|
Jonathan Rendell continues a family tradition of choristership - both his Father and Grandfather were head choristers at Westminster Abbey. Living in the cloisters at Windsor Castle, he spent his much of his early years listening to the choir at St George’s Chapel. He began his early music training on the piano and violin whilst at Trinity St Stephen Church of England School, Windsor. He became a member of the Berkshire Boys’ Choir with whom he sang until the family moved to Scotland.
Jonathan Rendell joined the choir of St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral, Edinburgh in 1999 singing over 250 services every year and taking part in the choir’s concerts, broadcasts and recordings. In July 2000 he played the part of Flavio in the Opera Theatre Company’s production of George Frideric Handel’s Rodelinda at the Edinburgh Festival Theatre. He returned the following year as Cobweb in The Royal College of Music Benjamin Britten International Opera School’s highly acclaimed production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In December 2000 Jonathan represented St Mary’s Cathedral as treble soloist in a Raymond Gubbay Christmas Gala Concert at the Usher Hall with the Scottish Concert Orchestra and again in 2001 at the Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, appearing alongside Ian McCaskill and Tim Brooke-Taylor respectively.
In March 2001 Jonathan Rendell was heard as a soloist on a Radio 3 Choirworks Broadcast from Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall of Gabriel Fauré’s Messe Basse, which the cathedral choir later recorded on the Lammas label to critical acclaim. During the Edinburgh Festival in 2001 Jonathan sang the boy’s solo role in the first performance of Dave Heath’s Requiem “The Beloved” which was recorded for release on the Blackbox label. He is also a soloist on a forthcoming disc of works by the Estonian composer, Arvo Pärt from whom St Mary’s Cathedral commissioned a setting of the Nunc dimittis.
In September 2001, Jonathan Rendell became Decani Head Chorister of the Cathedral Choir. He has twice represented St Mary’s Music School in the Choir Schools Association Northern Division Annual Football Tournament, once as Captain. In September 2002 he took up an instrumental place at St Mary’s Music School, studying violin with Warren Jacobs. |
