About Cantanti Camerati
About the choir
Cantanti Camerati was formed in 1968, is based in Richmond upon Thames and rehearses under the auspices of Richmond Adult and Community College. The choir specialises in unaccompanied music of all periods, especially English partsongs and madrigals. Concerts are presented throughout the year and the choir is involved in musical exchange visits with Richmond's twin towns of Fontainebleau, Konstanz and Richmond, Virginia.
Cantanti Camerati has performed in many and varied venues ranging from the Purcell Room to Australia House, where they were invited to give the first performance of Three Choric Hymns by Malcolm Williamson, the Master of the Queen's Musick. Another memorable concert was a tribute to the Oriana Madrigal Society at the Wigmore Hall in 1985 which was favourably reported in The Times. Musicians from The Royal Military School of Music, Kneller Hall, have featured in a number of concerts, including appearances at The Royal Star and Garter Home, Richmond, and St Martin-in-the-Fields. Performances have frequently been given in country properties of the National Trust, especially Fountains Abbey, Yorkshire.
Cantanti Camerati is a registered charity.
About the musical director
Geoffrey Bowyer was accompanist to Cantanti Camerati in 1970 and became musical director in 1974. He has sought to model the singing style of the group upon his choral and accompanying experience with The Oriana Madrigal Society which was directed by Charles Kennedy Scott.
Geoffrey was a Sir Frederick Bridge degree scholar and a Bonavia Hunt piano scholar. He won the Ricordi Prize for Conducting and the Maud Seton Piano Prize at Trinity College of Music. He as awarded a Mark of Distinction at the Institute of Education of London University for his teaching. His later experience included teaching at the Royal College of Music Junior Department in addition to being Senior Lecturer in Music in what is now the Twickenham Campus of Brunel University where he now accompanies the Ballet Rambert School. A Fellow of the Royal College of Organists at the age of 21, he regularly deputised at the Guards Chapel, and appeared at a televised Remembrance Day service from there. In 1988 he was awarded the degree of Master of Music, specialising in performance, from the University of Reading. He conducts several choirs, notably Teddington Choral Society, and is organist at St James's Church, Hampton Hill, where he has recently supervised expansion of the Bishop organ to include new pipes.