IT is hard to think London-based soprano Amy Haworth has much free time in her schedule.
The Cambridge University graduate works as a chartered accountant for Deloitte LLP when she is not touring with British Renaissance vocal music ensemble The Tallis Scholars.
In fact, her time management skills were tested immediately when an invitation to fill in as a last-minute replacement for a Tallis Scholars concert in 2005 came the same weekend she started back at her office job after a two-year hiatus to concentrate on her singing.
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READ NOW“I hadn’t expected to be travelling as much as I am when I asked for my job back, but I’m very lucky that they’re very good about it,” Haworth said.
“I also happened to move into my new flat the same weekend as my first Tallis Scholars concert as well.”
Haworth began singing in the church choir when she was four, a natural development since her dad was the vicar and her mum the choir conductor, and she continued from there.
“I’d always done a little bit of renaissance music while growing up and when I went to university the director of music did a lot of renaissance music,” she said.
“It was very much his thing, so that’s how I got into it even more.”
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Haworth will tour Australia with The Tallis Scholars in November, where a Perth performance at St Mary’s Cathedral will feature collaborating with members of the Perth Chamber Choir for Spem in Alium.
It will be her fourth trip to Australia, second with The Tallis Scholars and first to Perth, where she is looking forward to presenting another Thomas Tallis piece Suscipe quaeso and Nico Muhly’s Recordare, domine (Lamentations) which was especially composed for their performance at New York’s Lincoln Centre a few years ago.
“People say they don’t expect the wall of sound that you get during a performance,” Haworth said.
“There is a moment in every single concert where I think ‘That’s amazing’ and that was something I hadn’t always had before doing my other singing.
“It’s the feeling you get of being 10 people on stage and being able to create that type of music; particularly if you’re in one of the buildings the music was written for, which has happened while travelling around Europe.
“It sends shivers down my spine.”
THE ESSENTIALS
What: The Tallis Scholars
Where: St Mary’s Cathedral
When: November 8
Tickets: www.ticketek.com.au