About Amicorum
Founded by Laura Ward in 2012, Amicorum is an upper voices ensemble made up of experienced choral and semi-professional singers from the Northampton area. Our aim is to bring well known works from the choral repertoire together with more unusual pieces and perform them to a high standard. We also want to have fun and share our enthusiasm for choral singing.
Our Choral Director
An experienced and enthusiastic choral singer, Amicorum musical director, Laura Ward crossed over to ‘the other side’ to explore and perform the repertoire she loves. Her passions include early and contemporary choral music, especially the music of Britten.
Laura is an accountant with a Masters in Music who believes there is always something new to learn! She is currently nearing the end of a Masters in Voice Pedagogy which has greatly developed her understanding of the voice and vocal acoustics. Her particular area of interest is the use of semi-occluded vocal tract exercises and their impact on vocal acoustics. She is a member of the Association of British Choral Directors and has successfully completed their choral conducting diploma. She has studied with Michael Rose, Sarah Tenant-Flowers, and Peter Broadbent.
Our accompanist and more…
Rod is delighted to work with Laura and her choir, Amicorum. Coming from a musical (and, a long time ago, science) background, he has a wealth of experience from running and accompanying the musical side of chapel, children's, youth and college choirs, choral groups, youth theatre and many stage groups, in both classical and theatre music. He is a piano and keyboard teacher, a writer, arranger and orchestrator, and conductor.
In collaboration with his partner Kendal Kirkland he has written and arranged many works for performance, including A Requiem, Song of St Francis, Heloise (a concert length musical work first performed in Southwark Cathedral), Veni Creator Spiritus, and Songs of the Passion which grew from the music written for the Christ in the Centre open air performances in Leicester in the early naughties; many of these performed over the years with Amicorum. Laura has also programmed many of Kendal and Rod's Christmas Carols and shorter works into Amicorum's concerts. Up to 2019 Kendal and Rod also organised and ran the Skopelos Choral Music Workshops and Concerts each Summer for many years on the beautiful Greek Island, where Rod conducted the workshop choir amid Greek ruins, a private monastery, and busy tavernas.
Closer to home, Rod is accompanist to the Great Bowden Recital Trust Community Choir, also Musical Director of Northampton Musical Theatre Company and of their Youth Society, and KOSMTC (Kettering Operatic Society).
Having accompanied the school girls choir on stage at Llangollen when he was a pupil, it feels as if he's come full circle and is very pleased to be playing piano for this, albeit slightly older, upper voices choir of Amicorum.
