The Kantos Chamber Choir, formed and headquartered in Manchester, has begun to attract attention beyond North West England with concerts and a hugely successful recording. The group consists of young singers who are at the point of beginning their professional careers, and it thus has an attractive self-renewing quality of youthful vocal blend. The choir was founded in 2015 by Elspeth Slorach, who had just graduated from the University of Manchester and conducted the university's chamber choir while still a student there. She also conducted orchestral and operatic concerts, and entered a conducting training program at Manchester's Opera North. Despite her youth, she has wide experience as a professional choral conductor, leading the Hallam Choral Society and the Preston Orpheus Choir, serving as music director at St. Peter's Church in Hale, conducting two Hallé Orchestra choirs, and working as assistant conductor for the Opera North Children's Chorus and Youth Chorus. The Kantos Chamber Choir has sought out innovative programming concepts that included music for a radio performance of Anthony Burgess' play Oedipus the King and concerts of music associated with the beginnings of the suffragette movement. The Oedipus the King performance, also featuring the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, was recorded and released as an album. The group has an official association with the British arts promotion organization Collective31. Kantos' repertory is especially broad, including specializations in the music of Handel, Brahms, Frank Martin, James MacMillan, and composers from North West England. The group gives its own concerts in Manchester, has toured Northern England, and also performs regularly in sacred music programs on the BBC 4 radio network. Kantos has recorded an album of Christmas carols with the Royal Northern College of Music Wind Ensemble, and in 2018 the young choir was heard on the Requiem for My Mother album released by British composer Rebecca Dale. That album reached the number one position on Britain's classical sales chart, and Kantos' future looked bright. ~ James Manheim
