Trinity College

Choir Alumni

Members of Trinity College Choir study a wide range of subjects and go on to an equally wide range of careers.  Many choose to follow a career in the performing arts. Numerous Trinity Choral Scholars are active in the UK and internationally as consort singers with the world’s leading professional vocal ensembles, and as soloists.

Trinity Alumni presently sing with The Sixteen, The Monteverdi Choir, Voces8, Tenebrae, The Tallis Scholars and Solomon’s Knot, and as professional Lay Clerks at Cathedrals and churches around the UK. Two leading active vocal ensembles have their roots in Trinity: The Gesualdo Six, founded and directed by former Organ Scholar Owain Park, and Stile Antico, co-founded by former Choral Scholar Kate Ashby.

Former choral scholars wishing to update their biographies presented here should please contact the choir office directly > [email protected]

Owain Park (2013-2017)

Owain Park is a composer, conductor and singer. His compositions are published by Novello, and have been performed internationally by ensembles including the Tallis Scholars and the Aurora Orchestra. As a conductor, he maintains a busy schedule of projects with ensembles including the BBC Singers, the Academy of Ancient Music, London Mozart Players, Cappella Cracoviensis, and Cambridge Chorale. His own vocal consort, The Gesualdo Six, tour extensively around the world and have been lauded for their interpretation of renaissance and contemporary music.Owain is a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists (FRCO), and was awarded the Dixon Prize for improvisation, having been Senior Organ Scholar at Wells Cathedral and Trinity College Cambridge. He holds a Masters degree in composition and regularly appears as a singer with ensembles including Tenebrae, Gabrieli Consort, The Sixteen and Polyphony.

Helen Charlston (2011-2015)

Mezzo-soprano Helen Charlston won first prize in the 2018 London Handel Singing Competition and was a finalist in the 2019 Grange Festival International Singing Competition, won the Ferrier Loveday Song Prize in the 2021 Kathleen Ferrier Awards and is a BBC New Generation Artist. Helen was a founder participant of the Rising Star of the Enlightenment programme, working alongside the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment; a member of Les Arts Florissants Young Artist Programme (Jardin des Voix) for 2021/22; and was a 2018 City Music Foundation Artist. She is regularly heard on the concert platform with some of the UK’s most prominent collaborative pianists. In recent years she has performed at Oxford Lieder Festival, Leeds Lieder and the Ryedale Festival, as well as giving recitals at Wigmore Hall and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and has released two solo recitals on Delphian Records.

Hiroshi Amako (2011-2015)

Tenor Hiroshi Amako was born in 1992, the son of a Japanese father and a Welsh mother, and grew up from the age of eight in North Wales, where he gained his first musical experience with violin and piano. After studying at Trinity, Hiroshi Amako went to the Royal Academy of Music in London, where he studied under Ryland Davies and Iain Ledingham. Hiroshi Amako has been a member of the International Opera Studio at Hamburg State Opera since the 2018/2019 season, singing Abdallo (Nabucco), the Lamplighter (Manon Lescaut), Borsa (Rigoletto), Le Comte de Lerme/Un Héraut (Don Carlos), Sasha (Moscow, Cheryomushki), and creating the role of Goebbels in Johannes Harneit’s world première IchundIch. He worked with conductors such as Kent Nagano, Christoph Gedschold, Paolo Carignani and Gianpaolo Bisanti.  Hiroshi Amako is a regular performer on the concert stage, including appearances at Wigmore Hall and Oxford Lieder.

Jess Dandy (2008-2012)

Shortlisted for a Royal Philharmonic Society Award in the category of Young Artist, Cumbrian contralto Jess Dandy was the contralto soloist at the First Night of the BBC Proms 2021, singing Vaughan Williams Serenade to Music and a new commission by Sir James Macmillan. She has appeared on the concert platform with the Orchestre révolutionnaire et romantique, The English Concert, Florilegium, BBC National Orchestra & Chorus of Wales, The Academy of Ancient Music, The Dunedin Consort, BBC Symphony Orchestra, and Les Arts florissants; collaborating with conductors including Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Harry Bicket, Trevor Pinnock, John Butt, William Christie, Kristian Bezuidenhout and Stephen Layton. Jess is co-founder of the mental health initiative, SongPath, which encourages creative and restorative connection on therapeutically curated musical walking trails in beautiful surroundings. 

