Meet the team
This page is still under construction
Guest of honour
Sir John Rutter CBE
Sir John Rutter is widely regarded as one of the most successful and eminent composers of choral music of the last century. His contribution to the repertoire, especially of music for the Advent & Christmas seasons, is surely unparalleled: for so many of us Christmas music begins with Carols for Choirs, for which he wrote and edited so many pieces alongside his friend and mentor Sir David Willcocks. We are enormously excited that Sir John will be joining us for a Q&A session at our Festival, and as our Guest of Honour for a dinner on Wednesday 12 August, to be held in the Fellows’ Dining Room at Gonville & Caius College.
performers
festival directors
Alexander Trigg
Once a boy chorister in the world famous choir of King’s College, Cambridge, Alex is now a freelance keyboard player and choral director. Alongside a busy performing schedule which takes him across the UK and Europe, Alex holds roles with Cambridge Schola and Cambridge Philharmonic. At the age of 18, Alex was appointed Organ Scholar at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, where he played for members of the Royal Family on several occasions. He held a similar position at St John’s College, Cambridge, and is a graduate of the University of Cambridge, the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and the Royal College of Organists. Alongside his freelance work and the Festival, Alex is Founder-Director of St Andrew’s Music School, a charity which delivers music outreach and education to children from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Graham Walker
Graham has enjoyed a lifelong involvement in the Cambridge choral tradition. His earliest musical education was as a boy chorister, and later choral scholar, at St John's College. He was Musical Director of the Gentlemen of St John's, with whom he directed his first professional recording, of music by Jean Mouton, at the age of 21. Alongside a burgeoning career as a chamber and recital cellist on the world stage, Graham's choral direction developed through his work with St John's Voices and the choirs of Corpus Christi and Magdalene Colleges, and continues through his current roles as Director of Music at Emmanuel College and Director of Cambridge Schola. He recently led the BBC Singers in two projects, including a joint performance with Cambridge Schola of Rachmaninov's All-Night Vigil.
guest lecturers
TBA
Professor Sarah
Houghton-Walker
Sarah is a Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, and a Professor at the Faculty of English. Her work focuses primarily on Romantic-period poetry, and she is also Co-Director of the Centre for John Clare Studies. She has published books on John Clare, on so-called 'gypsies' in the Romantic period, and on Wordsworth. Her particular interests at the moment include the weather in Romantic-period literature, specificity and generality in natural history poetry in the long eighteenth century, and the Pauline idea of the 'gift' in Wordsworth's writing.
Dr Sarah Upjohn
Sarah is a Performing Arts Medicine Physiotherapist and Educator, working mainly with instrumental musicians. She has extensive clinical experience in assessing & treating playing-related musculoskeletal injuries in instrumental musicians, and she is passionate about injury prevention, and promoting musculoskeletal well-being in musicians. Sarah is the physiotherapist at The Purcell School for Young Musicians and well-being lead for the National Children's Orchestra of Great Britain. Additionally, she is in high demand as a teacher and speaker. She has a Doctorate of Education from the University of Cambridge, and has had her research findings accepted for presentation at National, International and World Conferences.
gala concert soloists
TBA - Soprano
TBA - Baritone
Singing teachers
TBA
Helen Groves
Helen has pursued a full career as soloist, ensemble singer and teacher. As a soloist, she has sung at the BBC Proms and the Wigmore Hall, and in staged productions with Sir Simon Rattle at the Salzburg Festival and Berlin Philharmonie. As an ensemble singer, she has toured the world with The Tallis Scholars, The Sixteen, Gabrieli Consort and I Fagiolini. Since moving to Cambridge in 2001, Helen has built up a thriving portfolio of teaching, which has included the choristers at King’s and St Catherine’s Colleges, and choral scholars at half a dozen more.
TBA
James Oldfield is a singer and teacher based in Surrey. He works at the University of Cambridge, where he teaches singing and sight-reading. James studied at Trinity College, Cambridge and the Royal College of Music, after which he had a flourishing career in opera. James was a chorister at Leicester Cathedral, and choral scholar at Trinity College, Cambridge, and a ley clerk at St John’s College, Cambridge. He is in high demand as a singing teacher, working with the choral scholars of several Cambridge college choirs.
Music and liturgy team
TBA - Ordinand
Alexander Robson - Accompanist
Alex is one of the most promising keyboard players of his generation. He currently holds the prestigious Organ Scholarship at Westminster Cathedral, London, and the Organ Fellowship of Sinfonia Smith Square. In addition to these roles, Alex is a prolific organ, harpsichord and piano recitalist. Alex is also an active choral composer. His carol ‘There is no rose’ was sung on BBC Radio 3 last year by Cambridge Schola.
management team
Sophie Kirk - Manager