SONNING is alive with the sound of music, thanks to a new musician.
Hannah Towndrow has joined St Andrew’s Church this month as its new music director — and she’s come all the way from Oxford.
She has taken over from Chris Goodwin, after previously holding the same role at the Church of St Mary and St John in Cowley, Oxfordshire.
“I [was] really excited to start at St Andrew’s Church,” Ms Towndrow said. “I’ve been there over the past few weeks, practising and getting to know people.
“Everybody is extremely welcoming, very friendly and I [could not] wait to meet the choirs properly.”
Ms Towndrow said she was drawn to the Sonning church because of its dedication to music.
“It seems to consider choral music as a really important part of its worship and church community,” she explained.
“That’s really important to me, and it’s evidenced in the fact we’re about to launch a new choral foundation to increase music making in the church.”
The new director has a long history playing music, after learning to play the piano at seven years old.
She then joined her local church choir aged nine, which inspired her interest in choral music.
“I sang with them regularly and it was an important part of my childhood growing up,” she said.
Ms Towndrow then began learning to play the organ at 13 and decided she wanted to dedicate her life to music when in sixth form.
She moved to Oxford University to study music and while completing her undergraduate studies, was an organ scholar at Hertford College.
She said the collaborative nature of music is what drew her towards the hobby during childhood.
“I love the sense of working with others for a comment goal,” she said. “I especially like, with singing and directing singers, that the voice is the musical instrument.
“It’s very personal and to see people use their bodies to create music is very intimate.”
Ms Towndrow is also a choral conducting student at the Royal Academy of Music where she is undertaking a Masters degree, and teaches private piano lessons on the side.
