CRMSS Tutors

CRMSS Ontario 2024 Guest Artist: Peter Phillips

The Tallis Scholars

Peter will be a tutor at: CRMSS Ontario 2024

Credit: Hugo Glendinning

Peter Phillips has dedicated his career to the research and performance of Renaissance polyphony, and to the perfecting of choral sound. He founded The Tallis Scholars in 1973, with whom he has now appeared in over 2,500 concerts world-wide, and made over 60 discs in association with Gimell Records. As a result of this commitment Peter Phillips and The Tallis Scholars have done more than any other group to establish the sacred vocal music of the Renaissance as one of the great repertoires of Western classical music.

Peter Phillips also conducts other specialist ensembles. He is currently working with the BBC Singers (London), the Netherlands Chamber Choir (Utrecht), the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir (Tallinn), The Danish Radio Choir (Copenhagen) and El Leon de Oro (Oviedo). He is Patron of the Chapel Choir of Merton College Oxford.

In addition to conducting, Peter Phillips is well-known as a writer. For 33 years he contributed a regular music column to The Spectator. In 1995 he became the publisher of The Musical Times, the oldest continuously published music journal in the world. His first book, English Sacred Music 1549- 1649 , was published by Gimell in 1991, while his second, What We Really Do, appeared in 2013. During 2018, BBC Radio 3 broadcast his view of Renaissance polyphony, in a series of six hour-long programmes, entitled The Glory of Polyphony.

In 2005 Peter Phillips was made a Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Minister of Culture. In 2008 Peter helped to found the chapel choir of Merton College Oxford, where he is a Bodley Fellow; and in 2021 he was elected an Honorary Fellow of St John’s College, Oxford.

Peter says:

"I'm so looking forward to being with you in person this year at CRMSS Ontario 2024. Tallis' Spem in alium is a difficult piece, so we have our work cut out for us, but I'm sure we'll produce a thrilling performance. With that, Striggio's Ecce beatam lucem, and some other gems (look up Tallis' Salve intemerata if you have the chance), it's looking to be a challenging but brilliant week. I can't wait."

CRMSS Pacific 2024 Guest Artist: Julian Gregory of The King's Singers

Julian will be a tutor at: CRMSS Pacific 2024

Born in 1990, Julian Gregory started his singing career at the age of 8 as a boy chorister at St John's College, Cambridge, under the legendary Dr. Christopher Robinson. Following five years as a Music Scholar at Eton College and a Choral Scholarship at Norwich Cathedral, he returned to St John's College in 2009 to read Music as a tenor Choral Scholar and violinist Instrumental Scholar.

After graduating from Cambridge University, Julian spent a year studying German at Heidelberg University, and went on a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music. There he completed his Masters with Distinction (DipRAM) in Vocal Performance studying with Neil Mackie and Ben Johnson, and has since been awarded an Associateship (ARAM) of the institution.

In September 2014, Julian took up the tenor position in the internationally renowned vocal ensemble, The King’s Singers. He subsequently spends over 200 days a year away on tour, giving around 120 concerts annually across six different continents. Personal highlights during his time in the group so far include singing on BBC2’s televised Carols from King’s on Christmas Eve 2020; the launch of their Finding Harmony project, which celebrates music that has brought communities together in the face of hardship throughout the ages; co-founding a charity called The King’s Singers’ Global Foundation, based in the United States; and performing in world-class venues each year, including favourites Carnegie Hall NYC, Tokyo Suntory Hall, Amsterdam Concertgebouw and Koerner Hall Toronto.

Julian, when not working with The King's Singers, can be found performing with some other groups: The Tallis Scholars, Tenebrae, Gallicantus, and Archangelo.

Aside from his singing commitments, Julian is the Assistant Director of the UK-Japan Music Society, which lies close to his heart with his half-English, half-Japanese heritage; it brings together musicians from both countries and culminates in regular concerts across Europe and Japan. He was recently appointed onto the Board of Creatives Care, a New York-based charity which provides mental healthcare for artists, no matter their means or background.

Julian is also a keen runner and squash player, which helps keep him fit and overcome jet-lag both on tour and at home in London.

