Joanne Lucas - soprano

What do you do for a living?
​Teacher of Art and Drama...and the grit in the proverbial oyster!
Have you lived in Gloucestershire all your life?
I have never lived in Gloucestershire...I am a North Londoner and very proud of the fact.
Where is your favourite place in Gloucestershire?
St Mary's Church Kempley but only because Goodrich Castle falls short by a mile … darn!
Which bit of the building at Gloucester Cathedral do you love the most?
The black grave slab in the cloisters with the initials JS inscribed upon it, if anyone could tell me who it belongs to I should be very happy.
If you had to name your favourite choral piece, what might it be and why?
Handel's 'Messiah' because it was the first major piece that I sang in at the age of twelve and the overwhelming experience of losing yourself completely in the music has stayed with me to this day...
Is there a choral piece that you would love to sing in, but haven’t yet?
Duke Ellington 'Freedom Suite' or The Swingle Singers '1812 Overture'....!
What has been your favourite moment or event during your time with the Saint Cecilia Singers?
Personally, singing an operatic aria with coda for an audition in the Chapter House and deliberately avoiding Jonathan's wild waving of hands to make me stop! As a choir, it has to be the Tippett Spirituals even with a random top C sharp!
Where in the world would you most like to visit, but haven’t?
The Bullring at La Linea de la Concepcion....too long a story to go into...
If you could read only two books from now on, which ones would they be?
1662 Book of Common Prayer Psalter
The Complete Poems of Louis MacNeice
Which four figures from the past would you like to have at your dinner table?
Thomas Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell
Anne Boleyn
Eleanor of Aquitaine
Aethelflead of Mercia
I can't count and it would be too rude to choose ….
What was your favourite subject at school?
History because Mr MacMahon was awe inspiring 
What other hobbies do you enjoy outside of music?
Photography; gardening; genealogy; reading; collecting Scandinavian silver and Doulton stoneware
What are you most looking forward to after lockdown eases?
Withstanding people….a decent curry; art galleries; castles; the sea....and London because, '...when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life'