Susannah Vango

Described as a “young rising soloist” (Birmingham Post) and with a voice reviewed as “spectacularly effulgent” and “beautifully haunting” (Gramophone), Susannah’s growing success stems from a background in music. Susannah grew up in Hampshire and began performing as a soloist with the Farnham Youth Choir aged eleven in prestigious venues such as the Royal Albert Hall, St James’ Palace and St Johns, Smith Square. A recipient of a music scholarship from Hampshire Music Services enabled her to concentrate on her vocal studies with Catherine Watts. She was awarded this scholarship between 1994-2000 and has since received funding from other trust funds including The Philip Bates Trust.

Currently studying under Christine Cairns, Susannah’s recent busy soloist schedule has seen her performing in a number of UK venues including; Birmingham and Kidderminster Town Halls, Wolverhampton Civic Hall, Derby Cathedral and Cadogan Hall. She also featured in two performances of Bach’s Magnificat and Handel’s Messiah with the Syred Consort and Orchestra of Saint Pauls under the direction of Ben Palmer in Covent Garden.

Operatic appearances include title roles in Cavalli’s La Callisto and Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, both for the Lichfield Festival.

As a recording artist, Susannah was featured in Ex Cathedra’s 2010 Christmas release Joy in the Morning and her solo tracks were showcased on Classic FM and BBC Radio 3.

A busy 2011 has seen Susannah appearing as a soloist for several oratorio works including; Haydn’s Creation, Bach’s B Minor Mass, Monteverdi Vespers 1610, Brahms’ Requiem, Vivaldi’s Vespers and C.P.E Bach’s Magnificat.

Susannah has also had links with the more popular repertoire including backing vocals for the internationally acclaimed soul singer Alice Russell.

Whilst at Birmingham University Susannah was a member of the Birmingham University Singers and conducted their Chamber Choir. In her final year she made several solo appearances with the University’s chamber ensembles, including Bach’s Cantata 51 and Magnificat, Villa-Lobos’ Bachianas Brasleiras No 5, Britten’s Hymn to  St Cecilia,  and a public recital of Poulenc’s song-cycle Fiançailles Pour Rire.

Following a postgraduate course in vocal studies at the Birmingham Conservatoire where, as a member of the Conservatoire Chamber Choir, Susannah played Filia in their performance of Carissimi’s Jephtae in The Adrian Boult Hall, she was invited to be the soprano soloist for the world premier of Julian Anderson’s Bright Morning Star with the CBSO at their 30^th Anniversary Concert conducted by Simon Halsey.

She now performs regularly throughout the UK with Birmingham based Ex Cathedra and the Ex Cathedra Consort conducted by Jeffrey Skidmore, and has appeared as a soloist in several of their performances including: Handel’s Messiah and Dixit Domino, Bach’s B Minor Mass and Vivaldi Dixit Domino. Susannah has also appeared on their critically acclaimed recordings of Latin American Baroque music including an international album tour of Fire Burning in Snow and will also be part of their forthcoming recording Earthrise featuring the music of Alec Roth.

In addition to the professional choral work with Ex Cathedra and their Consort, Susannah has also toured and recorded with a number of other professional consorts including; The National Chamber Choir of Ireland conducted by Paul Hillier, Polyphony, Ludus Baroque and Tenebrae. Susannah has been involved in both UK tours as a member of Howard Goodall’s Enchanted Voices as part of a Classic FM album promotion.

Susannah has toured extensively with these groups, internationally to Europe and The USA.

Susannah (Suzzie) has been involved in singing and young people’s voices from an early age. She started singing in the award winning Farnham Youth Choir aged 11 and later, joined the National Youth Choir of Great Britain. Working with inspirational conductors such as David Victor-Smith and Mike Brewer and other like-minded musicians inspired her to pursue a career in singing.

As a workshop leader, Suzzie’s passion for music making lies predominantly in singing. She feels that every individual should have the opportunity to find their singing voice and inner-ear as this is the key to both hearing, and ultimately understanding music.

Suzzie regularly works with large numbers of people who range from no previous experience to professional singers.

Work with adults

Corporate:

Suzzie has recently been involved in running several successful corporate training days for large national and international organisation. These have included the international finance corporation Bluefin and the global security company G4S. The workshops have been designed to improve teamwork and focus through a variety of musical and vocal tasks, culminating in an evening performance alongside a team of professional singers and other musicians.