Julian says:

"As a huge fan of Renaissance music, musical collaboration and socialising -- not to mention Canadian maple syrup!! -- I'm delighted to have the opportunity to combine and indulge in all of these wonderful things at my first ever CRMSS course! And, especially during the warmer climes of August, what better part of the world to do it all than in beautiful, British Columbia!"

Greg Skidmore

The Tallis Scholars, I Fagiolini, Alamire, Eric Whitacre Singers

Greg will be a tutor at: CRMSS Ontario 2024 and CRMSS Pacific 2024

Previous courses: CRMSS 2018, CRMSS 2019, CRMSS 2021, CRMSS 2022, CRMSS Ontario 2023, and CRMSS Pacific 2023

Credit: Paul Arthur

Born in Canada, Greg Skidmore arrived in England as an undergraduate at Royal Holloway College, University of London. After graduating with First Class Honours in Music, his post-graduate Choral Scholarship at Wells Cathedral lead him to Lay Clerkships at Gloucester Cathedral and Christ Church Cathedral in Oxford. He now lives in London, England and pursues a varied career as a consort, choral, and solo oratorio singer alongside his burgeoning work as a conductor and workshop leader.

Greg is one of the UK's most sought after consort singers. He has appeared with The Tallis Scholars, The Sixteen, The Cardinall's Musick, Tenebrae, The Gabrieli Consort, Alamire, Contrapunctus, The Eric Whitacre Singers, Collegium Vocale Ghent, Ensemble L'Arpeggiata, Cappella Amsterdam, and La Grand Chapelle (based in Madrid). He can be heard on discs released by Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, and Harmonia Mundi USA, including recent Grammophone Early Music Award winning recordings with Alamire (‘The Spy’s Choirbook’) and The Tallis Scholars (‘Missa Hercules Dux Ferrarie, Missa D'ung aultre amer & Missa Faysant regretz’). In 2015, he featured in I Fagiolini’s Betrayal, a fully staged, devised presentation of the madrigals and sacred music of Carlo Gesualdo. 2017, the 450th anniversary of Monteverdi’s birth, was a busy year for I Fagiolini, and Greg performed many concerts of Monteverdi’s madrigals and sacred music, toured a new CD release, and performed his opera L'Orfeo this year with the group. 2019 saw Greg take part in an extensive tour of I Fagiolini’s Leonardo: Shaping the Invisible project, in collaboration with Dr Martin Kemp, a leading scholar on the life and art of Leonardo da Vinci. In 2020 and 2021, he featured in all of the Voces8 LiveFromLondon festivals, appearing with both I Fagiolini and the Voces8 Foundation Choir.

Greg also works as a soloist. Solo engagements have included working with ballet dancer Carlos Acosta in his A Classical Farewell at the Royal Albert Hall in London, England; Handel’s Messiah with the Irish Baroque Orchestra; Purcell’s Ode for St Cecilia's Day with the Orchestra of the Age of the Enlightenment; Purcell's Fairy Queen with the Gabrieli Consort; and Monterverdi’s 1610 Vespers at the Brighton Early Music Festival, and with I Fagiolini and the BBC Singers at the Barbican Centre. His solo recording debut was as Christus on Ex Cathedra’s recording of the Lassus St. Matthew Passion and another Ex Cathedra CD release of Alec Roth’s oratorio A Time to Dance features Greg in a role written specifically for him.

While at Christ Church in Oxford, he began a course of doctoral research in Musicology at the University of Oxford and started his own men’s voices consort, I Dedicati. More recently he was appointed Musical Director of Brighton Consort and in 2014 he founded The Lacock Scholars, one of England's premier amateur vocal consorts, with whom he has recorded and toured extensively. He has given workshops and masterclasses in the UK, France, Canada, New Zealand, the Netherlands, and Australia in association with The Sixteen, I Fagiolini, and on his own, specialising in various collections of Renaissance polyphonic repertoire. Greg has assisted Eamonn Dougan, Associate Conductor of The Sixteen, and Justin Doyle, Chief Conductor of RIAS Kammerchor (Berlin) in leading week-long singing courses specialising in early music and vocal chamber music and he is increasingly engaged in Canada as a guest conductor, clinician, and record producer. He has been published in Early Music and his writing has appeared in programmes and CD liner notes for The Tallis Scholars, The Sixteen, The Cardinall’s Musick, The Gabrieli Consort, Tenebrae, and Ex Cathedra.

