'It is incredible to think that these mature vocalists are mere students' The Times
Altos
Jacob PartingtonArriving as the second member of his family to join King’s College Choir, Jacob came determined to challenge all pre-conceived ideas about his character. Almost immediately, he announced that his superb sense of style was a result of experiencing a short spell as a L'Oréal hair model, in an effort to demonstrate how truly cool and alternative he was. Having sung at Gloucester Cathedral as a chorister, Jacob is no alien to the English choral tradition and has found, despite his voice breaking, that he can now sing higher than ever before. He spent his early school years struggling with an under-developed tenor voice, only to discover, by accident, that he could also sing countertenor. The 'Eureka moment', of course, came when reciting 'The hills are alive' on a mountain somewhere in Northern Spain. Jacob is often found in Chapel, keen and ready to annoy whomever stands next to him. He hopes to leave Cambridge as a well-rounded musician with his masculinity intact.
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Felix BlakeFor heinous crimes to academia, Felix has been sentenced to a master’s degree in music at Selwyn College, where the only thing he has mastered thus far is how to wake up before 10am. Felix hails from the sunny climes of Warrington in the northwest of England, but fear not, any traces of such origins have been swiftly erased from Felix’s accent by Cambridge University. Having sung as a bass choral scholar during his music undergraduate in the Choir of Selwyn College, Cambridge, Felix discovered his depraved countertenor urges when he stubbed his toe coming out of the shower. The resounding yelp was more harmonious than any of his previous bass tones, and he has been nurturing his countertenor voice in the shower ever since. When Felix is not dancing in Cambridge’s premier discotheque or going to Latin club nights in London under the guise of a master’s degree, you can find him frantically wandering the streets of Cambridge, telling everyone in his path that he has perfect pitch.
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Maxim MeshkvichevMaxim is a fourth-year countertenor—well, tries to be, at least—studying for a Masters in Music at King’s. He discovered singing in 2009, when his first Director of Music asking him to sing ‘Drunken Sailor’ in front of forty ten-year-olds, and since then has fallen in love with all things choral. Having arrived at King’s as a tenor, he now sings countertenor, forever chastised by his former tenor colleagues.
Maxim spent his gap year singing at the Portsmouth Cathedral, having the amazing opportunity to take part in prestigious events like Her Majesty's commissioning the new ‘Queen Elizabeth’ aircraft carrier—although Maxim was elsewhere that day, agonising over his interviews. . . He participated in other riveting events too: the infamous ‘Come and Sing’ at All Saints’, Ryde, on a cold February morning. When not singing, Maxim enjoys diving about trying to catch the ball in football or trying to see every cathedral in the UK—but not necessarily at the same time. |
Alex AustinHaving emerged from the hallowed halls of Westminster School - as he will tell you at the first opportunity - Alex is now in his first year pursuing a music undergraduate degree, with a choral scholarship as a countertenor. Aspiring to become a Baroque ensemble director, Alex is growing his hair out to look just enough like Simon Rattle to be considered a serious conductor. . |
Tenors
Owen ElsleyOwen is a tenor hailing from Newcastle (the other one – in New South Wales, Australia). His passion for music was discovered at an early age when all efforts to stop him playing piano, trombone, singing or composing ultimately failed. After studying Physics and Mathematics at Sydney University, he has finally accepted his fate and made his way to Cambridge as to study for an MMus and to sing with King’s College Choir. Despite being unavoidably Antipodean, and a master’s student to boot, Owen has been thoroughly impressed by his choral colleagues’ ability not to hold these things against him. Owen is enjoying being in a country where not every animal is out to kill him, though has not yet come around to the concept of warm beer.
