Described as “phenomenal” (The Times) and “devastatingly beautiful” (Gramophone Magazine), award-winning choir Tenebrae is one of the world’s leading vocal ensembles, renowned for its passion and precision.

For purity and precision of tone, and flawless intonation, Nigel Short’s chamber choir Tenebrae is pretty much unbeatable.

– The Times

Under the direction of Nigel Short, Tenebrae performs at major festivals and venues across the globe, including the BBC Proms, Wigmore Hall, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Rheingau Musik Festival and Sydney Festival. The choir has earned international acclaim for its interpretations of choral music ranging from the Renaissance through to contemporary masterpieces, and it regularly commissions new music. Previous commissions have included works by Judith Bingham, Joanna Marsh, Owain Park, Josephine Stephenson, Joby Talbot and Roderick Williams. Tenebrae has enjoyed collaborations with some of the UK’s leading orchestras, appearing alongside the London Symphony Orchestra, Aurora Orchestra, the Academy of Ancient Music and Britten Sinfonia. The choir also produces an annual Holy Week Festival in partnership with St John’s Smith Square, London.

Choral development is central to Tenebrae’s ethos, and through its Associate Artist Programme it provides crucial training and performance opportunities to young professional singers. Alongside its performance and recording schedule, the choir also runs a thriving Learning & Connection programme which encompasses partnerships with Music Centre London and London Youth Choirs, Tenebrae Effect workshops with amateur choirs, and its newest programme Singing Schools. Run in partnership with Ealing Music Service, Singing Schools aims to embed a long-lasting singing culture in local schools which might otherwise face barriers to music-making.

A concert by the British choir Tenebrae is more than a performance. It’s an experience that envelops the audience… this is one of the best choirs in the world.

– St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Tenebrae’s ever-increasing discography has brought about collaborations with Signum, Decca Classics, Deutsche Grammophon, EMI Classics, LSO Live and Warner Classics. In 2012 Tenebrae was the first-ever ensemble to be multi-nominated in the same category for the BBC Music Magazine Awards, securing the accolade of ‘Best Choral Performance’ for the choir’s recording of Victoria’s Requiem Mass, 1605. In 2016 Tenebrae received its second BBC Music Magazine Award for a recording of Brahms and Bruckner Motets, the profits from the sale of which benefit Macmillan Cancer Support. In 2018, the choir received its first Grammy nomination for its album of part songs from the British Isles, Music of the Spheres.

Signum’s current roster includes many excellent ensembles but the choral jewel in the crown is surely Tenebrae – Nigel Short’s outstanding chamber choir.

– Gramophone Magazine

‘Passion and Precision’ are Tenebrae’s core values. Through its continued dedication to performance of the highest quality, Tenebrae’s vision is to inspire audiences around the world through dramatic programming, flawless performances and unforgettable experiences.

BBC Singers Chief Conductor David Hill Principal Guest Conductors Paul Brough and Bob Chilcott Conductor Laureate Stephen Cleobury Associate Composer Judith Weir The BBC Singers hold a unique position in British musical life. Performing everything from Byrd to Birtwistle, Tallis to Takemitsu, their versatility is second to none. The choir’s unrivalled expertise in performing the best of contemporary music has brought about creative relationships with some of the most important composers and conductors of the 20th and 21st centuries, including Poulenc, Britten, Judith Bingham and Sir Peter Maxwell Davies.
Following a successful 90th anniversary season, the BBC Singers’ 2015-16 season is as thrilling and diverse as ever. A third season of concerts in London’s newest concert venue, Milton Court Concert Hall, includes Monteverdi’s Vespers with I Fagiolini, Handel’s Saul with a host of first-rate soloists, a magical presentation of Dylan Thomas’s A Child’s Christmas in Wales led by Chief Conductor David Hill and a poignant concert remembering the battle of the Somme. The Singers at Six series of early-evening concerts in the atmospheric surroundings St Giles’ Cripplegate continues with American Songs and music by Elgar, Judith Bingham and James MacMillan.
Based at the BBC’s Maida Vale Studios, the BBC Singers also give free concerts at St Paul’s Knightsbridge, as well as appearing at major festivals across the UK and beyond.
This world-class ensemble is committed to sharing its enthusiasm and creative expertise through its nationwide outreach programme. This includes frequent collaborations with schoolchildren, youth choirs and the amateur choral community, as well as with the professional composers, singers and conductors of tomorrow.