Greg says:

"We have another incredibly important year planned for The Canadian Renaissance Music Summer Schools in 2024. I'm so glad to be finally running two full-week courses after wanting to for so long. Take that, global pandemic! The excitement overflows, however, with the amazing prospect of welcoming Peter Phillips to London Ontario as part of CRMSS Ontario 2024. The entire course of my life owes a huge amount to Peter and the work of The Tallis Scholars. It is so wonderful to be able to welcome him to Canada. Let's show him just how much we love this music!"

Matthew Long

I Fagiolini, The Sixteen, Tenebrae, The Dunedin Consort

Matt will be a tutor at: CRMSS Ontario 2024

Previous courses: CRMSS 2018, CRMSS 2019, and CRMSS Ontario 2023

Matthew Long was a successful treble soloist, singing the role of Miles in Britten's Turn of the Screw for Italian Opera houses. He studied music at the University of York and sang as a choral scholar in the choir of York Minster during his time there. He later won a scholarship to the Royal College of Music, London. Whilst there he was a Susan Chilcott Scholar and a Royal Philharmonic Society Young Artist. At various times, he has been a member of the celebrated chamber choirs, The Sixteen and Tenebrae and continues to sing as a part of the solo voice ensemble, I Fagiolini.

Matthew has appeared as a soloist with many UK based ensembles, including The OAE, The English Concert, The Hanover Band, The Dunedin Consort, The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and the LPO. Highlights have included Bach, St. Matthew Passion for the Boston Handel and Haydn Society; Britten, War Requiem for Jonathan Willcocks in Salisbury Cathedral. In 2017 he performed the title role in Monteverdi's Orfeo to critical acclaim in a series of semi-staged productions in Norway and the UK with I Fagiolini. Further performances are planned in York and London in 2019. In December 2017, Matthew sang the Evangelist for three concerts of Bach's, Christmas Oratorio with the Danish Radio Choir in Copenhagen. He is increasingly known as a Monteverdi specialist, regularly performing the 1610 Vespers, most notably for the national youth choirs of Great Britain at the Albert Hall, London and at the Osaka Jo hall, Japan with the Berlin RIAS Kammerchor. He appears as tenor soloist on the Dunedin Consort's 2017 recording of the same piece.

During the pandemic, Matthew and his wife and children built a successful online children’s music resource: www.minimusicmakers.co.uk. They performed daily classes for over a year from their front room to toddler audiences worldwide.

Matthew's debut solo disc with the LPO and accompanist Malcolm Martineau, Till the Stars Fall, was released in 2015. Recorded at Abbey Road Studios, gems from the English song repertoire sit alongside folk songs in celebration of some of Britain's finest music. He performed this programme in May 2018 as part of the 'Music in the Cotswolds' festival for Martin Randall Travel.

In his spare time, Matthew is a keen photographer and follower of wildlife conservation. He lives with his wife, daughter, and brand new son near Brighton, UK.

Tom Castle

The Tallis Scholars, Sixteen, Gabrieli Consort, Stile Antico

Tom will be a tutor at: CRMSS Ontario 2024

Previous courses: CRMSS Ontario 2023

Originally from Wolverhampton in the West Midlands of England, Tom lives in London, England and is a tenor, organist and teacher. A music graduate from the University of Bristol, Tom specialises in early music and has a busy schedule working with some of the UK's leading choirs and orchestras. As an ensemble singer, Tom works regularly with the Tallis Scholars, the Gabrieli Consort, the Sixteen, Stile Antico, and the Gesualdo 6. As a soloist, he has performed with the English Concert orchestra and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and will be making his debut with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra for a performance of Handel's Messiah at the Symphony Hall, Birmingham this year. Tom was recently part of the Gabrieli Consort's recording of Purcell's operas King Arthur and the Fairy Queen, which won the BBC Opera disc of the year and was nominated for a Gramophone award. Tom has been involved in church music all of his life, and has held positions in the Cathedral choirs of Exeter, Bristol, Chichester, and Southwark; he also deputises regularly in the choirs of St Paul’s Cathedral and Westminster Cathedral.

