NICK PEPIN: (Counter-tenor)
Nick has sung counter-tenor since the age of sixteen and now has a fast increasing solo concert career. He has held lay clerk positions in Durham, Portsmouth, Denver (USA) and most recently Winchester cathedrals, and has sung solo with them on radio and TV, and toured with them to Scotland, Italy, Germany, France, Norway and the USA. With Winchester he has made numerous recordings, including recently a disk of Gibbons Verse Anthems (solo) with Hyperion. He has appeared at the Proms in the Royal Albert Hall in an Early Music performance of the Bach Magnificat. Recent engagements include solos in Bernstein’s ‘Chichester Psalms’ in Guildford Cathedral under David Hill, Handel’s ‘Messiah’ in Sweden under Nicholas Cleobury, St.John Passion with Swindon Choral Society, Arvo Part’s St.John Passion in Winchester Cathedral, Handel’s Belshazzar in Petersfield and the Winchester Festival, Bach’s St.Matthew Passion in Lichfield, Handel’s Messiah in Denver, and Bernstein’s Missa Brevis in Washington DC.

Nick’s first loves are oratorio and early music. He has sung solo in many oratorios with the Portsmouth Baroque Choir, Romsey Choral Society, the London Festival Orchestra, The Northern Sinfonia, the Parley of Instruments, the Bournemouth Sinfonietta, Swindon Choral Society and the London Bach Choir. Nick also sings in numerous Early Music ensembles, including Polyhymnia, with whom he has given programmes of Early Spanish Music in Toledo and Winchester Cathedrals, a group from the University of Colorado in Boulder, K.E.M.P. (Knoxville Early Music Project) Tennessee, and a newly formed Four Part Upper Voice Ensemble based in Washington DC. He sang with Washington National Cathedral Choir at the funeral service of former President Ronald Reagan.

He is also a founder member of the group Pennine Parnassus that performs its unique blend of music and the spoken word at venues in England, Scotland, and America. He has appeared in many Cathedral Lunchtime recitals accompanied by his mother, June, in repertoire which includes folksongs and English and American music. His recent solo CD, issued by Charlemagne Music entitled ‘Gentle Springs – A Pastoral Evocation’, includes many of these songs.

June & Nick with Annabelle Ellison Littleton, Denver USA

Nick singing Chichester Psalms in Guildford Cathedral

Denver Cathedral USA

Nick in Durham Cathedral Choir (back row, 3rd from left)

Colorado Daily 1999
‘Musical ecstacy…one feels at ease with his voice because he has mastered its texture and dynamic possibilities… enhanced repeated long vowels with bursts of sunlight and joie de vivre’

Church Times 1999
‘Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms…the accolade goes to the alto, whose lyrical handling of the solo part was a revelation’.

Winchester Herald 1999
‘Beautiful tone quality and expressive delivery were continuing features of this young man’s performance… delicate inflections… elegantly shaped.’

Lichfield Cathedrals 2004
Bach – St.Matthew Passion – ‘ the most heart-rending movements, employing a counter tenor, Nick Pepin…the effect was stunning. His aria ‘Have mercy Lord’ was a highlight of the evening.’