News & Features

Tell us a bit about yourself, and your training and career to date? I'm a countertenor from Maldon in Essex and I have just completed my first year of studying music at New College, Oxford. I started singing at the age of nine in my local parish church choir. When I...

Tell us a bit about yourself, and your training and career to date?? I fell in love with baroque music as a child. I was very lucky my childhood recorder teacher, Sarah Fenn, was the concert manager of the English Concert, and so I was exposed to fantastic period...

It’s been about a year since we last caught up with you. Tell us what you’ve been up to? As usual, I’ve been balancing singing commitments with my full time role in fundraising and alumni relations at Christ Church. Working full time can make scheduling in time for...

“Widerstehe doch der Sünde warns and encourages the Christian to refrain from sin and strive to live a pure and godly life” It’s been about a year since we last caught up with you. Tell us what you’ve been up to? It’s been a wonderful year. I’ve had the privilege of...

Tomorrow is Father’s Day, so in this week’s newsletter we take a closer look at Bach the husband, the father, and the family man. Bach was prolific in all areas of his life – he wrote more than 215 cantatas, numerous preludes and fugues for the organ, and a good...

The manner of Bach’s illness in his late years and his subsequent death has been a subject on which many music historians and Bach scholars have fiercely debated. This week is Diabetes Awareness Week (11 – 17 June), offering us the perfect opportunity to ask; did Bach...

“I appeared on soundtracks for most of the James Bond films (since Goldfinger), Pink Panther, Alien, the Harry Potters, and Lord of the Rings...” o Tell us a bit about yourself, and your training and career to date? I joined the London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO)...

Transformative imitation or just plain theft? Bach’s Cantata 21 Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis (I had much grief) is described as “one of the most extraordinary and inspired of Bach's vocal works” (John Eliot Gardiner). With eleven movements lasting about 40 minutes, it...

“Since moving to Oxford I have spent my time pursing singing as a profession, studying languages, and perfecting Mary Berry’s Banana Bread recipe for my bake-off CV...” o Tell us a bit about yourself, and your training and career to date? I’m currently a Lay Clerk at...