Choral:

Since 2007 Suzzie has worked as a voice coach for the UK organisation Sing for Pleasure and since 2010 she has led their singers course on their summer schools. These courses are for people of all ages and abilities. As voice coach to South West Essex Choir, Kidderminster Choral Society and Wimbledon Choral Society, Suzzie has a great deal of experience of working with adults. Her one-off workshops for choirs are particularly successful. Suzzie has worked with a number of UK amateur choirs including; South West Essex Choir, Woking Choral Society, The Rainbow Singers (Birmingham), Kidderminster Choral Society and the Lowrie Girls (Portsmouth). Suzzie works with the choir on the sound quality and blend with advice on good technique and vocal health. She teaches a range of repertoire throughout the day and depending on the requirements of the group, can teach by rote or with music. For more information on how to get a workshop tailor-made for your group, please email Suzzie from the link in the "Contact" section.

Teacher Training (CPD):

Suzzie works regularly with adults as part of their CPD. Her collaborations with Urszula Weber, Music Leader, Ex Cathedra and Sing Up have helped to develop a programme of teacher training sessions aimed at encouraging non-music specialists to teach songs confidently in the classroom and providing the tools to adapt these songs to suit their teaching methods.

Work with children

As well as the group and choral work Suzzie is involved in, she is passionate about, and has a great deal of experience of one-to-one teaching, with girls, trebles and broken voices. Her work at boys prep schools (Lanesborough Preparatory School and The Hall School) has given her a great deal of experience with treble voice and changing voices. As vocal coach to the Farnham Youth Choir (recent gold winners of XXI Concorso Internazionale di Canto Corale in Verona) Suzzie regularly works with teenage girls’ voices and currently teaches at Bishop Walshe Catholic School in Sutton Coldfield. She is also associate conductor of Farnham Junior Boys Choir.

As a singing teacher for Birmingham Music Service, Suzzie has taught in some of the most deprived and socially challenging areas of Birmingham in contrast to this she has taught singing in one of the most affluent areas of London and a prestigious school in Thailand (Shrewsbury International, Bangkok). She has worked on a one-to-one level for the Music of Life Foundation (with children and teenagers with autism and physical disabilities) as well as privately from home (all ages).

Ex Cathedra Education

As one of the lead vocal tutors for Ex Cathedra Education Suzzie is heavily involved in their highly acclaimed education work. In addition to her work with Singing Medicine; an NHS award winning singing project based at Birmingham and Oxford Children’s Hospitals working with children in long-term health care, she also works with their Junior and Vocal Academies. Her work with their Vocal Academy has been to prepare the younger professional singers for projects of larger works involving the main choir. These works have included Handel’s Messiah, Mendelssohn’s Elijah and Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius. She has also been involved in preparing the Junior Academy for performances of Carmina Burana (with the Birmingham Royal Ballet) and a world premier of a specially commissioned piece “Hymn to Gaia” by Alec Roth alongside the main choir (recording due to be released in late 2011).

She has also been heavily involved in Ex Cathedra’s critically acclaimed Singing Playgrounds project that has been featured on Teacher’s TV Inspirations programme and BBC Radio 3 Music Matters. This project was initially run in Sandwell, Birmingham as a first access, singing project to improve social interaction for children in school through the use of simple playground singing games. It has grown substantially since 2004 and Suzzie has since been delivering this project nationwide to areas including: Derby, Birmingham, Coventry, London’s Tower Hamlets, Devon, Hertfordshire and Stratford-Upon-Avon.

International

Part of her international work at Shrewsbury International School, Bangkok, Thailand has involved an element of Singing Playgrounds. Suzzie visits this school annually to work with the whole school, promoting singing and good vocal practice. In 2012, she will be visiting Guangzhao International School, China.

Conducting

Suzzie is an experienced conductor. Starting out as director of the Birmingham University Chamber Choir in 2002, she is now associate conductor for Farnham Junior Boys Choir and Edgbaston High School and assistant conductor for the National Children’s Choir of Great Britain. She has conducted concerts in numerous UK venues including the Royal Albert Hall, Birmingham Town Hall and Symphony Hall and Bradford and Rochester Cathedrals. Internationally, she was invited to lead a televised joint concert with the British choir WFYV and Greek and Turkish Cypriot choirs in the British embassy in the presence of the country’s president. In 2011 Suzzie was the guest conductor for Ex Cathedra’s highly acclaimed Candlelight concert series. 

Collaborations and partnerships

Suzzie has worked with a number of national organisations to run singing workshops for mother and babies, teachers, adults, children and teenagers. These include: Canary Wharf Partnerships, Music of Life Foundation (for children with special needs) Elmley Foundation Charity, COBIS, Derby City Council, NYCOS, Creative Partnerships, The National Singposium, BBC Blast and the One Young World Summit (in the presence of Archbishop Desmond Tutu).

Other project collaborations include: SingUp (running teacher and young singing leader training), Armonico Consort (musical theatre in a day), Glyndebourne Youth Opera (young singing leaders) Dartington International Summer School 2011 and Music Leader West Midlands (teacher training). Between 2008-2010 Suzzie headed up Rochester Cathedral’s outreach project and worked extensively with the choristers and local primary schools.

