Belvedere Singers

Established in the 1989 at a listed house in Swanage namely ‘Belvedere House’, the Belvedere Singers were formed and the rest is history. We became a registered charity in 2015 to advance, improve, develop and maintain public education in and appreciation of the art and science of music in the community. We are a non-auditioning SATB choir with varying musical abilities and we rehearse every Tuesday evening apart from school half-terms and the summer breaks. We perform two concerts a year at St. Mary’s Church, Swanage, one in May and the other in December when we also like to support local charities by enabling a retiring collection for the selected charity. Our Concert programmes have included young and mature accomplished soloists, so if you are interested, we would encourage you to get in touch. Since 2018 Clive Watkiss has been our music director. Clive teaches music at St. Swithun’s School in Winchester and he began his musical training as a chorister at Waltham Abbey in Essex and studied piano, cello and conducting at the Royal Academy of Music and advanced conducting at the Guildhall of Music and Drama. He has also composed music and settings, some of which have been performed in Cathedrals in the UK and in George’s Chapel, Windsor. Clive has a major influence on the types of music we perform which can be classical, religious, baroque, madrigals, musical theatre, sea shanties and some swing tunes - an eclectic mix of music. We have two very accomplished Accompanists: namely Angus Murray Brown who has performed as a soloist and accompanist in many venues in UK and Europe, including The Royal Albert Hall and The Queen Elizabeth Hall. And Hazel Kennett who won a part time scholarship at the age of 12 to the Royal Academy of Music and then, at 18, studied full time at the academy. She then went on to become a peripatetic piano teacher and also taught private pupils. To find out much more about us go to our website.

Photo by Roger Kennett