Oscar Hansen – Singing Scholar

This week we’d like to introduce Oscar Hansen one of our new singing scholars.

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Oscar Hansen

‘I hope to add to the musical life and community at St James’s’

​’My interest in music started one Christmas in my childhood. I was probably around 10 years old, and my parents gifted me a little Yamaha electronic keyboard. I’d slowly teach myself some basic tunes and how to read musical notation over the next few years, taking up alongside the piano the violin, drumkit, harp, and eventually singing, too.

I’ve now been singing as a baritone and bass in choirs for around 10 years, starting in my school choir at Tiffin in Kingston upon Thames, then to University College Oxford, followed by St. Mary’s Battersea, and now St. James’s Piccadilly. Some of the highlights of my choral career have been tours to several different countries and major performances at home and abroad, including at the Royal Festival Hall, Barbican, Royal Albert Hall, St. Paul’s Cathedral, St. Vitus Cathedral Prague, Lambertikirche Oldenburg, MOM Cultural Centre Budapest, and more.

Beyond choral singing, I sang in and musically directed the Oxford Commas, an a cappella group at university, with whom I went on tours and appeared in a TV competition on Sky. I’ve also enjoyed performing in musical theatre productions, playing various instruments with orchestras and bands, and sometimes simply belting out some classic pop, funk, and jazz tunes at an open mic or karaoke night.

Despite barely being able to sing in choirs since the coronavirus pandemic began, I’m very excited to return to it this year with St. James’s. I’m most looking forward to what is, in my opinion, the best aspect of choral singing: the simple joy of making great quality music together. I hope to add to the musical life and community at St James’s over the next year and perhaps beyond.’