Gabrieli are a choir and period instrument orchestra founded and led by Artistic Director Paul McCreesh. We perform and record great choral, vocal and instrumental repertoire from the renaissance to the present day for the widest possible audience, cultivating an international reputation for excellence, innovation and ambition. Our mission is to educate the public, in every sense – to be standard bearers for the highest quality of performance, to explain, illustrate and illuminate the guiding principles behind our performance ideals and to offer first-class performance opportunities to young people through our bold and ambitious education programme, Gabrieli Roar.
Gabrieli’s interpretations strive to recreate the original performances of musical works as far as possible, in the belief that historical performance ideals and knowledge of the old world are essential for creating music anew. We seek to engage with and to explore the links between music from all periods. Through lively music-making, committed research and the production of ground-breaking recordings, Gabrieli’s mission is to challenge common and accepted perceptions of classical music, and to re-invigorate and innovate in order to sustain the relevance of these great pieces of art in the twenty-first century.

Ex Cathedra is a leading UK choir and Early Music ensemble with a repertoire that reaches from the 12th to the 21st centuries. We are known for our passion for seeking out the best, the unfamiliar and the unexpected in the choral repertoire and for giving dynamic performances underpinned by detailed research.
Founded in 1969 by Jeffrey Skidmore, the group has grown into a unique musical resource, comprising specialist chamber choir, vocal Consort, period-instrument orchestra and a thriving education programme, aiming to explore, research and commission the finest choral music and to set the highest standards for excellence in performance and training.
We present a series of concerts in Birmingham, where we are a resident ensemble at Town Hall & Symphony Hall, across the Midlands, and in London. We also enjoy invitations to appear at festivals and concert series across the UK and abroad. There have been collaborations with Fretwork viol consort, The City Musick, His Majestys Sagbutts & Cornetts, Concerto Palatino, Birmingham Opera Company, Sinfonia New York, the CBSO, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Quebecois dance company Cas Public, the Shakespeare Institute, and the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.
‘Cathedra’ is the name for a bishop’s throne, and a cathedral is the building that houses that throne. When Jeffrey Skidmore and one of the founding members of the choir were choosing a name for the new group in 1969, they chose Ex Cathedra because it literally means ‘from the throne’ or in English usage ‘with authority’. At the time, Jeffrey and several members of the choir sang at Birmingham Cathedral. The pun was attractive, but researching and understanding the repertoire so that it can be performed with authority, style and passion has been a guiding principle since those first performances.

With a sound hailed as ‘unspeakably beautiful‘ by Gramophone, the Rodolfus Choir has established itself firmly over a period of thirty years as one of the leading young choirs in the United Kingdom; during which time they have developed a lasting reputation for their commitment to the very highest level of musicality. Comprising some of the finest young singers in the country, its members are all alumni of the famous Eton Choral Courses. Conducted by their founder Ralph Allwood, the fresh and vibrant sound of the choir is a reflection of their profound sensitivity to dynamic contrast, blend and phrasing. The group have become renowned for their imaginative programming, their innovative and exciting performances, as well as for their extensive array of prestigious recordings.

Founded in 1836, the Huddersfield Choral Society has developed an international reputation as one of the UK's leading choral societies.

The Society's busy schedule is centred on its own subscription concert season in Huddersfield Town Hall, including its annual performances of Messiah. The choir also performs in other major concert venues in the UK and abroad, it regularly broadcasts for BBC radio and television, and has a long history of pioneering recordings.

Jeffrey Skidmore’s reputation as one of the UK’s leading choral directors and an ardent advocate of the importance of singing in people’s lives today is rooted in his work with Ex Cathedra, the ensemble he founded over 45 years ago.

Jeffrey’s driving passion has been to refresh and reinvigorate the choral repertoire and to make it accessible to as many people as possible. He and Ex Cathedra have long been known for exciting and innovative but always attractive programming, underpinned by thorough research and preparation.

Jeffrey is a pioneer in the field of research and performance of choral works of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, both in the old and new worlds, and has won wide acclaim for his recordings of French and Latin American Baroque music with Ex Cathedra.

With Ex Cathedra, Jeffrey has commissioned more than thirty new works and conducted many world premieres by composers including Sally Beamish, Fyfe Hutchins, Gabriel Jackson, John Joubert, James MacMillan, Roxanna Panufnik, Alec Roth, Daryl Runswick, Peter Sculthorpe, Philip Shepherd, Peter Wiegold and Roderick Williams.

He has also worked with other ensembles including the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Aalborg Sinfoniorkester, the Irish Baroque Orchestra, Sinfonia New York, and the BBC Singers.

