KJV Community Children's Choir

Lynette is the Director of Music of KJV Community Children’s Choir.

Lynette is Director of Music at Wolfson College Cambridge and also manages a busy singing teaching studio, including Choral Scholars at Sidney Sussex, Wolfson and Queens’ Colleges.  At the CU Faculty of Music Lynette taught on the Vocal Health and Training component of the MMus in Choral Conducting Course as well as being coordinator and Leader of the Vocal Pathway. Several of her MMus students have volunteered with KJV. Between January 2007 and July 2010 she also worked as choral animateur for the King’s College Chorister Outreach Project (part of the national SingUP project), supporting local primary teachers in developing their pupils’ interest in singing. As part of the project she founded King’s Junior Voices, now KJV Community Children’s Choir (KJV). From 2010-2020 she was the singing teacher to the boy choristers of The Choir of King’s College, Cambridge, preparing the boy trebles for recordings, concerts and radio and TV broadcasts. One of her private pupils was the 2015 BBC Girl Chorister of the Year.

Her secondary school years were spent at a state specialist music school where she gained her love of choral music singing in its award-winning choirs. Lynette went on to study musicology at Monash University (BA) and then took a double first-class honours degree in singing and music education at Melbourne University (BMusEd). She gained her earliest teaching and conducting experience with some of the leading children’s choirs in Australia, including the Australian Boys’ Choir, the Young Voices of Melbourne and the Melbourne Youth Choir. As part of her music education degree she specialised in the Kodály Method and then taught at a specialist Kodály primary school.

She also sang with the Victoria State Opera, and in 1991 won the National Liederfest prize, allowing her to travel to London to continue her vocal studies. She began working with the Monteverdi Choir and Sir John Eliot Gardiner, singing as soloist on recordings including the Gramophone Award winning disc “The Choral Music of Percy Grainger”. She has sung as soloist with many of the UK’s top vocal ensembles, including understudying the alto lead in Deborah Warner’s controversial staging of Handel’s Messiah at English National Opera.

Between 1993-2017 Lynette was a staff member with the BBC Singers. She has performed with them at major music festivals in the UK and around the world and has sung at prestigious events such as the funeral of Princess Diana. In addition to a busy performing and recording schedule, the BBC Singers has a busy learning and outreach programme which Lynette played an active part in.

Lynette now focuses on sharing her love of singing by teaching Cambridge University Choral Scholars at a number of Colleges, as well as working with KJV and her private singing teaching practice. Between 2022-2024 she was Director of the Song School at Our Lady of the English Martyrs Catholic Church, conducting OLEM’s Junior and Youth Choirs in masses and other concerts.

More about Lynette can be found on her website.

Rebecca Moulton is a music teacher who teaches classroom music at both primary and secondary level and works as a peripatetic flute and singing teacher. She has worked with the government KS2 scheme Wider Opportunities and for Cambridgeshire Music.

Rebecca obtained her Music BA in 2003 at Anglia Polytechnic University followed by a one year PGCE in secondary music teaching at Homerton College, University of Cambridge.

She has sung soprano in various operas and concerts including solo performances for the Morley Opera Course, Chelmsford Opera Society (Merrie England), Cambridge Amateur Operatic Society (2nd Lady in The Magic Flute), Wolfson College, Anglia Polytechnic University’s Orfeo ed Euridice (Amore), and two concert performances in the Royal Albert Hall, one of them as part of the BBC Proms. Rebecca has also performed recitals in the Wolfson College lunchtime concert series and Magdalene College Music Society’s production of John Blow’s Venus and Adonis. Rebecca is enjoying developing her teaching skills and gaining experience working with Lynette Alcantara at KJV.

Maggie trained to be a Primary School Teacher at Redland College of Education in Bristol, with Music as her main subject. From there she went to Papua New Guinea to spend four terms in a bush primary school, on Voluntary Service Overseas, before taking up her first teaching job in Cambridge at Arbury Junior School.

She joined the CUMS Chorus in her third week in Cambridge, under David Willcocks and began a life-long commitment to choral singing – with CUMS on Fridays and the Bach Choir in London on Mondays – until her paralysed vocal cord brought it to an end ten years ago. After five years at Arbury she moved to Morley Memorial School as the music specialist and ran the flourishing choir at lunchtimes with the Headteacher, Dorothy Hurst – also a member of CUMS Chorus. They put on a concert every term for many years and Maggie also ran guitar and recorder groups.

