Nancy Cooley lives locally in East Sussex. She is Artistic Director of the Lewes Festival of Song which she set up in 2015 and performs in the UK and abroad as a solo and chamber musician.
Nancy Cooley studied the piano with Joseph Weingarten and Maria Donska. She won the accompanists’ prize in the Walther Grüner International Lieder Competition in 1987 and has since made a speciality of song repertoire and chamber music in England and abroad. She accompanied masterclasses at the Britten Pears School for many years, and was on the music staff at Glyndebourne.
Nancy is Artistic Director of the Lewes Festival of Song which she set up in 2015. Chamber concerts include Elgar’s Piano Quintet with the Fitzwilliam Quartet in 2019, and more recently duos with Sally Beamish, viola, and Sebastian Comberti, cello. She has performed several times as guest artist with Ensemble Reza.
While bringing up her children in St. Leonards, she coached a community choir in Sea-tongue by Orlando Gough and Richard Chew, written for the De La Warr Pavilion. She co-founded Raising the Roof, a music-drama group established to help young people find their voices and talents, and put on Britten’s Noye’s Fludde involving local schoolchildren and musicians. She also led a children’s choir and The Enchanted Lark, which she created to bring imaginative music experiences to young children.
Nowadays, as well as performing, Nancy co-leads Raise Your Voice, a charity bringing music to those living with dementia and their carers, and this year is taking a musical story workshop around local primary schools with story-teller Ashley Ramsden, funded by Help Musicians.
Julia is recognised as one of the leading Baroque violinists of her generation, touring the world extensively and making numerous recordings with the period instrument orchestras of the UK
A Fulbright Scholar to London, she established herself there as one of early music’s leading players
Georgia Mae Ellis is a British Mezzo Soprano from a small village in East Sussex
Rosie is based in East Sussex and performs widely throughout the area and has also sung at London’s Natural History Museum for BBC Children In Need.
Marcus balances a busy performing schedule with his love for teaching the next generation of brass players.
Based in East Sussex, Fiona enjoys both performing as a soloist and collaborating with other musicians.
Sebastian was a founder member of the Bochmann Quartet until 1983 when he became principal cello with the London Mozart Players, a position he continues to hold.
Paul Gregory is a distinguished local prize-winning guitarist, with a busy performance schedule.
Louise Winter, who lives in Sussex, has sung with many of the world’s leading orchestras and conductors including the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Sir Simon Rattle, the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Sir Andrew Davis and many more.