Thanks to the vast number of varied vocal coaching roles she has undertaken, Suzzie has developed a wide variety of skills, which have enhanced her ability to interact with lots of different people from completely different backgrounds.

13/10/12
Workshop leader
“Come and Sing” workshop
Kingston Orpeheus Choir 

19/08/12-27/08/12
Director of “Singer’s Course”
Sing for Pleasure Summer School 2012
Keele University

30/07/12-04/08/12
Assistant Conductor
National Children’s Choir of Great Britain Summer Course
Shrewsbury School, Shropshire

23/07/12-27/07/12
Voice coach
WFYV choir tour of UK

13/07/12
Vocal tutor
Ex Cathedra Singing Playground Songleader Day
Stratford Upon Avon Civic Hall

07/07/12
Voice Coach
WFYV concert
Kidderminster Town Hall

30/06/11
Workshop leader
Lowrie Girls Singing Day
Portsmouth

23/06/11
Conductor of Farnham Junior Boys Choir
Farnham Youth Choir Summer Concert
Farnham Maltings

19/05/12
Workshop leader
“Come and Sing” workshop for children
St John’s Church, Wimbledon

01/04/12-07/04/12
Assistant Conductor
National Children’s Choir of Great Britain Easter Course
Shrewsbury School, Shropshire

28/03/12
Workshop leader (teacher CPDL)
Teacher training session for Sing Up (Kent)
Kent Music Service

23/03/12
Voice Coach
WFYV concert
Kidderminster Town Hall

16/03/12
Vocal tutor
Ex Cathedra Singing Playground Songleader Day
Stratford Upon Avon Civic Hall

14/03/12
Workshop leader (teacher CPDL)
Teacher training session for Sing Up (Kent)
Kent Music Service

13/03/12 & 15/03/12
Conductor
Edgbaston High School Spring Concert
Edgbaston High School

10/02/12-18/02/11
Lead vocal tutor
Ex Cathedra Singing Playground
British School Guangzhou, China

04/02/12
Workshop leader
Woking Choral Society
Woking

30/01/12
Workshop leader
“Get Singing” workshop
Folly Hill Infants School, Farnham

13/01/12
Lead vocal tutor
Ex Cathedra Singing Playground Celebration Day
Stratford Upon Avon Civic Hall

06/01/12-07/01/12
Voice coach
WFYV alumni weekend
Kidderminster

25/11/11-11/12/11
Vocal tutor
Birmingham Royal Ballet, Nutcracker. With Ex Cathedra Junior Academy
Birmingham Hippodrome

18/11/11
Voice Coach
WFYV concert
Kidderminster Town Hall

01/10/11
Vocal tutor
Singing  and leadership workshops with Ex Cathedra Education
G4S Conference

08/10/11
Workshop leader
“Come and Sing” workshop day for South West Essex Choir
Woodford, Essex

18/09/11-25/09/11
Lead vocal tutor
Whole school singing week
Shrewsbury International School, Bangkok, Thailand

10/09/11
Vocal tutor and workshop leader
Birmingham Artsfest “Come and Sing” with Ex Cathedra Education
Birmingham Town Hall, Birmingham Conservatoire and Symphony Hall

09/09/11
Lead vocal tutor
Ex Cathedra Singing Playground Songleader Day
Stratford Upon Avon Civic Hall

13/08/11-21/08/11
Director of “Singer’s Course”
Sing for Pleasure Summer School 2011
Keele University

30/07/11-06/08/11
Visiting artist with Ex Cathedra Consort
Dartington International Summer School 2011
Dartington

25/07/11-28/07/11
Lead vocal tutor
Derby Summer School for Gifted and Talented Children
Derby City Council

12/07/11
Workshop leader
Boys Singing Day
Waverly Abbey and St Polycarps Schools

06/07/11
Workshop leader (teacher CPDL)
Teacher training session for Sing Up (Kent)
Kent Music Service

01/07/11
Workshop leader (Ensemble Sine Nomine outreach)
Singing Workshops
Primary school in Trevethin

26/06/11
Conductor of Farnham Junior Boys Choir
Farnham Youth Choir Summer Concert
Farnham Maltings

16/06/11
Conductor (Ex Cathedra Education)
Spitalfields Festival (THAMES)
Shoreditch Church

21/05/11
Workshop leader
“Come and Sing” workshop for children
St John’s Church, Wimbledon

15/05/11
Ex Cathedra Vocal Tutor/Performer
“Sing for All” workshop and performance
Birmingham Town Hall

01/04/11
Vocal Tutor/Performer
Sandwell Youth Music Celebration Day
West Bromwich Town Hall
Ula Weber Musical Director