Eileen M Rigg
Deputy Conductor
The choir is delighted to have secured the services of Eileen Rigg as Deputy Musical Director.
Eileen has been singing from a very early age and involved with choirs since her days in the school choir and the Maia Choir in Stockport. As a college student she had her first experience of singing large choral works such as Verdi's Requiem. She was also a member of the Gilbert & Sullivan Society, playing Ruth in The Pirates of Penzance and the Fairy Queen in Iolanthe.
As she began her teaching career in Manchester Eileen joined the Halle Choir, of which she remained a member for 36 years, singing in numerous concerts in the Free Trade Hall and later the Bridgewater Hall, and in many other concert halls in Britain and venues in Europe, under many eminent conductors. In concerts around the northwest given by the Halle Choir, Eileen regularly appeared as contralto soloist, also singing solo in a performance of Bernstein's Chichester Psalms in the Free Trade Hall and in a Mozart mass in Holland on a choir exchange visit.
For many years Eileen regularly competed in music festivals around the northwest, and she was the first winner of the Vocal Recital class at her local festival in Hazel Grove.
The favourite part of Eileen's teaching career was conducting the school choir! While working in Manchester she conducted performances of Monteverdi's Beatus Vir and Vivaldi's Gloria, was a section tutor in the Manchester Youth Choir, and sang solos in many concertes in the area.
Eileen formed and directs two choirs (adult mixed-voice and junior) in her parish church, St Peter's RC in Hazel Grove. Although their main work is for the church, the choirs have had considerable success in local festivals and concerts, and recently they were guests of the Tideswell Male Voice Choir at their Annual Concert. Christopher Ellis has been their accompanist since 2005 and they very much hope he will remain so for many years to come.
As well as her conducting work Eileen now works as a teacher of singing and woodwind, based in Hazel Grove.
Despite Eileen's long years of choral experience, she has never before worked with a male voice choir, and she's delighted to have been appointed as deputy conductor of TMVC, hoping for a long and happy association with the choir.
Updated 25 August 2009