"Under the leadership of conductor Lynne Lindner, this virtuosic female voice choir celebrates the legacy of soprano and friend of Edward Elgar, Jenny Lind, who lived in Malvern for the latter part of her life and was a well-known benefactor of education and the arts."
— The Jenny Lind Singers
Who Was Jenny Lind?
Jenny Lind — the "Swedish Nightingale" — was the most celebrated soprano of the nineteenth century. Born in Stockholm in 1820, she conquered the concert halls of Europe and America, drawing audiences who described her voice as a force of nature: warm, exact, and of extraordinary range. She was as celebrated for her generosity as for her singing; she donated enormous sums to charitable causes and funded schools and scholarships throughout her life.
In later years, she made her home in Malvern, drawn to the hills and the air of the English countryside. She died there in 1887, and is buried in the town's Great Malvern Priory churchyard. She maintained a friendship with the young Edward Elgar, who was later to become one of England's most important composers — and whose shadow still falls across the musical life of Malvern and the surrounding hills.
It is this legacy — of a woman who used her exceptional gifts in the service of beauty and of others — that gives our choir its name and its sense of purpose.
Our Musical Mission
"Sensitive and passionate performers — exploring new music, especially by women and local composers."
The Jenny Lind Singers is a group of talented local female singers, some semi-professional, who are sensitive and passionate performers. They present several concerts a year in which they explore new music, especially by women and local composers, including the award-winning composers Liz Dilnot Johnson and Kate Hill.
Commissioning matters to us. We have given world premieres of new works — among them Nimrod Reimagined by Liz Dilnot Johnson, a bold reimagining for women's voices of Elgar's most beloved orchestral passage. We believe that a choir's responsibility extends beyond the performance of existing repertoire to the creation of new work and the support of living composers.
Programming is considered carefully. Each concert is a conversation between old and new, between the familiar and the surprising — always guided by musical quality and a genuine belief in the power of the female voice.
Singing with Us
The Jenny Lind Singers performs to a professional standard, and membership is by invitation following discussion. The ensemble draws primarily from the Malvern area and broader Worcestershire. If you are a singer interested in what we do, we would be glad to hear from you.