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DAVID HILL MBE

Conductor

Renowned for his fine musicianship, David Hill is widely respected as both a choral and orchestral conductor. His talent has been recognised by his appointments as Musical Director of The Bach Choir, Music Director of Leeds Philharmonic Society, Associate Guest conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Principal Conductor of Yale Schola Cantorum. He was Chief Conductor of the BBC Singers from September 2007 to September 2017 and is a former Music Director of Southern Sinfonia. Born in Carlisle and educated at Chetham’s School of Music, of which he is now a Governor, he was made a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists. Having been Organ Scholar at St John’s College, Cambridge, David Hill returned to hold the post of Director of Music from 2004-2007. His other appointments have included Master of the Music at Winchester Cathedral, Master of the Music at Westminster Cathedral and Artistic Director of the Philharmonia Chorus. He holds an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Southampton for Services to Music.

 

DR BERTA JONCUS

Baroque Music Scholar

Berta Joncus is a Research Project Lead at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Prior to joining the Guildhall, she was a Reader in the Department of Music at Goldsmiths, University of London. Prior to joining Goldsmiths in 2009, Berta spent ten years at Oxford University, first as a DPhil student under the supervision of Reinhard Strohm and then as a post-doctoral research fellow and lecturer. Berta’s focus as a scholar has been on eighteenth-century vocal music and the star performer. Her monograph Kitty Clive, or The Fair Songster (2019) is a bold re-reading of Clive’s music as a medium of the singer-actor’s onstage artistry. Berta's 2020 edition for Bärenreiter of the 1762 pastiche opera Love in a Village is the first-ever critical hybrid score – that is, a bound publication with notes and digitized primary sources online – of an English work. More recently, pursuing her interest in lost and marginalised voices, Berta has started researching, writing and presenting on pre-1800 transatlantic Black music. Berta is a critic for BBC Music Magazine and a regular guest on BBC Radio 3, as well as a member of the Handel Institute Council and co-editor of Music & Letters.


 

LINDSAY KEMP

Baroque Festival Director

Founder and Artistic Director of the Baroque at the Edge Festival in London, Lindsay Kemp is also an Artistic Adviser to the York Early Music Festival, and was the founder-director of the London Festival of Baroque Music. For 30 years, he was a Producer for BBC Radio 3, where the many programmes he has made include Music Restored, Spirit of the Age, CD Review, Hear and Now, The Early Music Show and the award-winning Late Junction and Words and Music. Most recently, he had lead-producer responsibility for the Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert, and before that the Radio 3 New Generation Artist scheme. He has also worked as a freelance recording producer, and written widely on music, not only as a regular reviewer for Gramophone but also for publications such as The Guardian, BBC Music Magazine, Musical Times and Early Music.

 

CATHERINE MACKINTOSH

Baroque Violinist

A pioneer of early music, Catherine Mackintosh began playing the treble viol in consorts and translated this knowledge to the baroque violin and was a champion of the viola d'amore. She led a number of period-instruments orchestras, including the Academy of Ancient Music and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, which she co-founded. Catherine was also a founder member of the Purcell Quartet, with whom she recorded and performed around the world. She has taught generations of violinists, viol players and other instrumentalists at the Royal College of Music, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and the Royal Conservatoire The Hague. In 2020, Catherine received the York Early Music Festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award recognising major figures who have made a significant difference to the world of early music. 

 

JOSEPH MCHARDY

Conductor / Keyboardist

Joseph McHardy has been the Director of Music of HM Chapel Royal, St James’s Palace, since 2017. Born in Scotland to Congolese and English parents, he moved to London to study at the Royal Academy of Music, having graduated from the University of Edinburgh. On graduating from RAM with distinction, a last-minute vacancy on a production of Handel’s Alcina at the Komische Oper, Berlin, led Joseph to a decade of work in baroque opera as a keyboard player and conductor, working with companies such as English National Opera, Glyndebourne, Teatro Real (Madrid), Garsington Opera and English Touring Opera. As a continuo harpsichordist and organist, he appears on several award-winning recordings, and has performed with Chineke!, La Nuova Musica, Gabrieli, La Serenissima, Royal Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic and Royal Scottish National Orchestra, amongst others. He is based at City of London School, the choir school for Chapel Royal, where he also serves as Co-ordinator for Diversity and Inclusion. He is currently involved in editing for performance Vicente Lusitano’s 1555 collection of motets, which represents the earliest known music published in Europe by a person of African descent. (Photo © Nick Rutter)