ERCU Conducting Fellowship 2018-2019

23rd October 2018
ERCU is pleased to announce that, after selection from applications of a high standard, Rebecca Anderson and Derrick Morgan have been appointed as ERCU conducting fellows. This new fellowship gives aspiring young conductors the opportunity to further their experience of choral conducting under the direction of ERCU Chorus Director Michael Bawtree. They will attend rehearsals and have the chance to direct and conduct works both in rehearsal and at concert performances.

Rebecca Anderson

Rebecca is a young conductor and mezzo-soprano living in Edinburgh. She currently works as an observational meteorological analyst with the Met Office having studied geography at the University of St Andrews.
She began conducting at university, receiving tuition from Bede Williams, and has taken part in a number of masterclasses with internationally renowned conductors such as Siân Edwards, Jonathan Berman and Christopher Gayford.
In St Andrews Rebecca held the position of musical director of the university music society’s Chorus and Concert Wind Band for a number of years, as well as conducting a number of fully staged operettas with the University of St Andrews Gilbert and Sullivan Society, touring to Brechin, Dundee and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
In 2017, Rebecca was part of the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Women’s Conducting Initiative, led by Alice Farnham.
As a singer, Rebecca has been a scholar with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra Chorus for the past two seasons and has previously sung with the National Youth Choir of Scotland. Stage credits have included Constance in The Sorcerer (Cat-like Tread), Mrs Grose in The Turn of the Screw (Byre Opera), and Mad Margaret in Ruddigore (University of St Andrews Gilbert and Sullivan Society).
She will be performing as Noémie in Fife Opera’s production of Cendrillon in early November.
Rebecca is very much looking forward to working with the Edinburgh Royal Choral Union and is very grateful for the opportunity.

Derrick Morgan

Derrick read music at Edinburgh University where he received the Ian Pitt Watson Memorial Prize for Choral Conducting.
He is currently Musical Director of the Edinburgh Practice Choir, the Rudsambee Company of Singers and the Troon Chorus. He has also worked with Edinburgh Studio Opera, where he made his opera conducting debut with the Scottish premiere of Jonathan Dove's Mansfield Park in partnership with Fife Youth Arts. From there he continued his relationship with Edinburgh Studio Opera as its Assistant Musical Director and its Edinburgh Festival Fringe Musical Director.
As an orchestral conductor, Derrick has led successful international and national tours with the orchestras and chorus of the Edinburgh University Music Society and the Edinburgh University String Orchestra as well as acting as guest conductor with the Edinburgh University String Orchestra in the 2016-17 season. In 2017 Derrick participated in the prestigious Orkney Conductors’ Course as part of the St Magnus International Festival. There, he worked with Alexander Vedernikov, Charles Peebles and Sofi Jeannin. During the course he conducted the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, the BBC Singers and the Assembly Project.
Derrick is delighted to be taking up this opportunity and looks forward to working with the choir, Michael Bawtree and Rebecca Anderson in the season ahead.