As a teacher Tom has worked in both a classroom and peripatetic capacity. He is currently a singing teacher at the Royal Ballet School and also combines this with accompanying the students for examinations and concerts. He is the vocal coach for the Collegiate Church of St Peter’s Wolverhampton and regularly trains the choristers and choral scholars there. Recently he was part of a project to bring classical music to children from disadvantaged backgrounds, involving various week-long projects that culminated in a concert in the Rose Theatre, Whitehaven.

A massive sports fan, when not making music Tom is often watching or playing sports and is a loyal fan of Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club and Worcestershire Royals Cricket Club!

Tom says:

"I’m incredibly excited about being a part of this fantastic project, The Canadian Renaissance Music Summer Schools. I have a huge passion for Renaissance music and can remember as a boy first singing Byrd's Ave Verum; something stirred in me and I have been in love with the music ever since. There is something mesmerising about the complexity and beauty of polyphony and I can’t wait to share my passion with the course!"

Victoria Meteyard

The Tallis Scholars, The Sixteen, Tenebrae

Victoria will be a tutor at: CRMSS Ontario 2024

Victoria is an ensemble singer and teacher based in London, UK. She started singing as a chorister in St Mary’s, Warwick and went on to study Maths and Music at Royal Holloway, University of London as a Choral Scholar. After graduating she continued her development through several young artist programmes, including as a member of Genesis Sixteen, an Apprentice of the Monteverdi Choir and Associate Artist with Tenebrae. She now enjoys a busy touring career, singing regularly with the Tallis Scholars, Tenebrae and the Sixteen in many of the world’s most beautiful and prestigious venues.

She was also a member of the Chapel Choir in the church of St Peter's ad Vincula inside His Majesty's Tower of London for the last five years. Victoria performs as a soloist, and recent highlights include Bach’s St John’s Passion at Coventry Cathedral, Couperin and Clérambault at Keble Early Music Festival Oxford, and Scarlatti's Stabat Mater with solo voice ensemble, the Marian Consort. She appeared on recent recordings with Tenebrae, singing solos in Britten’s Ceremony of Carols on In Winters House, and Hildegard chant on When Sleep Comes.

Victoria enjoys teaching singing at Putney High School and coaching various amateur choirs. She is also Consort Leader of the UK-Japan Music Society, with whom she regularly appears as a soloist, and toured Japan with a recital of British and Japanese duets with her husband Jules Gregory, a member of The King's Singers.

Victoria says:

"I am so looking forward to finally discovering Canadian Renaissance Summer Schools for myself after hearing so many lovely stories about it! It is a wonderful thing to share musical experiences with like-minded singers and I can’t wait to get involved! It’s especially exciting to be working on Tallis’ epic Spem in allium which still blows my mind every time I sing it!"

Andrew Pickett

Royal College of Music (London, England), Early Music Society of Nova Scotia

Andrew will be a tutor at: CRMSS Ontario 2024

Previous courses: CRMSS 2018, and CRMSS 2019

Andrew Pickett, counter-tenor, was born and raised in Moncton, New Brunswick. After earning a master’s degree in biochemistry at Dalhousie University, he went on to study music at Western University and then the Royal College of Music in London, with early music specialists including Dame Emma Kirkby, James Bowman and Michael Chance. While there, he was a finalist in international competitions and won Best Singer at the RCM’s New Song competition. Andrew has performed major roles in operas from Monteverdi to Jonathan Dove, and has performed oratorio and chamber music across Canada, the USA and Europe. He is an alumnus of the National Youth Choir of Canada and of the Tafelmusik Chamber Choir, and was a lay clerk at Manchester Cathedral. Andrew now lives in Halifax where he is a voice teacher, early music coach, and artistic director of Galileo Chamber Choir and Helios Vocal Ensemble. His latest project is an annual Halifax Early Music Festival, held in November.

Sharang Sharma

Elmer Iseler Singers, Tafelmusik

Sharang will be a tutor at: CRMSS Pacific 2024 and CRMSS Ontario 2024

Previous courses: CRMSS 2021, CRMSS 2022, CRMSS Ontario 2023, and CRMSS Pacific 2023

Sharang is Choral Music Director and Lecturer in Arts and Social Sciences at Huron University College in London, Ontario. He sings with Tafelmusik Baroque Chamber Choir, The Elmer Iseler Singers, and has appeared regularly with Soundstreams Choir 21. While active on the Canadian historical and contemporary music scenes, Sharang has also sung with ensembles in the United Kingdom while there for his studies. He completed his Bachelor of Music at Western University, and his Masters at Oriel College, University of Oxford. While at Oxford, Sharang was the tenor lay clerk at The Queen’s College, and sang with numerous Oxford- and London-based ensembles, including the Academy of Ancient Music and Instruments of Time and Truth for the BBC. His extensive choral and operatic repertoires are built through performances with The Strand Consort, Fount & Origin, Spectra Ensemble, King’s College London Chapel Choir, as well as semi-professional and amateur choral societies in the UK.