Amy Lyddon (2009-2012)

Mezzo-soprano Amy Lyddon graduated from Trinity College with first-class honours in Linguistics with French & Spanish, before achieving Distinction for her Graduate Diploma at the Royal College of Music, supported by a Helen Marjorie Tonks Scholarship, a Henry Wood Trust Award, The Kathleen Trust, The Mario Lanza Educational Foundation, The Westminster Almshouses Foundation, and The Josephine Baker Trust. Recent concerts include Bach’s Magnificat at St John’s Smith Square and on BBC Radio 3 (Jeremy Summerly, Oxford Baroque) and Vivaldi’s Gloria (London Mozart Players).

Notable engagements include Bach’s St Matthew Passion for Edward Higginbottom and the Academy of Ancient Music. Her opera credits include Nancy/Albert Herring for Shadwell Opera at Opera Holland Park and UK tour, Peter Grimes and Queen of Spades for Grange Park Opera Chorus, and Idamante/Idomeneo for RCM Opera Scenes. Amy features on the Gramophone Award-winning recording of Mozart’s Requiem with The Dunedin Consort, and performs with ensembles including Polyphony and Tenebrae.

Gwilym Bowen (2008-2011)

Gwilym Bowen studied at Royal Academy Opera under Ryland Davies and Jonathan Papp after leaving Trinity with a double-First class degree in Music.

On the operatic stage, his diverse repertoire has included Pelléas Pelléas et Mélisande, Tom Rakewell The Rake’s Progress, Davey in Jonathan Dove’s Siren Song, Dwight/God Jerry Springer: the Opera, Sailor Dido & Aeneas, Intelletto in Emilio de’Cavalieri’s Rappresentatione di anima e di corpo, Lysander A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Aldeburgh, Lucano & Primo Soldato L’incoronazione di Poppea for the Britten-Pears Young Artist  Programme and Ryedale Festival Opera, and Valletto, Primo Soldato and Highest Famigliare L’incoronazione di Poppea for the Academy of Ancient Music at the Barbican Centre. At RAM, roles in scenes include Ferrando Così fan tutte, Albert Albert Herring, Florville Il signor Bruschino, Smith La jolie fille de Perth, Novice Billy Budd and Leicester Maria Stuarda. Roles with RAO for the 2014-15 season include Gherardo Gianni Schicchi, Sellem The Rake’s Progress and HRH Prince Philippe A Dinner Engagement.

Andrew MacFarlane (2007-2010) & Edmund Irwin-Singer (2008-2011)

Drew and Edmund are members of the Indie Rock band, Glass Animals. They were contempories at Trinity and Choir members during their time at Cambridge.  Whilst still at University, in 2010, they and two friends from Oxford University decided to put up some of their songs on MySpace resulting in a bunch of emails and positive feedback on the music. “It freaked us out,” recalls one of the Oxford members, Joe Seaward, “So we took everything offline and decided to finish university.”

After graduation, Glass Animals put their songs back online and things went from there. “We started making music, noise came out and we put it on a record,” says front man and guitarist Dave Bayley.  Their debut album, Zaba, was released in 2014.

Christopher Lowrey (2007-2010)

Christopher Lowrey, originally from the United States, came up to Trinity College to read Music in 2007.  He was a 2014 Metropolitan Opera National Council Finalist and 2013 National Semifinalist, a winner of the 2013-14 Sullivan Foundation Award, the London Handel Society’s Michael Oliver Prize at the 2010 Handel Singing Competiton, and winner of the Rhode Island chapter of the 2005 National Association of Teachers of Singing competition. He was a finalist in the 2008 London Bach Society Competition, as well as the 2006 Fulbright Scholarship competition. He has studied with Russell Smythe, Derek Lee Ragin, Ashley Stafford, and Pierre Massé.  Christopher made his Royal Opera debut in the 2014/15 Season singing Hope and Shepherd in Orfeo at the Roundhouse.

Emily Dickens (2006-2009)

Emily Dickens became a founder member of the Winchester Cathedral Girls’ Choir at the age of 10 and was head chorister in her final year.  In 2004 she was a finalist in the BBC Young Chorister of the Year competition.  She came up to Cambridge in 2006 and graduated with a BA in Music from Trinity College in 2009.  As a member of Trinity College Choir, she enjoyed a busy schedule of concerts and recordings and  toured to Canada, Europe and California.

Upon graduating, Emily hardly drew breath before joining the international award-winning a cappella octet Voces 8, with whom she recorded numerous albums and music videos and performed around the world.

