John Hancorn
Associate Lecturer in Music - Voice Tutor
About
John Hancorn had a long and successful career as a baritone in the world of opera, oratorio and consort singing. He sang principal roles at the Royal Opera House, Glyndebourne, English National Opera and Welsh National Opera and sang Christus in the Bach Passions with Sir Peter Pears as Evangelist on many occasions. He worked with many leading orchestras and conductors at home and abroad and won several prestigious prizes including at S’Hertogenbosch and the Richard Tauber prize, broadcasting frequently for Radio 3.
John is music director of the BREMF Singers, Baroque Collective Singers, East Sussex Bach Choir and Eastbourne Choral Society and co-director of The Baroque Collective and Lewes Baroquefest. Performances for the Brighton Early Music Festival include Bach’s St John Passion and B Minor Mass, Monteverdi Vespers, Handel Semele, and a staged performance of Purcell The Fairy Queen.
John leads vocal workshops and masterclasses specializing in baroque repertoire including regular visits to Early Music Fora and ‘Sing and Discover’ days and online workshops with Richard Wigmore throughout the UK. He is Associate Lecturer in Choral Studies at the University of Chichester Conservatoire and is a specialist examiner for Trinity Laban. He directed chamber choir courses at Dartington for many years and was a tutor at AIMS Summer School.
John directed the Orlando Consort in Tarik O’Regan Scattered Rhymes; the world premiere of Orlando Gough’s opera The Finnish Prisoner with singers from the Finnish Opera; a critically acclaimed professional recording of Ed Hughes’s Buried Flame and Purcell’s King Arthur for New Sussex Opera. He was Artistic Advisor for a large-scale concert at Glyndebourne for Homelink in 2019.
Other department members
Alison Woodward
Deputy Director, University of Chichester Conservatoire
