Musical Director

MARGARET HOLMES

Margaret Holmes has been the Musical Director of INTERLUDE since its formation in March 1991. Under her expert guidance the group has developed a repertoire of music from opera and operetta, through to classics and jazz, to poular items and songs from the musical theatre.
Her innate sense of humour ensures the group performs many humorous items in its enjoyable and varied programmes.

She studied singing at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music under Winifred Buswell, and piano under Raymond O’Conell. She qualified with both a Teacher’s and a Performer’s Degree.

She has sung under the batons of Sir Colin Davis and Bryden Thompson, and appeared in shows with such stars as Sir Harry Secombe, The Two Ronnies, Stanley Baxter and Jimmy Logan as one of The Carlton Singers. Principla roles in operettas and many Gilbert & Sullivan operas are part of her repertoire.

Margaret rehearsed the chorus for the acclaimed performance of ‘Carmen’ in the Chester Roman Amphitheatre given by the First Ace Opera International. She also prepared and rehearsed the chorus for the highly successful and popular ‘Concerts in the Park’ with the Manchester Camerata Orchestra, conducted by Martin Yates, as part of Chester’s Summer Music Festival.

Again, preparing and rehearsing the chorus for the many very popular Gilbert & Sullivan ‘Singalongs’ performed under the direction of Kenneth Roberts proved to be very satisfying.

Conducting several concerts of grand opera and operetta with The Garden Consort, a quartet of singers with their repetiteur from Covent Garden were very rewarding and exciting occasions for her, and extremely reputation-enhancing for INTERLUDE.

Another enjoyable facet of Margaret’s musical life is her work as an accompanist for singers, instrumentalists and revue companies.

She currently teaches piano and singing.