Katherine Watson (2005-2008)

Katherine Watson graduated in 2008 in Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic from Trinity College and sung in the Choir during her time in Cambridge under the direction of Stephen Layton. Whilst at University she also sang with the Charpentier Consort, the Cambridge Clerkes and the Cambridge University Baroque Ensemble.

After graduating, she won a place on William Christie’s young artist programme ‘Le Jardin des Voix’ and has since sung extensively with Christie and Les Arts Florissants.  

Other awards have included a young artist award with the Classical Opera Company in 2011 and the Glyndebourne John Christie 2012 award.  She has worked with a number of conductors including Stephen Layton, Nicholas Kraemer, Stephen Cleobury, Jonathan Cohen, Paul Agnew, Emmanuelle Haim, Harry Bickett, Sir Roger Norrington, Laurence Cummings and Philip Pickett.

Alison Hill (2003-2006)

Ali Hill began singing as a chorister at Salisbury Cathedral. In 2006 she graduated from Trinity College and has since performed, recorded and toured extensively with ensembles such as The Monteverdi Choir under Sir John Eliot Gardener, Polyphony under Stephen Layton, The Sixteen for Harry Christophers, Alamire for David Skinner, Tenebrae for Nigel Short, Retrospect Ensemble for Matthew Halls and Stile Antico.  Ali is also a member of Galán; a soprano vocal trio with harpsichord and theorbo who have recently been made Brighton Early Music Festival’s Young Artists.

Alongside singing, Ali enormously enjoys her work as a musical assistant on courses for The National Youth Choirs of Great Britain, Ulster Youth Choir and Royal Schools of Church Music and she is involved in teaching choir directors and working with children in disadvantaged areas of Mumbai in India for the burgeoning charity, Songbound. When she is not singing, Ali enjoys climbing rock faces and is doing a part-time masters degree in climate change.

Tim Dickinson (2003-2006)

Tim Dickinson’s life as a singer began in earnest at Westminster Abbey, where he spent six years as a chorister.  Subsequently, aged 13, he was awarded a music scholarship to Eton College, where he spent five years singing with the Chapel Choir.  Tim was awarded a choral scholarship to Trinity College and while at Cambridge, he showed a keen interest in a variety of musical styles and contexts, as well as being involved in a good deal of theatre.

Since 2003, Tim has been involved in various bands and other projects outside of the classical music world, including rock band Enamel, folk group The Silver Lining, and has also created and produced his own solo albums.

Julian Forbes (2001-2004)

After graduating in Modern Languages, Julian first worked in record sales before further vocal training at the Royal Academy of Music, Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme and the European Baroque Academy. Following a brief singing career including concerts and recordings with Stile Antico, Polyphony and the Academy of Ancient Music, he switched to arts administration. He has worked for Decca Classics, Classic FM, the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain, and is currently General Manager of the award-winning ensemble Arcangelo.

Kate Ashby (2000-2003)

Kate enjoys a busy career as a professional singer specialising in early music. She performs with groups such as The Brabant Ensemble and Chapelle du Roi, and also regularly records film soundtracks with London Voices.

She read Music at Trinity College and after graduating, was a co-founder of the hugely successful early music vocal ensemble Stile Antico, which began life with several Trinity Choir members in its ranks, including Oliver Hunt, Tom Herford and Alison Hill. They have made eight recordings, won handfuls of awards, and toured the world.  They still return to sing in Trinity Chapel each August, as part of the series run by Cambridge Early Music.

Eddie Redmayne (2000-2003)

Eddie probably needs no introduction to most people as he’s been prominent in the news and magazine covers in 2014 being tipped for an Oscar for his portrayal of Stephen Hawking in the film, The Theory of Everything.  Not that he wasn’t well known before that – in 2012, he starred in the role of Marius Pontmercy in the film adaptation of Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables (where he showed off a very fine tenor voice).

Whilst studying History of Art at Trinity College he performed with the National Youth Music Theatre, and made his professional stage debut for Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in Twelfth Night at the Middle Temple Hall in 2002.  He won the award for Outstanding Newcomer at the 50th Evening Standard Theatre Awards (2004) for his performance in Edward Albee’s The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?, and the award for Best Newcomer at the Critics’ Circle Theatre Awards in 2005.  In 2015, Eddie won the Oscar for Best Actor for his portrayal of Stephen Hawking in the film, The Theory of Everything.

Amy Haworth (1996-1999)

Amy Haworth studied Music at Trinity College and was a Choral Scholar under the direction of Richard Marlow. Since then she has developed the reputation of a highly acclaimed consort singer working with many of the country’s leading vocal ensembles including The Tallis Scholars, The Cardinall’s Musick, Consortium, Ensemble Plus Ultra, and Synergy Vocals.