In Canada, Sharang has been engaged in choral work at various cathedrals, chapels, parishes, and colleges, all of which have prepared him for a life in ecclesiastical music. He has performed with ensembles like Kammerchor, Chor Amica (formerly Gerald Fagan Singers), UWOpera, and Western University Faculty of Music choirs, and was the latest James T. Chestnutt Choral Conducting Scholar with the Elmer Iseler Singers. He has also premiered music by established and budding composers in Canada, the UK, and the USA. Sharang has co-edited Nota Bene: Canadian Undergraduate Journal of Musicology, and presented his research at GAMuT (University of North Texas) and Oriel Talks (Oriel College, Oxford).

Currently, Sharang divides his time between conducting the Chapel Choir at Huron, singing in Toronto, and teaching a survey course on historical/global musics. As a veteran of the CRMSS experience, he is delighted to be back to witness the process of new folks getting absolutely excited about Renaissance Polyphony!

Sharang says:

"People will tell you about their best moments at CRMSS. I, however, will pinpoint the worst one; it's the hour after the course ends. The silence during your travel back home from the course, is the silence of a void that, you come to realise with the passing of time, was occupied by magnificence and beauty for a whole week. There are few things in the world that make grown people cry for no apparent reason, and this is one of them. Tears of absolute joy!"

Christina Hutten

University of British Columbia

Christina will be a tutor at: CRMSS Pacific 2024

Credit: Takumi Hayashi

Organist and harpsichordist Christina Hutten has presented recitals in Canada, the United States, and Europe, including performances in concert series hosted by the Oude Kerk in Amsterdam, the Hooglandsekerk in Leiden, Early Music Vancouver, the Universities of British Columbia and Calgary, and others. She performs regularly with Pacific Baroque Orchestra and has appeared as concerto soloist with the Okanagan Symphony, the Vancouver Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra, and the Arizona State University Chamber Orchestra.

Christina is also an enthusiastic teacher. She coaches and coordinates the early music ensembles at the University of British Columbia and has given masterclasses and workshops at institutions including the Victoria Baroque Summer Program, Brandon University, the University of Manitoba, Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada’s National Music Centre in Calgary, and the Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute. Funded by a generous grant from the Canada Council for the Arts, she pursued historical organ studies in Europe with Francesco Cera, François Espinasse, and Bernard Winsemius. Christina obtained a Master’s degree in Organ Performance from Arizona State University under the direction of Kimberly Marshall and an Advanced Certificate in Harpsichord Performance from the University of Toronto, where she studied with Charlotte Nediger. She is now a Doctoral candidate in musicology at UBC.

Lucas Harris

Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, Toronto Continuo Collective, Vesuvius Ensemble

Lucas will be a tutor at: CRMSS Ontario 2024 and CRMSS Pacific 2024

Previous courses: CRMSS 2018, CRMSS 2019, CRMSS 2021, CRMSS 2022, and CRMSS Ontario 2023

Lucas Harris is thrilled to have supported CRMSS Ontario since the course’s inception, accompanying singers on various types of lutes as well as providing leadership in the solo song and lute workshop components.

Lucas discovered the lute during his undergraduate studies at Pomona College, where he graduated summa cum laude. He then studied early music for two years in Europe, first at the Civica scuola di musica di Milano and at then at the Hochschule für Künste Bremen. After five years in New York City, he moved the base of his freelance career in Toronto, where for over two decades he has served as the regular lutenist for Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra. Lucas is a founding member of the Toronto Continuo Collective, the Vesuvius Ensemble (dedicated to Southern Italian folk music), and the Lute Legends Collective (an association of specialists in ancient plucked-string traditions from diverse cultures). Lucas plays with many other ensembles in Canada and the USA and has worked in recent years with the Helicon Foundation, the Smithsonian Chamber Players, Atalante, The Newberry Consort, Les Délices, and Jordi Savall / Le Concert des Nations. Lucas has a great passion for education, and has served as a coach/accompanist/lute instructor/lecturer/chorusmaster for several workshops including Oberlin’s Conservatory’s Baroque Performance Institute, the Tafelmusik Summer and Winter Baroque Institutes, the Lunenburg Academy of Music Performance, Early Music Vancouver’s Baroque Vocal Programme, and his own online Baroque Voice & Continuo Academy.

