Richard Smith (director) started training choirs in earnest as an undergraduate at the University of Birmingham
where he directed the University Chamber Choir. In 1995 he won an M.J. West Memorial Scholarship to study in Scandinavia
and in 1998 he was awarded the Royal College of Organists' prestigious John Brook Prize for Choir Directing. He took
his postgraduate studies on the harpsichord with Lars Ulrik Mortensen in Munich, and later on the organ with Harald Vogel
at the North German Organ Academy.
From 2001 to 2005 he was the organist at St Mary's Church in Stoke D'Abernon, home of the famous Frobenius instrument, where he gave over forty concerts and established the professional choir. In 2005 he was appointed Director of Music at the Church of the Most Holy Trinity in Reading and he conducts a number of amateur and professional ensembles in the South East of England.
Graham Wili (voice coach, Malvern & East of England courses) studied at
the Royal Northern College of Music. In May 2003, he made his conducting debut at the Royal Festival Hall
with a performance of Verdi’s Requiem. He returned to the Royal Festival Hall in May 2005 to
conduct Truly, Madly Mozart – a series of operatic excerpts and the C Minor Mass. He is
Principal Conductor of the Gaudeamus Orchestra and the Gaudeamus Chamber Orchestra. He is musical
director of Berkhamsted Choral Society, Chorleywood Choral Society and The Gaudeamus Singers.
In November last year the Gaudeamus Singers released their first CD, English Echoes, under his
direction and they recorded another CD for Litany Records. In addition, Graham regularly works with
the Lloyd’s choir on voice coaching and with the National Youth Choir of Wales.
Alongside his career as a conductor, Graham enjoys a busy concert schedule, singing regularly as a soloist and with the BBC National Chorus of Wales, European Voices, Collegium Musicum 90, Richard Hickox Singers and the Choir of the Enlightenment. He has sung with English National Opera Studio in a contemporary opera project, and also with Garsington Opera and Grange Park Opera.
Alistair Dixon (guest director) was born in 1961 and brought up in Ware, Hertfordshire. He was
educated as a music scholar at Millfield School in Somerset where he studied the violin and organ. He graduated from Liverpool University in 1982, having
continued his organ studies with Noel Rawsthorne and Ian Tracey.
After a spell as Director of Music at St Mary’s Ilkeston he became a Songman in the Cathedral Choir in Derby. In 1993 he was appointed a Gentleman in Ordinary at Her Majesty’s Chapel Royal where duties included singing the Sunday services at St James' Palace and providing the music for state occasions such as the Distribution of the Royal Maundy and the annual service of Remembrance at the Cenotaph. He is now a member of the choir at St George’s Cathedral, Southwark.
Alistair Dixon is chairman of the Renaissance Society and jointly runs the music publishing company The Cantiones Press and the record label Signum Records . He is the director and founder of the vocal group Chapelle du Roi.
Peter Wells (administrator) is an experienced administrator,
a renowned recorder player, co-director of Cecilia Editions and the Verger of St Mary's Church in
Stoke D'Abernon. Published writings include numerous CD booklet notes, concert critiques and reviews of new music publications,
as well as articles on the interpretation and performance of baroque and contemporary recorder music in several magazines.
He has given many enthusiastically received workshops and masterclasses in chamber music and interpretation of early music,
as well as in aspects of contemporary music for recorder, both in the UK and abroad.
Maria Sanger (administrative assistant) studied music at University College, Cardiff and undertook postgraduate
performance study at Trinity College, London, specializing in early music under Philip Thorby.
She runs an extensive teaching practice in London and Surrey and organizes several professional performance
ensembles including the chamber group Pellegrina and the Baroque music and drama group Punchinello.