Susan Atherton (1996-1999)

The late Susan Atherton came up to Trinity College in 1996 to read History of Art and was a member of the Choir for three years.  After graduating she was awarded the Lilian Baylis bursary to study on The Knack, ENO’s part-time opera and music theatre course.  She continued her studies at the Royal Academy of Music and later at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama where she made her operatic debut as Ruggiero in Handel’s Alcina.  Susan joined the Glyndebourne chorus in 2002. All at Trinity College and the Choir were deeply saddened to hear that Susan’s life had been tragically cut short in the summer of 2014. 

Claire Wilkinson (1995-1998)

Claire grew up in a home full of music in Manchester and gave her first solo concert at the age of 17 with Musica Antiqua of London.  She went on to read Classics at Trinity College followed by postgraduate vocal studies at Trinity College London.

Since graduating, she has been much in demand, particularly for her interpretations of Baroque repertoire and performed and recorded under John Eliot Gardiner, Andrew Parrott, Richard Egarr, Daniel Reuss, Christophe Rousset and Bart Van Reyn. She also sings with Fretwork and the Rose Consort of Viols, and has appeared at many of the world’s major halls: Covent Garden, the Wigmore Hall, the Barbican, the Queen Elizabeth Hall, and the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall in the UK, and further afield the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Hong Kong Cultural Center, Washington National Cathedral, Bozar Brussels, Théâtre des Champs Elysées, Cité de la Musique, Köln Philharmonie and the Lincoln Center New York amongst many others.

Cecilia Osmond (1995-1998)

The Canadian-born soprano Cecilia Osmond is heard frequently as a soloist and as a member of elite vocal ensembles. She was educated at St Paul’s Girls’ School and Trinity College where she read Music. Upon graduation from Trinity she was awarded a Travelling Studentship, enabling her to continue her vocal studies at the Royal Academy of Music with Julie Kennard and Clara Taylor.

Today, Cecilia Osmond is in constant demand as an oratorio soloist, with recent performances including Mozart’s Requiem (King’s College Choir Cambridge/Stephen Cleobury), Orff’s Carmina Burana (Royal Albert Hall/Sir David Willcocks) and J S Bach’s Matthäus-Passion (BWV 244) (Florilegium/David Hill).  Cecilia Osmond also continues to perform frequently with professional vocal ensembles such as The Sixteen, The Tallis Scholars, The King’s Consort and The Cardinall’s Musick.

Elizabeth Atherton (1992-1995)

Elizabeth Atherton is one of Britain’s most versatile and compelling singers performing a wide range of repertoire in both concert and opera.  She read Music at Trinity College Cambridge before studying at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.  She is the winner of numerous prestigious awards and prizes including the Maggie Teyte Prize, the Handel Singing Competition, the WNO Sir John Moores Award and WNO Chris Ball Bursary.

This season and beyond Elizabeth will perform with the Royal Northern Sinfonia and BBC NOW, Britten War Requiem with the Ulster Orchestra and Jac van Steen, and her return to the Aldeburgh Festival as Medea and Euridice in Harrison Birtwistle’s The Cure (world première) and The Corridor, co-produced by the Royal Opera House.

Gabriel Crouch (1992-1995)

After completing a Choral Scholarship at Trinity College, Cambridge, Gabriel Crouch was offered a place in the renowned a cappella group The King’s Singers in 1996.  In the next eight years he made a dozen recordings on the BMG label (including a Grammy nomination), and gave more than 900 performances in almost every major concert venue in the world. Special collaborative projects saw him working and performing with some of the world’s most respected artists, including percussionist Evelyn Glennie, pianists Emmanuel Ax and George Shearing, singer Barbara Hendricks and ‘Beach Boy’ Bruce Johnston.

Since moving to the USA in 2005, he has built an international profile as a conductor and director, with recent engagements in China and Australia as well as Europe and the United States. His achievements in the choral world have led to many invitations to adjudicate choral competitions, notably the mixed choir final of ‘Sainsbury’s Choir of the Year’ (televised by the BBC). His work as a singer, coach and musical director has led to his name appearing in the London Times’ list of ‘Great British Hopes’. Currently, Gabriel Crouch is Director of Choral Activities and Senior Lecturer in Music at Princeton University. 

