Chiltern Choir


Our Accompanist

Anna le Hair Anna Le Hair joined us as our accompanist in spring 2007.

She started playing the piano as soon as she could reach the keys. After winning many scholarships and prizes at Edinburgh University and, subsequently, at the Royal College of Music, she won a scholarship from the Austrian Institute to spend a summer studying piano accompaniment at the Mozarteum in Salzburg.

Since then, Anna has enjoyed a busy and varied career as pianist and piano teacher. Engagements have included recitals, both solo and as chamber musician and accompanist, in many London venues and others around Britain and abroad. She has twice played Grieg's piano concerto with the Hertfordshire Philharmonia, and has also played Mozart's concerto no. 21 and Rachmaninov's 2nd piano concerto with the same orchestra. She has also played harpsichord in a performance of Bach's Brandenburg concerto no. 5 with the Buckinghamshire Chamber Orchestra.

In July 2006, she was nominated for the title of 'Performer of the Fringe' at the Buxton Festival. She has recently participated in festivals in Rayleigh and Canterbury, and given concerts in Edinburgh, Manchester, London, and Provence, among other places.

Anna has also undertaken such diverse activities as playing background music in London hotels and restaurants, touring the UK and Channel Islands with the Lewis London Ballet, and repetiteuring for opera groups and choral societies. She is a Senior House Pianist at the Ardingly International Summer School, and is Neil Jenkins' accompanist of choice at his masterclasses around Britain.

Anna currently teaches piano and accompanies at the Arts Educational School in Tring, Hertfordshire, and at St Albans High School. As well as the Chiltern Choir, she accompanies the Aeolian Singers in Hemel Hempstead, and is much in demand as an accompanist for singers and instrumentalists.

Forthcoming engagements include 'Rhapsody in Blue' with the St Albans Symphony Orchestra in St Albans Abbey on New Years' Day 2009, and Beethoven's Third Piano Concerto with the Buckinghamshire Chamber Orchestra in the following May.