In 2014 Lucas completed graduate studies in choral conducting at the University of Toronto. Upon graduating, Lucas was chosen as the Artistic Director of the Toronto Chamber Choir, for which he has created and conducted some 25 themed concert programs. He has also directed projects for the Pacific Baroque Orchestra, the Ohio State University Opera Program, Les voix baroques, and the Toronto Consort.

One of Lucas's many pandemic Projects’ was the reconstruction of 12 solo voice motets by the Italian nun Chiara Margarita Cozzolani which are available for free download on the Web Library for Seventeenth-Century Music.

www.lucasharris.ca

Lucas says:

"CRMSS is always one of the highlights of my year, and I'm especially excited that I'll be able to participate in both the Ontario and Pacific courses in 2024. As always, I look forward to making music with other "keeners" who love Renaissance music as much as I do. See you at CRMSS!!!!!"

Dr. Kate Helsen

Western University, London Canada

Kate will be a tutor at: CRMSS Ontario 2024

Previous courses: CRMSS 2018, CRMSS 2019, CRMSS 2021, CRMSS 2022, and CRMSS Ontario 2023

Before teaching Music History at Western University, Kate held a two-year post-doctoral fellowship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) at the University of Toronto, researching musical notation in the 12 th and 13 th centuries. Her doctoral research focused on Gregorian chant transmission, orally and through the earliest notated books. She has published articles in Plainsong and Medieval Music, Acta Musicologica, the Journal of the Alamire Foundation, SPECTRUM, and Early Music.

She has been a researcher with many projects around the world including Portugal, Ireland, Germany, Belgium, as well as here at home in Canada; usually, her role focuses on connecting the musicological 'dots' with the technological tools now available to researchers in the Humanities. She is currently involved in developing software and analytics for medieval musical document analysis and chant melody comparisons on a large scale, in several SSHRC-supported projects. She sings professionally with the Tafelmusik Chamber Choir, in Toronto.

Kate says:

"The kind of happy symbiosis that CRMSS can achieve between musicianship and musicology is incredible, and I look forward to it every year as a kind of musical miracle."

Sarah Poon

Viola da Gamba Society of America

Sarah will be a tutor at: CRMSS Pacific 2024

Violoncellist, gambist, conductor, and educator are just some of the musical hats that Sarah Poon wears. Starting on ‘cello at an early age, Sarah began learning viol while at university, beginning on 7-string bass and gradually expanding her reach – and her collection – to treble and tenor viol. Currently her early music endeavours include leading a baroque chamber orchestra, running a local consort of viols, continuing viol outreach initiatives and workshops, and performing as a continuo team with her organ- and harpsichord-playing husband, David.

She is also on faculty at the Viola da Gamba Society of America’s international summer workshop (Conclave) and offers consort coaching, beginner viol classes, and private lessons throughout the year.

Sarah considers the viol to be the “perfect” instrument: blending resonance, timbre, and ergonomics into a singularly delightful experience. Known by her friends as a viol-evangelist, she considers introducing the instrument to new players as a particular joy. When not foisting her viol-centred enthusiasm on others, Sarah wears the hat of mother to her four fantastic children. Sarah, David, and offspring live in Gibsons, BC.

CRMSS Ontario 2024 International Scholars

University of York, UK

This year's CRMSS International Scholars will be present at: CRMSS Ontario 2024

CRMSS International Scholars on our CRMSS courses come as a pre-formed group, the members of which already know one another and have worked together before, and share their talents and experience with the rest of the CRMSS participants over the course of the week. They act as leaders within the larger singing groups, and participate in the small group sessions in amongst the Canadian participants, as well as getting some time to rehearse on their own.

