Clifford Lister, Musical Director of the Thanet Festival Choir

Clifford Lister, Musical Director

Clifford Lister, Musical Director of the Thanet Festival Choir Clifford Lister commenced his musical education as a chorister at Winchester Cathedral, later winning a Choral Scholarship to The King's School, Canterbury, and subsequently studying singing with Kenneth Bowen at The Royal Academy of Music.

Whilst at the Royal Academy of music he was a lay-clerk at Canterbury Cathedral, later joining Westminster Cathedral, from where he retired in November 2007. Clifford also enjoys a varied career as a soloist, recitalist, and consort singer with Cappella Nova.

Recent tours with various groups have included trips to the USA and Brazil, and solo concerts in Hanover, Budapest and most recently the Verdi Requiem in Bahrain. Nearer home he is a regular soloist with many Choral Societies in the South East, and has sung a wide variety of works, in fact, of the mainstream oratorio repertoire the only role he has yet to sing is that of the Evangelist in Bach's St Matthew Passion.

When not performing Clifford is actively engaged as a Singing teacher at Kent College in Canterbury, Northbourne Park School in Deal and also privately both in Kent and London. Some years ago The Thanet Festival Choir approached him to take over as their Music Director, and the prospect of coaching a large group of singers on a weekly basis was a rather appealing challenge, especially since the only group he'd ever directed before was a Junior Choir in a primary school! On the basis that nothing could be more challenging than a primary school choir of seven and eight year olds, he accepted the offer, and has overseen our progress for eleven years. (Sadly the primary school choir diminished into a consort, but that's a story for another day!)

This Music Directing has now extended to The 70 Chamber Choir of Thanet as well, specialising in early music; the English Choral tradition is the area in which he spends the majority of his professional life, and is perhaps where he is most at home.

Clifford Lister rehearses the Thanet Festival Choir Clifford expects his singers to aim for the highest possible standards, after all he does know and can explain to us (and demonstrate) exactly how we should be singing, whilst keeping in perspective that we are not professional singers: he does insist on us working extremely diligently at the rehearsals and invariably manages to bear our intermittent rehearsal lapses with good humour and a positive outlook. It is a source of great pride to him and us that we are growing not just in number but in confidence and competence too.