About Whitehall Choir

The Whitehall Choir is one of London’s leading amateur choirs. It has a varied repertoire including challenging unaccompanied pieces as well as larger choral works, and looks to present a selection of more rarely performed pieces alongside favourite classics. The Choir performs regularly at major central London concert venues, alongside professional orchestras and soloists, and has an extensive repertoire from the Renaissance to the twenty-first century. There is a list of our recent concerts here.

Joanna Tomlinson – Musical Director

head and shoulders shot of Jo smiling to camera

Joanna Tomlinson became Music Director of the Whitehall Choir in September 2017, taking over from Paul Spicer.

In addition to her role with the Whitehall Choir, Joanna is the Principal Conductor of the National Youth Choir of Great Britain Girls’ Choir, and Music Director of Constanza Chorus. She has recently stepped down as Artistic Director of Farnham Youth Choir, with whom she won two gold medals at the European Choir Games in 2019. She is also on the tutor panel for the Association of British Choral Directors. With Constanza Chorus she has conducted the London Mozart Players and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment at Cadogan Hall.

In demand as a workshop leader, workshops have included sessions for UK Choir Festival, ABCD, London Choral Conducting Masterclasses, and the Gabrieli Consort “Roar” and Philharmonia Orchestra education schemes. She was chorus-master for the Glyndebourne Youth Chorus and a woman’s chorus in Eye to Eye by Howard Skempton and Sheila Hill as part of Brighton Festival 2019.

Joanna has studied conducting with Neil Ferris and Peter Hanke, and at the Sherborne Summer School under George Hurst. She has participated in masterclasses with Paul Brough, Patrick Russill, Peter Broadbent, Michael Reif and John Dickson. She studied singing at the Royal College of Music, where she gained the post-graduate diploma in singing with Distinction. She has appeared as soprano soloist in much of the core oratorio repertoire. As a choral singer, Joanna has worked with BBC Singers, Philharmonia Voices, Britten Sinfonia Voices, London Voices, Gabrieli Consort and Sonoro.

Joanna teaches singing and conducting. She has taught at Trinity Laban Junior Department and Royal College of Music Junior Department and worked as vocal coach to choirs including Epiphoni Choir and the Polish National Youth Choir. She has worked as an adjudicator, including for the Leith Hill Festival.

Visit Joanna Tomlinson’s website

Ian Tindale – Accompanist

‘A wonderfully responsive and assured pianist’ (The Telegraph), Ian Tindale is increasingly in demand as a specialist in song repertoire and chamber music. On the song platform he has partnered Ailish Tynan, James Gilchrist and Robin Tritschler, and his performances have taken him to Europe, North America and across the UK. Highlights in the 2023-4 season include recitals for BBC Radio 3 in the Hay Festival with Soraya Mafi and with Nick Pritchard at the Edinburgh International Festival. Ian has formed several fruitful collaborative partnerships in the last decade, most significantly with soprano Harriet Burns, with whom he has given acclaimed performances at the International Lied Festival Zeist, Oxford Lieder Festival, and at the Ryedale Festival. Ian is Artistic Director of Shipston Song, an annual song festival on the edge of the Cotswolds which he founded in 2022, and performers have included Roderick Williams, Helen Charlston, Jess Dandy, Julien van Mellaerts and Laurence Kilsby.

Ian is a graduate of Selwyn College, Cambridge, and the Royal College of Music in London. In 2017 Ian was awarded the Pianist’s Prize in the Wigmore Hall/Kohn Foundation Song Competition. He is a Britten Pears Young Artist and a Samling Artist.

Visit Ian Tindale’s website

Tours

In Spring 2016, the Choir went on tour to Vienna, performing in the Votive Church in Vienna, and in the town of Krems.

Over the years, the Choir has made a number of other visits both abroad and in the UK including to Toulouse, France and to Riga, Latvia.

Other Musical Activities

Special events

Over the past few years, the Choir has recorded three CDs, one of rarely heard Christmas music, one of Bruckner’s Mass in E Minor and Paul Spicer’s The Deciduous Cross, and a third in 2014 of music suitable for passiontide to Ascension. Read more

Other performances and workshops

Come & Sing Messiah, September 2019

Since November 2006, the Choir has hosted Come & Sing events, originally and most latterly at the Church of the Holy Spirit, Narbonne Ave, Clapham, SW4. Recent works have included Mozart’s Requiem and Handel’s Messiah.

In addition to these informal events, the Choir organises day-long workshops, which provide an opportunity both to work on vocal technique and to enjoy some time together over lunch.

Find out about joining us

Choir Archive

Anyone interested in the history of the Choir can read more about it in the archive.