'It is incredible to think that these mature vocalists are mere students'  The Times​

​Altos
​

Felix Blake - Manager

Felix hails from the sunny climes of Warrington in the northwest of England, although his time in Cambridge has eroded any sign of this in his accent! Having completed a master’s degree in music at Selwyn College, Felix splits his time between singing alto in King’s College Chapel and researching at the intersection of popular music and anthropology. The King’s Men, therefore, suits his tastes nicely by offering something of a musical bridge between the classical and the popular. Felix is now in his second year in the choir, but had his choral birth down the road with the Choir of Selwyn College, Cambridge, where he was a bass choral scholar alongside pursuing a music undergraduate degree. Felix discovered his alto voice 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 ever since. In what little free time he has away from the Choir, Felix keeps himself busy by watching true crime documentaries and informing everyone in earshot that he, in fact, has perfect pitch. ​

Francis Bamford

​​Francis is a countertenor in his third year studying Music. Despite being a student at St J*hn’s College, Francis now does all his singing in King’s in an attempt to re-build his ego, after a flatmate notified the maintenance department about the ‘funny squeaky noise' in the shower during his second year. Struggling to sing notes below the stave, Francis can be something of a ‘seen and not heard’ presence in the choir stalls, so the TV format of Carols from King's suits him nicely. He can frequently be found running late to anything and everything, or held up outside the front gate of King's, trying to convince the college authorities that he does actually have a rehearsal and isn't intent on defacing their chapel (other than musically, that is).​

Jacob Partington

Arriving 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.

Alex Austin

Having 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
​

Matt Supramaniam - Musical Director

After 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 completed his undergraduate degree in History, Matt's attempts to cling onto the vestiges of student life range from wearing a variety of dubious colour combinations to altering his hair in ways no one thought possible or desirable. (He is also allegedly pursuing a master's in Film Studies.) 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.​

Tad Davies

Tad’s musical journey began at 5 years old when he had his first piano lesson, a memory which he still remembers 18years later. With two parents from a choral background (one of whom sang in King’s himself), it was not long until Tad found himself in a choristership at Norwich Cathedral at the age of 7 alongside which he began his flute lessons. Here, he went from strength-to-strength and was even involved in the recording of a rock opera (something which has thankfully never surfaced). Suitably equipped for a life of choral singing and having enjoyed Norwich so much, Tad spent his gap year in the exotic city of Norwich as a choral scholar at the Cathedral and a Music Gap Student at Norwich High School for Girls. This was then swiftly followed by a choral scholarship at Durham Cathedral alongside his degree where he also played flute in the University Orchestra. When Tad is not singing chorally or talking about Norwich, he can be found in front of a computer recording and producing music or making strange sounds with synthesisers–his big break could be just around the corner. Tad hopes that his time at King’s will prepare him for professional music and looks forward to creating high quality music both in the choir and The King’s Men. ​

David Bick

​Growing 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.

Ben Turner-Berry

​Hailing from the UK’s industrial gem, Coventry, Benedict began singing as a chorister in the Neo-Byzantine wonder that is Westminster Cathedral. Whilst mourning the loss of his treble tones, Benedict turned to the organ where he tried - unsuccessfully- to get to grips with the concept of multitasking. Benedict has since interloped to King’s where, alongside his penchant for ethnomusicology, he now enjoys not only the late perpendicular gothic style of the chapel, but also its acoustic which regularly hides his vocal blunders. His other interests include, football, squash (though his abilities are somewhat lacking), and the perusal of a liber usualis.

Harry Gant

Harry is a tenor in his first year, studying for a degree in music. He began singing as chorister in Oxford (a town which he’s unfortunate enough to call his home), at Magdalen College. After leaving the choir, Harry spent 5 years playing percussion in various orchestras, and cracking his way through hymns at his local parish church, before deciding to apply for a choral scholarship at King’s. Alongside his love of choral music, Harry is well-versed in close harmony singing, having founded an almost-award-winning barbershop quartet at school. Outside of music, Harry is a keen footballer, having been converted to a goalkeeper at a young age due to his inability to get to grips with the handball rule. 

Baritones
​

Binath Philomin - Musical Director

Binny is a Baritone in his third year, studying (in a loose sense of the word) for a degree in Classics. He is no stranger to collegiate choirs, 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 worked 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. He has a particular love of all things close-harmony, and enjoys writing new arrangements for the group. Alongside this, Binny has a passion for Renaissance music and enjoys engaging with musical outreach and education opportunities in his free time, working with organisations such as Tenebrae, The Rodolfus Foundation and the Gabrieli Consort. Outside of music, he loves his cooking (which is often questionable), classical mythology and most of all cricket – especially the Sri Lankan National Team. Ever the conversationalist, whether you bring up cricket or not, Binny delights in delivering 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… ​

Jack Harris

​Hailing 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.

Basses
​

Henry Brearley​ - Treasurer

Henry is enjoying his third 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. A study of the Laws of England and Wales has ensued, conjuring rose-tinted images of a career at the Bar (note, please, the use of the majuscule). When in more agreeable country, Henry enjoys hill-walking, mountaineering, drawing hillwalkers' and mountaineers' hills and mountains, and listening to BBC Radio 4. 

Paul Greally - Organ Scholar

Curiously, despite his early musical training in drumming and jazz piano, Paul eventually decided that only by learning the organ would he finally become cool. Soon after, he spent seven happy years as the organ scholar at Pinner Parish Church, where the clergy generously tolerated his musical antics (he once concluded a Sunday service with a boisterous rendition of the Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack). He is now a third-year music student and the organ scholar at King's, where such a blasé approach to the liturgy would not go down quite as well. He aspires to become the first organist in the choir's 500-year history to obtain a social life, and to help reach such lofty heights he joined the King's Men in his second year. Sadly, due to his perfect pitch, he is yet to be viewed as little more than a glorified tuning fork. In his spare time, he enjoys markedly non-strenuous cycling, writing wacky new arrangements for the ensemble, and reminding people that he is six foot four. 

Gabriel Brown

​​Gabriel is a third year Bass choral scholar at King’s, where he also studies Theology. He is no stranger to singing in ancient institutions: at the age of eight he became a chorister at Westminster Abbey (where he also developed a strange, atheistic obsession with collecting religious memorabilia). At King’s, Gabriel balances his time between cultivating his ever-growing collection of Jesus-shaped objects, his degree, singing and professional endeavours.

Mike Tuft

After doing his time as a chorister at the other place down the road, Mike is one of the new bass lay clerks this year. During his time studying Biomedical science at Anglia Ruskin, Mike worked as a microbiology analyst for SGS, but finding this wasn't for him (for the moment at least), he has swapped the lab coat for sunglasses, working as a lifeguard at the Jesus Green Lido during the day alongside singing at King's.  As a diehard fan of his local team Arsenal, he is constantly checking his fantasy team, and in his free time is found on the hockey or football pitch or memorising Central Cee lyrics.

Theo Gill

​Theo had the pleasure of studying music as an undergrad at Sidney Sussex College. It was here he unearthed a deep passion for choral music; such was his fervour for the genre that he decided to stay on an extra year after his degree finished, as a lay clerk at King’s. 

Next year may bring a number of things — a law conversion course in London he hopes, or a Masters degree at a Conservatoire, if he gets lucky. 

For now, he is content with spending the modicum of time he has outside of chapel in the library, brushing up upon postwar economic policy in Britain, or flogging away precious stones and gems — a part-time job of his — at a jewellery store in market square. (Graduate life has never looked so good!)