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Matt SupramaniamAfter a string of high-profile performances in his native Singapore, rumour has it that Matt was uncomfortable with the celebrity lifestyle and fled to 'the other place' for a fresh start as a chorister there away from media coverage. Since leaving school, Matt spent time foraging in jungles, had a buzz cut, started wearing khaki clothing, lost a third of his body weight, reached fighting fitness, “sustained an injury”, scaled down his fitness regime, and regained his former waistline. Having started a History degree at Robinson last year, Matt attempted to fill the choir-shaped void in his heart by wearing a variety of dubious colour combinations and growing his hair out in ways no one thought possible or desirable. Despite being able to partially clear a room of 4 and a half armed men with "a bent spoon", Matt now spends most of his time frightening locals with drawings of Homer Simpson and falling over on astroturf.
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Simon Mascarenhas-CarterSimon is a tenor hailing from St. Ives (sadly, not the one in Cornwall) whose love for music is only topped by his love for cooking. He can be found day and night baking cookies, biscotti, and other sweet treats for the choir. Simon’s musical career began in his teen years having had the epiphany that he wanted to be just like Pavarotti; his voice and waistline are well on their way. He sang in his school chamber choir, in musicals and following some degree of formal training became a highly sought-after tenor soloist throughout Cambridgeshire. Wait, no. RURAL Cambridgeshire. Whilst studying for a pharmacy degree in Norwich, Simon embraced the spirit of ecumenism undertaking choral scholarships at both the Catholic and Anglican cathedral, he was overjoyed to discover the prominent use of Gregorian chant in the liturgy at King's- a discipline he has always found to be stimulating. When not singing, Simon can be found playing squash, fishing for pike and working his other job as a pharmacist- he is still yet to decipher if his future lies in a hospital or an opera house.
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David BickGrowing up near Heathrow airport, David’s childhood was spent creating cardboard helicopters and other doomed feats of aviation. In the hope that a career in pure mathematics might be more likely to take off, he has now turned his attention to the world of abstract objects, though his PhD studies are struggling to bear fruit. An interloper from Trinity College, David’s vocal career peaked in the role of a mute shepherd in an opera performed on a floating punt stage.
He can often be seen running through the streets of Cambridge, already late for choir rehearsal (if it has been remembered at all): a practice which has kept him in impeccable (read: adequate) shape. When he is not working out the mysteries of the universe on a calculator, he enjoys refining his encyclopaedic knowledge of Mario Kart shortcuts and commenting on the weather. |
Baritones
Tom PickardTom, who comes from the Isle of Man, is no stranger to King’s, having been here as a chorister from the age of 8. In the intervening years Tom took up a music scholarship at Eton, which he tried hard to justify, scraping away on his fiddle in the 2nd violins. Tom enjoys a bit of footy, both playing and watching, and is known for his love of the biblical figures Steven Gerrard and Jürgen Klopp. Tom is in his second year, studying German and Italian (from scratch), and hopes to one day go into teaching. |
Binath PhilominBinath, or Binny as he is known to his few friends, is a Baritone in his second year, studying (in a loose sense of the word) for a degree in Classics. Binny is no stranger to collegiate choirs, or King Henry VI institutions for that matter, having started his singing journey in Ealing Abbey Choir and then as a chorister at Christ Church Cathedral Oxford, before taking up a place at Eton College on a full scholarship. Following his A-Levels, Binny took up a place as a Gap student at King’s College School, and was later appointed as a House Tutor in the school’s Boarding House, working with our younger colleagues in the choir. Binny has a particular love of all things close-harmony, and much enjoys writing new arrangements for the group. Alongside this, he has a life-long passion for early music and enjoys engaging with musical outreach opportunities in his free time. Outside of music, he loves his cooking (often questionable!), classical mythology and most of all… cricket – taking a particular interest in all sporting matters relating to the Sri Lankan National Team. Ever the conversationalist, whether you bring up cricket or not, Binny loves to commence a long and impassioned speech justifying Sachithra Senanayake’s decision to ‘mankade’ Jos Buttler in the 5th ODI match of Sri Lanka’s 2014 tour of England. If you want to find out what ‘mankading’ is, be sure to catch Binny for a chat at the end of our next concert…
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Basses
Henry BrearleyHenry is enjoying his second year in the King's Choir as a Bass Lay Clerk. Ever the example to younger members of the Choir, he takes a role as senior cartographer compiling the upcoming "Moral Map: A Guide to Anglican Church Music and Her Hostelries" building on his previous successes, such as "How Not to Conduct Oneself Before, During or After Evensong" - a set text on many undergraduate Choral Scholar reading lists.
