Sarah Tenant-Flowers is one of the leading choral directors of her generation, working with both professional and amateur groups and in the field of arts education.

She studied music at Oxford and Durham Universities, gaining a Ph.D from the latter for her study of the works of Elisabeth Lutyens, but forsook an academic career in favour of conducting and arts management. She studied arts administration at the Roehampton Institute and conducting with Sir Charles Groves, Peter Erdei from the Liszt Academy, Laszlo Heltay, and Alan Hazeldine.

Sarah is a Director of the Association of British Choral Directors and the numerous choirs with which she has worked include the Cape Town Philharmonic Choir and Orchestra, The Reading Bach Choir, the Kantorei der Friedenskirche of Dusseldorf, the Guildford, Croydon and Sevenoaks Philharmonic Choirs, Linden Baroque Choir and the Newbury Spring Festival Chorus. Up until July 2007 she was Musical Director of one of the UK's most innovative amateur choirs, Harlow Chorus, and she is currently co-director of Encoro, Choir Director for the University of Nottingham, and artistic director of Singscape.

Singscape was launched in 2000 and is an ensemble of professional singers whose performances consistently push the boundaries of repertoire and presentation beyond the choral norm. The group combines the sound of the vocal ensemble with numerous different artforms, from lighting, film and video installation to movement and visual art, exploring a wide range of artists and media to suit particular programmes and venues and creating work which engages its audience with an entirely fresh, visual and dramatic perspective to choral sound. The choir is both versatile and virtuoso, varying in size, format and sonority according to repertoire and the fact that the professional singers are all soloists in their own right adds an extra dramatic and expressive dimension. Forthcoming projects include a choral ballet collaboration with Biserk Dance Company and choreographer Nickely Burke, recordings of Chesnokov's Panihida and contemporary Russian Orthodox music for Classical Communications, and work with experimental theatre companies to devise new forms of choral drama.

Sarah is Associate Music Director of the Brandenburg Sinfonia, with whom she works overseas and appears regularly in London and throughout the UK. Other orchestras and ensembles which she has conducted include the City of London Sinfonia, City of London Chamber Players, Britten Sinfonia, Ensemble Bash, Fiori Musicali, and the Alberni and Brandenburg Symphony Orchestras.

In addition to her conducting engagements Sarah teaches conducting, both for the Association of British Choral Directors and privately, directs choral workshops and seminars throughout the UK, is a choral arranger and consultant, and professional arts management consultant. Former posts include administrator of the Whitbread Book of the Year, Menuhin International Violin Competition and televised Choir of the Year Competition, Artistic Director of Music at Oxford, and General Manager of The Sixteen conducted by Harry Christophers, with whom she has worked worldwide.

Earlier this year Sarah made her debut with Ireland's National Chamber Choir in a performance of Pärt's Passio with the Hilliard Ensemble for RTÉ's Living Music Festival. She is currently working on BBC2's new series on conducting called 'Maestro', scheduled for transmission from mid-August onwards.

www.singscape.org.uk

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