In 2022, we were pleased to have with us five students studying for a master's degree in Music at the University of York, in the UK, enrolled in York's "Solo Voice Ensemble Singing" MA pathway (known as "SVES"). After this proved so successful, we're very glad to welcome the current cohort of SVES singers to CRMSS Ontario 2024! The SVES course at York is a performance-based master's level course of study dedicated entirely to one-per-part ensemble singing. The programme lasts one year and includes daily rehearsing and coaching, three major recitals, and opportunities to perform with all of the University of York's many other singing groups.

For more information on SVES, please have a look at the University of York's website.

This year's CRMSS International Scholars at CRMSS Ontario 2024 are:

Molly O'Toole, soprano
Dominique Saulnier, soprano
Tania Murphy, alto
Andrew Morton, tenor
Edmund Phillips, bass

Molly O'Toole is a Soprano from Sheffield, UK. She held a Music Scholarship while studying History at the University of Birmingham and has sung with ensembles including the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain, Birmingham University Singers, Lunds Akademiska Kor, Sweden, and St Giles’ Cathedral Choir, Edinburgh. She was a member of the Genesis Sixteen 2020-21 cohort, and held a scholarship with HeartEdge Manchester in 2021-2022. In 2022 she won the Open Recital Class at the David Clover Festival of Music, and received the Mollie Petrie Memorial Award. Molly is now studying for a Master’s in Solo Voice Ensemble Singing at the University of York. When she’s not singing, Molly loves knitting hats and hiking.

Molly says:

"I’m so excited to join CRMSS for the week and sing some amazing music - what a dream!"

French Canadian soprano Dominique Saulnier comes from a musical family where she was trained from an early age in flute and piano. A BA and BMus graduate of the University of King’s College and Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, she served as choral scholar with the King’s College Chapel Choir and as Lay Clerk at All Saints Cathedral during her studies. She has worked regularly with ensembles such as the Ottawa Bach Choir, the Theatre of Early Music, Aureas Voces, and Caelis Academy Ensemble, with whom she appears frequently as a soloist. Dominique is currently living in York, UK, to pursue a Master’s in Solo Voice Ensemble Singing.

Dominique says:

"After having attended CRMSS in 2022 as a participant, I am so thrilled to be back for CRMSS Ontario 2024 as an International Scholar, and to be given the opportunity to tackle Renaissance polyphony mammoths such as Tallis’s Spem in alium, no less."

Irish contralto Tania Murphy developed her love for singing when she was a senior girl chorister in Belfast. She is currently pursuing a Master’s in Solo Voice Ensemble Singing at the University of York and a Choral Scholarship at York Minster. Alongside her studies, Tania is a freelance ensemble singer and soloist in both the UK and Ireland and recent solo highlights include alto soloist in Handel’s Messiah and Vivaldi’s Gloria. She is currently a member of the first ever cohort of Chamber Choir Ireland Studio 2023/24 and is an alumna of the Young Artist Programme Genesis Sixteen 2022/23 as well as Southwell Minster Apprentice Quartet ‘23 and Charles Wood Singers. When she is not singing, Tania enjoys bike rides in York and going to food markets.

Tania says:

"Having never visited Canada, I am super excited to attend CRMSS and to delve into the Renaissance world with people who love it as much as I do!"

Andrew Morton is a Tenor originally from London. He recently graduated from the University of Manchester, having read Music and French. He was a member of many choirs while in Manchester, including a one year choral scholarship with Heartedge, and regular performances with Kantos Chamber Choir. He was also a member of the National Youth Choir for four years under Ben Parry, and was appointed Section Leader in his final year. He currently sings as Tenor Choral Scholar at York Minster, while completing his masters at the University of York.

Andrew says:

"What's better than singing? Singing polyphony in Canada! Dogs are also pretty cool..."

Edmund Phillips began singing as a boy chorister in London, but has done most of his singing with various churches and groups in Manchester. This has included concerts in cathedrals, fields, nightclubs and even empty office buildings. He studied music and drama at university and after gaining his degree was also a choral scholar for one year at Lincoln cathedral. His pastimes besides singing and listening to others sing include reading and watching cricket.

Edmund says:

"Having never been to Canada, and only very rarely sung outside of the UK, I am thrilled to be coming to CRMSS to put both these things right. I look forward to it very much."