Sabine Birch
Voice: soprano
Nationality: German
Occupation: teacher
Started singing: in the pram
Favourite music: Lieder by Schubert and Schumann
Fave composer: Mozart, Schubert, Brahms
Fave singer: Fischer-Dieskau
Fave CML concert: Deutsches Requiem by Brahms
Hobbies: Making music with my children at home and performing in shows at school
Collegium Musicum of London - with a regular membership of about 25 singers - is a chamber choir based in Clerkenwell, London. Focusing naturally on a capella repertoire and works accompanied by professional instrumental chamber groups and soloists, the choir's repertoire encompasses sacred music of the Renaissance and Baroque periods as well as music of the nineteenth century and the great secular works of the last 100 years.
For its first concert of 2013, Collegium Musicum of London Chamber Choir returned to its home in Clerkenwell to create a haven of tranquil harmonies in a short programme of a capella choral favourites.
Following last year's success with a similar programme, the choir scored a palpable hit once again at the Church of Our Most Holy Redeemer, Exmouth Market, with a programme featuring soothing masterpieces like Allegri's famous Miserere, Bach's serene Air on a G String, Tavener's transcendent Song for Athene alongside works by Vaughan Williams, Palestrina and Parry.
This year, the concert was repeated in the pretty Church of St James in Egerton, Kent, and attracted a sizeable local audience.
Coming up...
A year after CML's triumphant St John Passion, at the St Stephen's Festival, the group revisits West London for Henry and George, a sparkling celebration of the choral works of Henry Purcell and Georg Friderik Handel.
Collegium Musicum has been invited to take part in the VOICES NOW Festival at The Roundhouse in June. The event, which celebrates 'all things vocal', will include leading choirs and choral groups from around the country.
Recorded in March 2009 at St Mary Abchurch, London, the CD features music from the Russian sacred repertoire, including pieces by Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, Chesnokov and Glinka.
The choir is at present on the lookout for new singers. And there's a special deal for the under 25s - rather than the usual subscription rates, pay just £10 per concert to sing with the choir.
Click here for details of our straightforward audition process, or email the choir Fixer here.
Choir for hire
Anyone for tenors?
Collegium Musicum of London is also available for hire – either to give a concert as part of a festival, to provide one-off concert programmes, or to sing for functions.