Having held organ scholarships to almost every Cambridge college, Henry only found himself in his present position after mistakenly believing he had been offered a post-graduate organ scholarship to King's. Realising he'd been duped, Henry settled back into the Decani stalls where he often delights in applying his oversized instrument to delicate verse anthems and canticles at sight. Leaving no strand of academic pursuit free of his mediocrity, Henry can occasionally be found applying his hard-earned Theoretical Physics degree to rigorous part-time study of the piano at Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, and even-more-rigorously-part-time study of the organ at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. When in more agreeable country, Henry enjoys hill-walking, mountaineering, drawing hillwalkers' and mountaineers' hills and mountains, and listening to BBC Radio 4. |
Jack HarrisHailing from Edinburgh (the ‘real’ North, as he is wont to remind his colleagues), Jack began his musical career as a Suzuki violinist at the tender age of five. Those formative years scraping away renditions of ‘Croc-Rock’ and Twinkle Twinkle evidently paid dividends (alongside testing his poor mother’s patience) as, at fifteen, he heard the crushing words: “Perhaps you should try the viola”. With his orchestral dreams dashed to pieces, Jack turned his focus to singing and, following stints with the choir of Morningside Parish Church and the National Youth Choir of Scotland, found his way to King’s to study Music with a Choral Scholarship. Jack hopes that his time at King’s will prepare him well for further vocal study at conservatoire – that is, of course, if he can learn to sing below a G before then. When not singing, Jack enjoys demonstrating his versatility (or lack thereof) on the football pitch, regaling his fellow choral scholars with tales of his latest cooking exploits, and avoiding the dreaded “… but you don’t sound Scottish…” at all costs.
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Paul GreallyDespite his early musical training in drumming and jazz piano, Paul eventually decided that learning the organ was the most certain way to become truly "cool". He held the organ scholarship post at Pinner Parish Church for seven-odd years before doing a vague impression of the same job at King's, where he is now in his second year, also attempting to study for the Music Tripos. During his short time in the choir, he has so far managed to earn a reputation for talking too loudly, inadvertently playing introductions to the Nunc Dimittis at double speed, and drinking laughably fruity brands of cider. Though bashfully abstaining from joining the King's Men in his first year, he subsequently made an explosive entrance into the breakaway vocal group, surprising his colleagues with the fact that having perfect pitch does not necessarily result in an ability to sing. In his spare time, he enjoys markedly non-strenuous cycling, composing, and reminding people that he is six foot four.
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Sam Aldersey-WilliamsSam hails from North Norfolk, where he spent a long 15 years at a school where Britten and Berkeley were taught briefly. Following very much in their shadow, the transition from school-bubble to Cambridge-bubble has been smooth and easy. Having been exposed to a not-unhealthy amount of English Church Music, and coerced into learning the organ, Sam’s audition for King’s College Choir arose by happy accident, and he is now desperately learning how to sight-read. Studying German and Spanish, Sam hopes to add an international flavour to the group. His other interests include—but are not limited to—travelling, and a certain jazz-rock duo from the suburbs of New York City.
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Chris Winkless-ClarkHailing from the far northern city of Durham, Chris’ musical career began as a young boy, when he was dragged into singing in his church choir by his parents. Since then he has managed to bluff his way through the Durham County Youth Choir and the BBC Proms Youth Choir before arriving at King’s College, where his quest to find low enough notes to stretch him has finally been accomplished. In what little spare time he has, Chris enjoys playing the horn in far too many orchestras, and occasionally studying for his degree, Engineering.
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