Our penultimate Conductors post is focusing on Choir! We meet this years conductors Verity Bennett and Philippa Lazarus!

Verity Bennett

Name: Verity Bennett

Degree: Natural Sciences

Year: 3

Instruments: Voice, Double Bass

Ensembles: Choir

Hi I’m Verity and I’m one of your choir conductors this year! ULMS was the very first society I joined in freshers week and I’ve loved every minute of it since. Having been in my secondary school’s choir, chamber choir and female a cappella ensemble (I’m a choir nerd I know) I knew coming to uni that I had to find a way of keeping music in my life. I’ve been a member of the choir since that very first week and in second year had the opportunity to become choir rep which I enjoyed immensely. I also began conducting midway through last year, even though I’d never formally conducted before. ULMS is a fantastic place to try new things and learn new skills. 

If it wasn’t for my ridiculously intense degree, I would probably try and join all the ensembles I could, as I also love attempting to play other instruments in my spare time, including the double bass despite it being physically taller than me.  Anyone that knows me knows that I have a very eclectic taste in music, which is usually made obvious from my piece choices for choir. From Stevie Wonder to Erik Essenvalds I definitely don’t shy away from variety. 

Although music is a very large part of my life at uni, I do try and squeeze in some degree work. Outside of ULMS I’m also president of the Natural Sciences Society and mother to 26 indoor plants. 

I hope you enjoy ulms as much as I do and I can’t wait to see what this year brings!

Philipa Lazarus

Name: Philipa Lazarus

Degree: History

Year: 2

Instruments: Voice

Ensembles: Choir

My name is Philippa, I am a second-year history student and I am the newly appointed conductor for ULMS choir. I have been part of choirs almost my entire life, and I have always loved how singing brings people together. Choir has been the best society that I have joined at Lancaster and the 2018-19 exec really made me feel welcome and singing again was a major part of the settling in process for me. I want everyone to feel comfortable and included in choir, we are not a scary group, there are no auditions, and everyone asks for help, if you have never sung in a choir then it is a great inclusive club to join, even if you have do not know how to read music. I will apologise in advance that this will indeed be my first time conducting (apart from waving my arms around when I think nobody is watching) so for newbies please be patient with me and for oldies please do not laugh too hard. I look forward to what we can achieve this year, the choir did some great things last year like singing at a wedding and in Swahili, I am sure we can go bigger this year.