Deborah Roberts BEM – Obituary

Early Music folk are stunned by the death of Deborah Roberts – soprano, choral director, inspiration and co-founder of the Brighton Early Music Festival. Deborah addressed the complexities of her cancer with great courage, as she did every challenge that came her way. Such a life force has left an enduring legacy. She came to Brighton after a distinguished career of over 25 years touring the world as a soprano with the Tallis Scholars, famously singing the celestial solo verses of Allegri’s Miserere in the Sistine Chapel. However, this is not her preferred claim to fame.

Deborah’s achievements in Brighton and in the world of Early Music in general were outstanding. With soprano and writer Clare Norburn she launched the Brighton Early Music Festival (BREMF) in 2002 and this is her greatest monument.

Supported by an impressive committee and some dedicated professional managers she carefully built its reputation and size over the decades, experimenting with novel themes, stagings and displays, to make over 900 years of repertoire accessible to as wide an audience as possible. BREMF is now a well established success with a very loyal following in Brighton and beyond. Deborah’s canny programming has not only stirred in her fans a taste for ancient, unusual and exotic music but also given them an appetite for much more. Last May a sizeable audience for Deborah’s mixed amateur choir, the BREMF Consort of Voices (CofV), was comfortable with the abstruse compositions of Leonel Power, John Dunstable and Guillaume Dufay – this is a result of Deborah training them to listen and appreciate such difficult music. Thanks to Deborah’s passions and enthusiasm, Brighton has become a centre of Early Music connoisseurs – and they have been joining in too, not just at the high level of the BREMF CofV but also in the BREMF Community Choir whose accessible and adventurous concerts attract big crowds.

BREMF Live! has proved a tremendous success in helping to launch emergent professional talent, providing mentoring and experience in the survival skills of scheduling, marketing, managing accounts. Similarly, the BREMF Graduate Trainee Scheme has initiated prestigious careers in Arts Administration. Deborah was awarded the Medal of the Order of the British Empire (BEM) in the King’s Birthday Honours, an accolade that she emphatically shared with the whole of her BREMF family.

Other ventures dear to Deborah’s heart were the two consorts of women’s voices: Celestial Sirens, a highly skilled amateur ensemble; and Musica Secreta, a professional group which she directed with Professor Laurie Stras. There was also the BREMF Players, a professional period instrument orchestra directed by violinist Alison Bury. Many of BREMF’s performing groups participated in Deborah’s grander projects, including reviving long neglected Baroque operas sung by BREMF Live! alumni, now star performers in their own right.

Soprano suprema, musicologist, choir director, concert devisor/producer, teacher, team leader – Deborah Roberts inspired and delighted a whole tribe of music lovers in Brighton and far beyond. She also stood up against social injustice, bigotry and pollution, and would have made a fine politician, given time.

Deborah Roberts, BEM

Deborah Roberts, BEM
10 May 1952 – 9 September 2024

Andrew Connal
September 2024