Denise Stout is an experienced and energised musical director and conductor who has conducted Northumbria Chamber Choir since April 2019.

Denise was for many years a freelance professional session singer in London, performing with many well-known professional groups - large and small - including the Ambrosian Opera Chorus & Singers, the Stephen Hill Singers, and Monteverdi Choir. She also performed regularly in live radio, concert and recording work, both here and abroad, singing a wide range of opera and music theatre as well as the standard and contemporary choral classical repertoire.

Prior to her return to the North East, Denise was Choral Director of the St Magnus International Festival on Orkney. Denise was also Music Director of The Mayfield Singers, Orkney’s chamber choir, which enjoyed a close relationship with the late Sir Peter Maxwell Davies (an Orkney resident), bringing his choral music to Edinburgh’s Hogmanay Festival in 2011.