Our New Chairperson
| Type of post: | Choir news item |
| Sub-type: | No sub-type |
| Posted By: | Rob Hooper |
| Status: | Current |
| Date Posted: | Sat, 27 Jan 2024 |
Horsham Chamber Choir begins 2024 with a new Chairperson in the shape of Lisa Quas. Lisa has been a member of the choir since 2007, and was appointed to succeed Peter Hooper at the choir’s last Annual General meeting in 2023.Lisa originally hails from near East Grinstead, where her early musical tastes were influenced by listening to Bach and Benjamin Britten with her father, who sadly died when she was just 8 years old. Lisa sang with school choirs, but focussed on her passion for dance leading to a performing arts degree at university. Whilst studying and choreographing for performances at university, Lisa was introduced to the minimalist compositions of Steve Reich, Phillip Glass and the resident Musical Director at the time, Gavin Bryars.
Her love of choral music continued in the background throughout her early working life in London, and whilst researching images for use on classical albums and cd’s she came across a recording of Thomas Tallis choral works including “Spem in Alium’. “I think this was the key moment that brought all my musical influences together and subsequently led me to join a choir”, she recalls.
Family life brought Lisa back to Sussex, and an opportunity to start singing again (as an alto) in 1999 when she joined West Sussex Philharmonic to perform Faure’s Requiem, a piece she had always wanted to sing. She subsequently moved to HCC a few years later through a friend who was a soprano and soloist the choir at the time. “Over the years HCC has given me the chance to sing a wide variety of choral music with such a brilliant group of people, guided by skilled (and very patient) musical directors”, she explains.
Lisa is Director of Business Resources at Millais School in Horsham, and brings a wealth of experience to HCC’s management through working with Boards of Governors and other committees. Her journey to choir rehearsal every week is almost always by bike, but a considerably shorter journey than the testing Prudential London 100 mile route (taking in most of the 2012 Olympic route including Leigh Hill) which she is proud to have completed in 2017 in under 6 hours at an average speed of 17mph!
