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Starting out as a chorister at Bristol Cathedral he went on to sing with Birmingham Cathedral Choir, Birmingham Oratory, Ex Cathedra, the Rodolphus Choir, and was part of the original cast of Sondheim’s ‘Saturday Night’.
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Stephen Owens: Accompanist
Steve initially trained as a classical pianist and percussionist and as a professional musician performed in classical orchestral concerts before diversifying into working
in the theatre and eventually became a Musical Director for many shows in regional UK theatres. He has been an MD on shows such as ‘The Tempest’ for the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Barbican in London and ‘Grease’ and ‘Footloose’ in the West End. He was also on the original cast album of ‘Matilda’ for the RSC and as MD toured nationally with the plays: ‘Midsummer Night's Dream’, ‘Romeo and Juliet’ and Richard III After retiring from being a touring musician, he retrained as a school music teacher and since moving to Oswestry is now working in a school in Shrewsbury and also has a private piano teaching practice. He was appointed accompanist for Cantiones in 2022.
Sarah Wright Owens: Vocal Coach
Sarah sang as a young singer in choirs such as the BBC Northern Singers and Ex Cathedra. She.png)
then performed in opera for many years, touring nationally and internationally.
After the birth of her second child she retrained as a Speech and Language Therapist and now has a Masters degree in Vocal Pedagogy. She is part of the NHS multidisciplinary team at the Professional Voice Users Clinic in the University Hospital, Birmingham and works with the British Association of Performing Arts Medicine (BAPAM) to support professional and student singers experiencing vocal problems. She is a visiting lecturer at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and University of Birmingham, teaching vocal technique to classical and jazz singers as well as working in private practice in Birmingham and Oswestry.
Since moving to Oswestry in 2022, she has started to teach singing at Oswestry school. She joined Cantiones Choir to keep vocally fit as she teaches more than performs nower days and has really enjoyed rekindling her love of choral music under the wonderful leadership of Martin Bussey. Sarah was recently appointed the Cantiones Vocal Coach, a role created to develop the choirs’ vocal quality and is looking forward to assisting the new Musical Director, Tony Coupe in 2025.
