Eastwood Collieries’ Male Voice Choir (ECMVC) are seeking to appoint a principal accompanist to join the choir from the end of August 2023. ECMVC is an amateur, non-auditioning choir consisting around 40 voices and has an excellent reputation for providing high quality entertainment for its audiences.
Founded in 1919, ECMVC is a successful male voice choir. The choir is fortunate in having a strong music team, headed by dynamic and well-respected musical director, Liz Moulder, ably supported by Rob Edwards as Assistant Conductor and Deputy Accompanist. Under Liz’s strong leadership, the choir has seen its musical competences and desire to please audiences of every kind develop to a high level, with the introduction of several modern compositions over the last few years. Whilst the choir may be described as a traditional male voice choir, its approach to chorister development and entertaining audiences is exciting, very fresh and far from what you might expect from a choir of this genre.
To help move to the next stage of development, ECMVC is seeking to recruit a well-qualified, energetic and enthusiastic principal accompanist to start working with the choir as soon as possible.
In addition to a technical ability to accompany a male voice choir, it is vitally important for the person in this role to develop and maintain a strong and close working relationship with the musical director and to become an integral part of the ECMVC family.
ECMVC practises at its base in Eastwood every Tuesday evening from 7pm to 9pm. The choir normally performs on several occasions throughout the year and has performed in many prestigious venues as well as supporting local charities and organisations within the local community.
ECMVC is a registered charity and relies upon member donations/subscriptions and income from concert performances to fund its activities. Whilst this income is modest, the choir is able to pay music team principals a fee/retainer.
The choir has its own baby grand electric piano used for practices and concerts on its home ground, as well as a Roland FP-7f electric keyboard and Roland keyboard combi-amp for use on the road. The principal accompanist therefore does not need to provide her or his own instrument.
The successful applicant for this role is guaranteed a genuinely warm welcome to the choir, with the prospect of working with a dedicated group of people who are not afraid to have fun but who, at the same time, are keen to make sure their performances are as good as they possibly can be.
Ideally, our new accompanist will have the following:
- Grade 8 piano qualification
- Sound sight reading skills with, if possible, an ability to improvise and/or provide imaginative accompaniment
- Experience of providing accompaniment to musicians and singers
- An ability to play a wide variety of music genres
- Experience of performing in public across a variety of situations
- Experience of working with others in any situation
- An ability to form and maintain strong relationships with the musical director and choristers
- A desire to be a fully active and pro-active member of a quality music team
- Availability to accompany the choir at performances and the weekly practices (apart from planned or unavoidable absences)
More information and background to the choir can be found on our website and Facebook pages and you can see and hear video and audio files on the choir’s very comprehensive and well-viewed YouTube channel. Please visit:
We expect to make an appointment to this role by the end of August, following discussions and audition. If you would like to express an interest in this role, or simply find out more about the choir, then please make contact with ECMVC by:
emailing secretary@ecmvc.org
and/or
calling 07802 758223