The Fourth Choir appoints Jamie Powe as Music Director and celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2023

The Fourth Choir, which celebrates its 10th birthday in 2023, is delighted to announce the appointment of Jamie Powe as its new Music Director. Jamie’s appointment follows two successful and enjoyable Fourth Choir concerts as Guest Conductor as well as a performance at the Royal British Legion’s Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall, broadcast on BBC One.

Photo: Kathleen Holman

After a two-year process, during which time The Fourth Choir had the pleasure and privilege of working with several leading choral directors, the trustees and singers of the choir were inspired by Jamie’s passion for, knowledge of and commitment to bringing music by underrepresented composers to the fore (a priority for the choir since its inception), as well as his outstanding musicality and his resolute allyship to the LGBT+ community. Jamie’s tenure as The Fourth Choir’s Music Director will begin in September 2023, with his first concert at Milton Court on Saturday 4 November, which will mark the Choir’s 10th anniversary.

“I am thrilled to be appointed as Music Director of this wonderful choir. The choir has gone from strength to strength in its first 10 years and I'm hugely excited to help the choir achieve its goals in its second decade, and ensure that we have an innovative and lasting impact on the choral world together.”
—Jamie Powe

Photo: Kathleen Holman

Jamie’s appointment comes at an exciting time in The Fourth Choir’s journey which in recent years has seen it perform at high-profile events such as Holocaust Memorial Day (Westminster Central Hall 2020 and online in 2022), The Royal British Legion's Festival of Remembrance and A Christmas Gaiety both at the Royal Albert Hall, The Last Leg on Channel 4, and as part of productions After Edward and Christmas at the (Snow) Globe at Shakespeare’s Globe. In its 10th anniversary year, The Fourth Choir is thrilled to be returning to Shakespeare’s Globe, with a concert in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, and to be making its debut at the iconic Wigmore Hall.

The Fourth Choir 10th Anniversary Concert
Saturday 4 November, 7.30pm
Milton Court, Barbican

The Fourth Choir is very pleased to be returning to Milton Court for a special concert to mark its 10th birthday, conducted by new Music Director Jamie Powe. The programme - to be announced at a later date - will include two new pieces commissioned especially for the occasion by The Fourth Choir. Tickets for the anniversary concert are not yet available. See our Tickets page for details of our Spring and Summer concerts.

Jamie in action conducting the choir

About Jamie Powe
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Jamie received a scholarship to study at the Royal Academy of Music, where he achieved a distinction in his choral conducting MA. He was also awarded the Thomas Armstrong prize for outstanding choral leadership. Jamie was one of the 2018/19 Young Conducting Scholars with Sing for Pleasure and has worked with Genesis Sixteen as conducting scholar. He was Director of the Chapel Choir of Regent's Park College, Oxford 2019-2021, and he is currently Musical Director of Laurelin Voices,  The Arcadian Singers, Putney Choral Society and The Aubrey Singers. He is also the Associate Director of Ware Choral Society.

About The Fourth Choir

The Fourth Choir is London's LGBT+ chamber choir for advanced singers. The choir focuses on performing great choral works from early music to contemporary choral masterpieces. The choir was formed in September 2013 with the aim of representing the LGBT+ community on London's world-class classical music scene. 

The Fourth Choir has performed in many of London’s iconic cultural venues including Southbank Centre, the British Library, the British Museum, the V&A, Kings Place, Tate Britain and Kings Place. It has also performed at diverse venues such as The Jazz Cafe, Hampton Court Palace and the Tower of London; and in the heart of Westminster, both on the stage at the National Holocaust Memorial Ceremony, and on the pavement, protesting outside the House of Commons. Overseas, the choir has performed at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Queer Arts Festival in Antwerp and the Palazzo Doria Pamphilj in Rome. The Fourth Choir has developed a particularly fruitful relationship with Shakespeare’s Globe, having given four concerts in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, appearing in the play After Edward as well as appearing twice with Sandi Toksvig in The (Snow) Globe, both on stage in 2020 and as a virtual choir in the pandemic in 2021.