagogues including the Hampstead Synagogue, one of the last bastions of the mixed choir within the United Synagogue. A champion of mixed voice choirs in synagogues, for the   past twenty-two years he was in charge of the choir at West London Synagogue's overflow service, a choir that has been described as the "Purest Church Choir within the Anglo-Jewish Community"!

From 1974 until he retired in 1994, he held the post of Director of Music  at the Hampstead School where his symphony orchestras, wind bands and in  particular his girls choirs, were regularly selected to perform at the Royal  Festival Hall as part of the National Festival of Youth and Music.

He has composed a great deal of music, including pieces for school  orchestras, choirs and chamber groups,  a dozen musicals for school and  youth productions, about two hundred choral arrangements and compositions, and countless pieces of liturgical music for the synagogue service. Recently he has composed a number of pieces based on traditional Jewish and  Hassidic ideas for string quartet, which have been used as part of the wedding  ceremony.

GEOFFREY SIMON

Australian conductor Geoffrey Simon has appeared in London with the Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Chamber Orchestra and the English Chamber Orchestra. He has conducted orchestras and opera in the United States, Russia, Germany, Austria, Holland, Spain, Israel, Japan, China and Australia.

Since 1997 he has been Music Director of the Northwest Mahler Festival in Seattle. He was Music Director of the London’s Zemel Choir from 1974-8 and has been Music Director of the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra (Indiana), Albany Symphony Orchestra (New York), Sacramento Symphony (California) and the Orquestra Simfònica de Balears “Ciutat de Palma” in Mallorca.

Geoffrey was a student of Herbert von Karajan, Rudolf Kempe, Hans Swarowsky and Igor Markevich, and a major prize-winner at the first John Player International Conductors’ Competition, with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. While in California, in addition to performing the classical literature, Geoffrey Simon developed orchestral programming spanning some twenty non-European cultures. This led to a Millennium concert at London’s Commonwealth Institute with his ensemble the London Cello Orchestra, before HM The Queen, HRH The Duke of Edinburgh and diplomats from every Commonwealth country.

His first recording was Bloch’s Sacred Service with the Zemel Choir and the London Symphony Orchestra. He has now made over forty recordings, mostly for his own label Cala Records. Combining familiar music with discoveries, they are played by most classical music radio stations worldwide.

ANTONY SAUNDERS

Antony Saunders has been described in the London Press as “one of the country’s foremost accompanists” and again “as much a born duo-player as we have produced.”  His solo performances have also brought him critical praise.  He has played for musicians of the highest calibre, including the late Jack Brymer, the late Owen Brannigan Sir Thomas Allen. Sir Willard White, Ann Murray and Robert Tear.  Recitals have taken him both sides of the Atlantic and he is an experienced broadcaster (radio and television); participation in many music festivals has included Edinburgh and the London Proms. 

A skilled arranger for voices, his published work includes an arrangement for mixed voices and piano, of Malcolm Williamson’s English lyrics, written for Zemel and published by Weinberger (through the encouragement of the composer) and Three Gershwin Settings, published by Camden Music, which have been performed with great success as far afield as Singapore.  Two of these (Fascinating Rhythm and Love walked in) have been released on CD by the Bath Camerata, under the direction of their conductor, Nigel Perrin.

His love of choral music led him to the conductorship of the late Bruckner-Mahler Choir, the London Chamber Singers, before taking over the Zemel from 1979 to 1983

Since moving from London to the West Country, Antony has devoted more time to teaching, while founding the Yeovil Chamber Choir, and recalling almost forgotten skills as an organist! – He was a pupil of the late, great C.H.Trevor.  He is an alumnus of the Royal Academy of Music, of which he has been elected an Associate, and where he was until recently a professor.  He continues to give tutorials in piano-accompaniment at the Birmingham Conservatoire and still is called upon as a recitalist.

Antony began his association with Zemel at the time of the choir’s 25th anniversary and was involved with their silver jubilee celebrations.  He is proud to be part of this, their "golden" celebration!