After taking early retirement Maggie turned her attention to administrative work associated with music. She had been running CUMS, – the chorus and all three orchestras – for over twenty years and continued to do so until 2007, with more time to devote to it than previously. She was the administrator on behalf of King’s College for the Sing Up Chorister Outreach Initiative, and has been KJV’s administrator since the beginning.

Owen is an Australian singer, composer, conductor, and pianist currently based in Cambridge, UK. Born in Newcastle, NSW, Australia, Owen moved to Sydney to study Science and Mathematics at the University of Sydney before moving to the University of Cambridge, where he completed his Master of Music in Choral Studies in 2020. During his time at Cambridge, Owen was a Choral Scholar and then Lay Clerk with the Choir of King’s College, where he was also Musical Director of The King’s Men, a close-harmony group formed of the choral scholars and lay clerks of the choir. He has sung as an ensemble member and soloist with many professional groups around the world including Voces8; the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra and Choir; The Song Company; the Armonico Consort; the Choir of St Paul’s Cathedral; the Choir of St James’ Church, King St; Sydney Antiphony; Pinchgut Opera; and Cantillation. Owen is the Assistant Director of Music for Choirs at St Barnabas, Dulwich and Musical Director of the Chesterton Choral Society.

Prior to his move to the UK, Owen worked for Australia’s national youth choir Gondwana Choirs, including the Sydney Children’s Choir and the Gondwana Indigenous Children’s Choir, as a conductor, pianist, and operations coordinator. He has completed his A.Mus.A in Piano Performance and is also a prolific composer and arranger: his music has been performed by many ensembles, including the Vienna Boys’ Choir; Gondwana Choirs; the Song Company; the Choir of St James’ Church, Sydney; the Choir of Trinity College, Melbourne; the Choir of St Paul’s College, Sydney; and the Hunter Singers. He was awarded the 2018 UNSW Willgoss Choral Composition Prize and was the winner of the Liturgical Division of the 2016 ACU Isobel Menton Composition Competition. Additionally, Owen has a love of music-theatre and has been an actor, director, and repetiteur for numerous dramatic productions. He has worked with KJV as accompanist since before COVID, and in October 2023 started up The Chameleons, a new group for boys with changing voices.In his spare time, Owen loves to cook and is also a keen gardener.

Jan did her teacher training in Leicester, studying music and drama. Having taught in a primary school for a couple of years she moved on to an upper school, teaching general subjects and literacy.

Coming to Cambridge, she joined the Special Needs department at Chesterton Community College and began her additional training. She became the head of department and was involved in a research project leading to her Cambridge M.Ed.

Her next post was Head of Learning Services at Saffron Walden County High School. Still responsible for children with special needs, the post involved all aspects of student support. Jan taught A-Level Theatre Studies, worked on school productions, played her violin and sang in choirs.

A two year stint as an Essex Special Needs Education Officer proved that she missed working directly with children, so to Sawston Village College as the new SENDCO. She completed a Certificate of Further Professional Study in Autistic Spectrum Conditions: Asperger Syndrome – Developing Knowledge and Enhancing Practice. She involved herself in the musical life of the school.

Jan has always sung and retirement has given more time for this. Currently she sings in Accorde, Cambridge Philharmonic Chorus, Ely Cathedral Octagon Singers and Orwell Singers. A volunteer at Wimpole Hall, Jan books live music for Harvest and Christmas, sings with the Hardwickes Folk duo and runs the Wimpole Estate Choir.

Being in the KJV team brings her skills and interests together and is a great way to spend Saturday mornings.

Katharine has recently graduated from a degree in Mathematics at Queens’ College, Cambridge, and is staying in the city to undertake teacher training. In her spare time she has always loved getting involved in music. Having played piano and cello at school, she was lucky enough to become a member of Queens’ College Chapel Choir which led to some wonderful opportunities, such as conducting the college choir MagSoc Chorus in Michaelmas term 2023. Katharine also enjoys the production side of orchestral and choral concerts, especially those which involve collaboration with another art form. She ran the ballroom dancing show Dancing Queens’ at her college in November 2023, as well as assisting on Britten Sinfonia’s schools tour of Once Upon a Tune (a collaboration with artist James Mayhew) and working at The Music Summer School and Festival in Norfolk in 2024.

Katharine’s favourite aspect of these opportunities has been seeing the enjoyment and laughter of the performers and audience, particularly children who are discovering their own love of music and react in their own unique and sometimes surprising ways. She would love to create a fun and friendly atmosphere and help everyone to get involved in music, and KJV is the perfect way to try to do this!