Singing Teachers
Vivien Pike
Vivien Pike began her musical studies at the Royal Manchester College of Music after previously studying medical science at University. She studied singing with Lesley Langford and Ena Mitchell, graduating with teaching and performing diplomas and a silver medal.
Vivien has wide experience as a soprano soloist with many choral societies and music clubs throughout the country, She has been singing in choirs from the age of 7 and is a former member of the BBC Northern Singers, and also a choir soloist for many years with the Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus.
She was appointed one of the first peripatetic teachers of singing in the country and her former pupils are now singing in many parts of the world. She is now a free-lance musician, teaching singing in Sheffield and is a frequent workshop and masterclass tutor for both solo and choral singing in this country and abroad. She is a very sought-after adjudicator for music festivals nationally and internationally and for the prestigious Sainsbury’s Choir of the Year competition. She was one of only 3 British jury members at the Choir Olympics in 2000 in Linz where there were 350 choirs from all parts of the world.
Vivien conducts 2 choirs regularly in Sheffield, Cantores Novae being of international standard, having emerged from the very successful City of Sheffield Girls’ Choir. Her choirs have won many prizes in international festivals in Vienna, Llangollen, Riva del Garda, Gorizia, Sligo and the first Sainsbury’s Youth Choir of the Year award. Cantores Novae represented UK in the International Choral Festival in Melbourne, Australia, in 1996 and toured USA and Canada in 1999. They were one of the past winners of Sainsbury’s Choir of the Year invited to perform in the 2000 Sainsbury’s Choir of the Year Showcase in the Royal Albert Hall, London in December 2000.
Vivien is in great demand for her expertise on voices and regularly tutors for the Association of British Choral Directors, the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain, the National Federation of Music Societies and at the Summer School in Charterhouse. She was chosen to be one of the panel of experts discussing Youth Choirs at the European Symposium on Choral Music in Ljubljana in 1995 and in 1996 was awarded an Honorary degree of Master of Music by Sheffield University for her continued contribution to the development of solo and choral singing in Sheffield. She is Deputy Chair of the Association of British Choral Directors and a Council member for the British Federation of Youth Choirs and the Association of Teachers of Singing. She has won a 2001 Churchill Fellowship, studying voice work in Sweden, Finland and Estonia.
Vivien is one of the UK’s leading adjudicators, specialising in solo and choral singing, and she has been adjudicating for the British Federation of Music Festivals for over 10 years. She has adjudicated in all parts of England, Scotland and Wales, Isle of Man and Northern and Southern Ireland. She is rapidly becoming known at International Choral Festivals in Cork, Coleraine (twice), Sligo, Jersey and the Choir Olympics in Linz. She has adjudicated for the last 4 competitions of the televised Sainsbury’s Choir of the Year; perhaps the most prestigious Choral Competition in UK. She also regularly gives both solo and choral masterclasses for British Festivals.