MALCOLM SINGER

The composer and conductor, Malcolm Singer, is Director of Music at the Yehudi Menuhin School, and a professor of Composition at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. He read music at Magdalene College, Cambridge before studying in Europe with both Nadia Boulanger and Gyorgy Ligeti. He was later awarded a Harkness Fellowship, spending two years at Stanford University, California. In 1995, a "portrait" concert of his music was given in Cologne, and in 2003 there was a 50th Birthday Concert of his music given in St. John's, Smith Square, London.

Malcolm is very active in the Jewish musical community. He was Musical Director of the Zemel Choir from 1983-1993 and has conducted the BBC Singers in several concerts of Jewish Music. Malcolm has written much music with Jewish themes. York (with libretto by the poet, Michelene Wandor) was commissioned for the 800th anniversary of massacre of the Jews at Clifford's Tower and Kaddish was commissioned by the BBC Singers. His setting of Psalm 122 was written for the Reform Synagogues of Great Britain's Jubilee Service, and settings of Psalm 100 and 117 were commissioned by the Zemel Choir for their 40th Anniversary Concert. Jubilate, set in Latin, was written for the St. Alban's Chamber Choir, and The Mask of Esther (2001) was commissioned jointly by them with the Zemel Choir.

Other choral works include Psalms for Today for triple choir and Songs of Ascent for 40-part choir.

A Hopeful Place, for children's choir, string octet and orchestra, was commissioned for Yehudi Menuhin's 80th birthday concert in the Royal Albert Hall. Dragons, a cantata for children's choir and orchestra has had many performances, and his most recent children's football cantata - Perfect Pitch - was premiered in 2005 at the Barbican in London.

ROBERT MAX

Robert Max enjoys a colourful career as conductor, cellist and chamber musician. He regularly conducts the Covent Garden Chamber Orchestra in

Covent Garden, at the St. Jude's Proms and in the Rye Festival. Since 2000 Robert has been invited each year to conduct the Arad Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir in western Romania including concerts broadcast on Television and he has also conducted the Oradea Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2001 he made the first of three annual visits to Tambov in Russia to conduct, give recitals and direct a week-long chamber-music academy. As a mark of gratitude for his work the Rachmaninov Institute awarded him the title of Honorary Professor. Robert has also performed as soloist and conductor with the BBC Concert Orchestra and with the Kazakh State Symphony Orchestra in Almaty.

He currently conducts the Symphony and String Orchestras at Royal Holloway, University of London. Robert was Musical Director of the Nonesuch Orchestra and the Zemel Choir from 1994-8, with whom he recorded two CDs for Olympia and toured Israel in 1996. Robert has worked with many distinguished soloists including Ralph Kirshbaum, Gyorgy Pauk, James Kirby, Richard Lester, Aled Jones, Roger Chase, David Pyatt, Tim Hugh and Nicolai Demidenko. In September 2005 he became Musical Director of the Oxford Symphony Orchestra.

Robert's career as a solo cellist has taken him all over the UK, to the USA,

Germany, Denmark, Holland, France, Austria, Russia and Romania. As cellist of the Barbican Piano Trio for eighteen years, Robert has performed on four continents, recorded for ASV, Black Box, Dutton and Guildmusic, performed live on the BBC World Service and Radio 3 and on TV and Radio in Europe and the USA. The Trio gave a Beethoven Trio Cycle in the Wigmore Hall's Master Concert Series in 1995 which they repeated in a dozen other parts of the UK.

Two CDs of music by Rachmaninov, Tchaikovsky and Schnittke were released in 2001 with a further CD of chamber music by Sergei Taneyev released this year on the Dutton label. Robert was Musical Director of Pro Corda, the National School for Young Chamber Music Players from 1998 to 2000 and now coaches chamber-music at MusicWorks. He is Principal cellist of the London Chamber Orchestra.

VIVIENNE BELLOS