Eleanor Rastall – Musical Director
Eleanor Rastall is a London-based Singer, Teacher and Choir and Workshop Leader. She loves the variety of being a freelance musician and especially the many different ways to help people enjoy music and find their musical mode of expression. Her ethos is that everyone can sing; given a supportive environment in which to relax and explore freely.
Eleanor is a Teacher and Choir Leader for Music in Offices, and Founder and Leader of community choir Palace Acappella in Crystal Palace. She is also a guest workshop leader for Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre and co-runs the Globe/Tate Modern joint staff choir. Choir and workshop clients have included The Guardian, NHS London and Nexus, Leeds Voice Day and Channel 4. eleanorrastall.co.uk
Louise Eekelaar – Musical Director
Louise Eekelaar is a professional singer and choir director based in London with extensive in all forms of solo and choral styles, from medieval to contemporary. She is Director of Music at Holy Trinity Church in Brook Green, and was twice winner of the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance Early Music Competition in 2011 and 2013 with Virtuosa and Ensemble Tramontana. Her performances have taken her to venues as diverse as the O2 Arena, St Paul’s Cathedral, Royal Albert Hall, the Queen Elisabeth Hall, Royal Festival Hall and the Purcell Room on the Southbank.
She sang with the Schola Pietatis Antonio Vivaldi during its European tour with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightment and its BBC4 and Radio 3 documentary and film of Vivaldi’s Gloria. Louise also performed the music of Hildegard von Bingen in recordings and on a European tour with Sinfoye, directed by Stevie Wishart.
Louise also sings in many small ensembles as a consort singer and soloist, including Cappella Nova, with whom she has toured Scotland, recorded Cds and performed in the Edinburgh Festival. louise-eekelaar.co.uk
Jake Alexander – Musical Director
Jake Alexander is a composer, choir director, singer and multi-instrumentalist from St Ives, Cornwall. After finishing school, he moved to London to study composition at Trinity College of Music, where he specialised in writing for voices. He arranges most of Crib Notes’ music, and occasionally accompanies the choir on percussion or ukulele.
In addition to conducting the Streatham and Beckenham branches of Crib Notes, Jake leads Raised Voices, a protest choir based in North London, Greenwich Foundation Choir, the workplace choir of the Old Royal Naval College, and Lewisham’s Quaggy Community Choir, which he also co-founded.
Jake performs extensively on the electric cello and has written and recorded music for a wide variety of projects. He also forms one half of folk duo, The Sea Kings, with whom he writes, sings and plays percussion. A collection of Jake’s solo material, Elms Close can be found on his website – jakealexander.org.
Amandine Olivier – Choir Manager
Amandine moved to London from her native Loire Valley in 2007 to discover new talents from the London music scene. She was soon involved with established acoustic nights before co-founding and running unplugged “Tabarnak” events from 2009 to 2015.
Having relocated to South London before starting a family, she volunteered with the National Autistic Society, and has been facilitating local support groups for new mothers (Mindful Mums) with mental health charity Mind since Spring 2018.
Until a couple of years ago, Amandine had never even sang as part of a group, let alone in public. Two choirs and many live performances later, she can often be heard bursting into song in the streets of South London, with her daughter joining in! She attended Pram Chorus (the forerunner of Crib Notes) for over a year before joining forces with Jake and Eleanor to run the choir. Amandine is the person to go to for all non-singing related questions.