Alexander Armstrong (1989-1992)

Alexander Armstrong came to Trinity College in 1989, read English and was also a member of the College Choir.  He joined the Footlights in his final year as part of the writing team for the 1992 revue and was Spooks creator David Wolstencroft’s comedy partner.

These days, he’s better known as a comedian, actor and television presenter, and as one half of the comedy duo Armstrong and Miller, alongside Ben Miller.  Alexander is also the host of the popular BBC game show Pointless.  Aside from his Armstrong and Miller sketch show characters, his television credits include guest appearances in various TV series and he also voiced Professor M in Tooned and alien supercomputer Mr Smith in the Doctor Who spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures.  

Thomas Guthrie (1988-1991)

It’s a little difficult to summarise the career of the polymath Thomas Guthrie: musician, singer, performer, writer and director working in classical music and theatre – he does it all!  Tom began his musical training as a boy chorister under George Guest at St John’s College Cambridge. He then returned to Cambridge to read Classics at Trinity before winning a scholarship to study at the RNCM, where prizes include the Fassbaender Award for Lieder, the Schubert Prize, and an ESU scholarship to study with Thomas Allen in Chicago.

He has sung in some of the world’s most prestigious venues from New York and Bolivia to Tokyo and Sydney and appeared at the Wigmore Hall and the South Bank in London. Meanwhile he recently completed a two-year contract as Young Artist Stage Director at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

Today, he’s equally at home devising new theatrical and musical work, working with singers and actors, performing, singing and writing.  Tom also works with non-professionals of all ages and backgrounds. Some of his most thrilling projects have been in this field, including with Streetwise Opera and the Royal Opera House, through whom he has inspired hundreds to connect with their inner Caruso and raise the roof.

Julian Podger (1987-1990)

As Julian recalls, “One hot summer’s day, while still a student at Cambridge, I was standing under Trinity’s Great Gate when a singer friend approached me with someone I thought must be a sort of charismatic student pop star… it was Chris Page. Within minutes he was asking me if I’d like to join his group Gothic Voices”. That group went on to record one of the the best-selling recordings of medieval music ever made: A Feather on the Breath of God – Hymns & Sequences by Abbess Hildegard of Bingen.

Julian went on to be instrumental in the development of the early music scene.  Although most of his work today is as a soloist (Monteverdi, Bach – particularly the evangelists – and Handel), he stills loves consort singing and keeps it a priority in his career. Besides Gothic Voices, he performs with The Harp Consort and his own ensemble, Trinity Baroque.Les Arts Florissants.  

Susanna Spicer (1982-1985)

The English mezzo-soprano, Susanna Spicer, was one of the first female choral scholars at Trinity College, Cambridge. Subsequently she studied at the Guildhall School of Music in London.

A highly experienced concert singer, Susanna Spicer’s solo engagements have included appearances at the Royal Festival Hall with Simon Rattle and the London Philharmonic Orchestra in Igor Stravinsky’s Mass and with Kurt Masur and the London Philharmonic Orchestra in Debussy’s Le Martyre de Saint Sebastien (both for Radio 3), at the Royal Albert Hall with David Willcocks in Messiah and Elijah, at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music with the English Chamber Orchestra and at the BBC Proms in Schubert’s Die Verschworenen with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Nicholas McGegan. She sang in Trevor Pinnock’s performances of J.S. Bach’s St John Passion (BWV 245) and St Matthew Passion (BWV 244) in Europe, Japan and Turkey and has performed all the major works of the oratorio repertoire in the UK’s principal concert halls and cathedrals. These include Gustav Mahler’s Eighth Symphony at Edinburgh’s Usher Hall, Verdi’s Requiem at the Barbican and Winchester Cathedral and Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis at The Maltings, Snape. She has sung for Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Kent Opera and Opera de Lyon.

Voces8

Four current and former members of the internationally-celebrated vocal ensemble Voces8 are Alumni of Trinity College Choir: Molly Noon (Soprano), Emily Dickens (Soprano), Chris Moore (Baritone) and Jonathan Pacey (Bass).

> Voces8

The Gesualdo Six

Founded at Trinity by its Artistic Director and former Trinity Organ Scholar Owain Park, The Gesualdo Six is now established in the vanguard of a new generation of vocal ensembles, with a string of critically-acclaimed recordings and busy concert schedule.

> The Gesualdo Six

Stile Antico

Fromer Trinity soprano Kate Ashby is an original founding member of the multiple award-winning Stile Antico, which has also counted several other Trinity Alumni amongst its members since its foundation.

> Stile Antico