"Hi, I’m Rosie Earp: I was elected as Chair of Birkenhead Choral Society (BCS) in September 2025.

I have loved singing for as long as I can remember and have been in lots of choirs. I may be biased, but I think BCS is one of the best. It’s a very friendly group of people; we have a brilliant Conductor and an outstanding accompanist; and we sing a great repertoire of music.

I was honoured to be asked to stand to be Chair of the Society, and during my tenure I hope to see us continue to be the success we are and to share our love of choral music. I am particularly keen to attract more younger members - because they will ensure our future, and because music, and singing in particular, is so good for everyone."

We all wish Rosie well in her role. We are confident she will work hard for BCS, and she has a great Committee working with her and supporting her too.

This is a very special 'Anniversary' concert so we will be starting a little earlier than is usual, to pack more fun and celebration in!

More details follow

Soprano - Rosie Lomas

Rosie made her operatic debut at English National Opera as American Suburban Girl in Two Boys by Nico Muhly, returning to ENO to play Maketaten in Philip Glass’s Akhnaten and Lucy and Josh in Philip Glass's The Perfect American, a production which has also taken her to Teatro Real and Opera Queensland. Highlights of the 2023/24 season included Rosie’s debut at the Tiroler Landestheater Innsbruck where she sang the role of Wendy in Peter Pan, described as ‘magnificiently sung and played’.

Rosie’s summers are often spent at Longborough Festival Opera, with whom she has sung a number of roles including Nymph in L’Orfeo! Oberto in Alcina, Valetto in L'incoronazione di Poppea and First Spirit The Magic Flute.

Having studied at The Guildhall School of Music & Drama, and freelanced in London for many years Rosie recently returned North with her young family, raising two very excitable under four year olds with her Opera Singer husband (a very noisy household!)

Bass - Piran Legg

Piran Legg is a British Bass – Baritone and a graduate of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where he gained a Masters with Distinction in vocal performance on the Opera Course. Having graduated he undertook further study into vocal technique on the Artist’s Diploma course, studying under Kate Paterson. Piran has been described as having a ‘handsome baritone’ by Opera Magazine and as a ‘sensitive performer’ by the Times. He is the proud recipient of a music prize from the Canterbury Festival, a Fishmongers Company Scholarship and an International Opera Awards Young Artist bursary. Since graduating Piran has worked extensively around the U.K. and abroad as a concert artist. Notable oratorio performances have seen Piran as the bass soloist in Handel’s Messiah at Amiens Cathedral, Elgar’s masterpiece The Dream of Gerontius and Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast, both in Canterbury Cathedral, Brahms Requiem and Handel’s Messiah at Tewkesbury Abbey, in Dvorak’s Te Deum at Birmingham Town Hall and with the Orchestra of Scottish Opera in Bach’s Christmas Oratorio at the Caird Hall. Recent engagements include Mozart’s Requiem with the London Mozart Players and at the Royal Northern College of Music Concert Hall.

Alongside more conventional operatic roles from the likes of Verdi, Mozart, Bizet and Britten, Piran has enjoyed singing in contemporary and rarely performed works. He created the role of King Erysichthon in Edward Rushton’s chamber opera Cicadas with the London Symphony Orchestra as well as premiering workshOPERA’s acclaimed chamber opera Seven Velvet Suits based on the life of eccentric French genius Eric Satie. He has sung as Danieli in a concert performance at Cadogan Hall of Wagner’s little known Das Liebesverbot with Chelsea Opera Group. Piran has sung roles for companies including Scottish Opera, Garsington Opera and Wexford Festival Opera. As a recital singer Piran has sung in solo recitals at the Barbican Theatre, Oxford Lieder Festival and the Cheltenham Festival, amongst others. He has worked with renowned accompanists Iain Burnside, Sholto Kynoch and Eugene Asti, as well as the noted Lieder ensemble Schubert and Co. As a passionate singing teacher Piran devotes much of his professional life to working with singers of all ages and abilities. He teaches at the University of Birmingham, The Royal Northern College of Music and Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Junior Departments (as a visiting teacher) and Shrewsbury School.

He teaches professional singers, has had students accepted into conservatoire, onto choral scholarship programmes and loves working with keen amateurs in his private studio in Shrewsbury.

Richard Lea - Piano

Richard Lea is Organist at the Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King, Liverpool. He studied at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester and Christ’s and Notre Dame College in Liverpool; and was Organ Scholar at Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral studying with Noel Rawsthorne, Terence Duffy and Philip Duffy.

He was then Organist at the Church of St. Oswald and St Edmund Arrowsmith, Ashton-in-Makerfield, Lancashire. He was appointed Organist at the Cathedral in 1999 working with Mervyn Cousins, Keith Orrell, Terence Duffy, Timothy Noon and Christopher McElroy. He has directed various ensembles including Wigan Choral Society, the Brixi Singers, and the Metropolitan Cathedral Cantata Choir. From 2016-2018 he was Organist at Buckfast Abbey, Devon, where a superb new organ by Fratelli Ruffatti has been installed.

He has made numerous broadcasts and has recorded three discs of the music of Lefébure Wély (featured in BBC Radio 2’s The Organist Entertains); the complete organ works of the Welsh composer William Mathias, the World Premiere recording of Sir John Tavener’s Requiem (on EMI with the RLPO and Choir conducted by Vasily Petrenko), and most recently, the complete organ music of Dom Sebastian Wolff, recorded at Buckfast Abbey in 2021, described as “priceless” (Gramophone).

 Reviews include, “it is Richard Lea’s superb playing that steals the show” (Organists’ Review);“really first rate playing”; “masterful” (Gramophone); “Here is music and playing that will lift your spirits” (American Organist); “the performances are brilliant…and genuinely moving” (International Record Review); “exemplary performances – 5 stars” (Orgelnieuws).

He has also released a DVD, receiving great reviews: “Bravado performances”; “This is one of the most outstanding instrumental releases on DVD this year” (International Record Review); “Virtuosic and riveting”; “Highly recommended” (Organists’ Review)

Jon Barton - Piano

Jon began studying the organ at Liverpool Cathedral with Ian Wells, and then with Matthew Owens and Kevin Bowyer at the Royal Northern College of Music. He also studied piano with Paul Janes and harpsichord with David Francis. Whilst at the RNCM he was awarded a scholarship to continue his studies abroad with Zsigmond Szathmary, Bernhard Haas and Yanka Hekimova. Since then he has performed in many cathedrals and concert halls across the UK, and also features regularly in concerts and functions at Liverpool Hope University. He is Organist of Shrewsbury Cathedral, and Director of Music for the Diocese of Shrewsbury; he teaches at Birkenhead School and not only accompanies Birkenhead Choral Society, but also Formby Choral Society, and Amadeus: the Chamber Choir.

David Holroyd - Conductor

Until summer 2019, David was Director of Music at Merchant Taylors’ School in Crosby. He studied organ and choir-training at the Royal Northern College of Music with Ronald Frost, Gillian Weir and John Bertalot. David’s musical career began at the age of 7 as a choirboy at St Hilary’s Church Wallasey, where in due course he became Organist and Choirmaster. He spent a time as Assistant Organist at Chester Cathedral before moving to Merchant Taylors’ School, Crosby. He has conducted Birkenhead Choral Society since 1985, and also conducts Formby Choral Society, and Amadeus: the Chamber Choir, and is Organist at St Peter’s Church, Formby.