In the field of opera he has worked with Birmingham Opera Company; Welsh National Opera; Marc Minkowski and David McVicker on the 2004 production of Semele at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris; and has given the first performances in modern times of the French Baroque operas Zaïde by Royer and Isis by Lully.

Jeffrey is Artistic Director of the Early Music programme at Birmingham Conservatoire, and is a regular contributor to the choral programme at Dartington International Summer School and to a wide range of choral workshops and summer schools at home and abroad.

Stephen Cleobury has for over thirty years been associated with one of the world’s most famous choirs, that of King’s College, Cambridge. His work at King’s has brought him into fruitful relationships with many leading orchestras and soloists, among them the Academy of Ancient Music, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Philharmonia, Britten Sinfonia, the BBC Concert Orchestra, and the distinguished ensemble, Endymion, and he has worked with many artists - singers and instrumentalists - of international repute. He complements and refreshes his work in Cambridge through the many other musical activities in which he engages.

Described by the Observer newspaper as “a contemporary hero of British choral music”, Bob Chilcott has grown up immersed in the choral tradition of his country. He grew up as a chorister and choral scholar at King’s College, Cambridge, and after singing professionally in London and also as a member of the vocal group the King’s Singers for a number of years, he became a full-time composer in 1997. He has embraced his career with energy and commitment, not only producing a large catalogue of music for all types of choirs, but also working with singers and choirs in more than 30 countries.
It was perhaps through his many works for young singers that he first came to prominence as a composer, prompting some large-scale performances of his pieces, particularly Can you hear me? in BC Place in Vancouver in 2001 with 2000 singers and at the Estonian Song Festival in 2004 with 7000 young singers. Thied to several other large-scale projects including notably The Angry Planet, written for David Hill and The Bach Choir for the 2012 BBC Proms, which was performed by The Bach Choir, The National Youth Choir, The BBC Singers and 200 primary school children from London.
He has written a number of substantial sacred works including Salisbury Vespers (2009), St John Passion (2013) for Wells Cathedral Choir, and his Requiem (2010) which has now been performed in over 16 countries. In 2013 he wrote The King shall rejoice for the service at Westminster Abbey to celebrate the 60th Anniversary of the coronation of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
In June 2014 he began an 18-month term as composer-in-residence for the Washington DC-based choir Choralis as part of their 15th anniversary season celebrations. The season features a number of his works and concludes with the première of Gloria in December 2015.
Over the past 18 years Bob has worked with many thousands of singers in Britain through a continuing series of Singing Days throughout the country. Between 1997 and 2004 he was conductor of the choir of The Royal College of Music in London, and since 2002 he has been Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Singers.
His music has been recorded extensively and there are a number of albums dedicated to his music, including “Man I Sing” (2007), “Making Waves” (2008), “Requiem” (2012), “The Seeds of Stars” (2012), “Everyone Sang” (2013), “The Rose in the Middle of Winter” (2013), and “St John Passion” (2015). His music has been recorded by many leading British choirs and ensembles including The Sixteen, The Cambridge Singers, Tenebrae, The BBC Singers, The Choir of Wells Cathedral, The Choir of King’s College, Cambridge, and The King’s Singers.

Paul McCreesh is the founder and Artistic Director of the Gabrieli Consort & Players which he established in 1982 and with whom he has toured world-wide and made many award-winning recordings. McCreesh is well-known for the energy and passion that he brings to his music-making, and he is especially enthusiastic about working with young musicians, broadening access to classical music. He works regularly with youth orchestras and choirs and is active in building new educational initiatives whenever possible.
McCreesh has conducted many of the major orchestras and choirs across the globe, including the Leipzig Gewandhaus, Bergen Philharmonic, Royal Northern Sinfonia, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Sydney Symphony, Verbier Festival Orchestra and Berlin Konzerthausorchester. McCreesh also enjoys regular and ongoing collaborations with Saint Paul and Basel Chamber Orchestras. In 2018-19 he conducts Elgar and Brahms for Kammerakademie Potsdam, Mendelssohn and Britten for Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, and Handel for Symphonique de Montréal, alongside appearances with Filharmonia Poznanska and MDR Radio Symphony.
From 2013-2016 he was Principal Conductor and Artistic Adviser of the Gulbenkian Orchestra (Lisbon) with whom he conducted a wide range of music from the classical period through the 19th and 20th centuries, focusing in particular on symphonic repertoire, oratorio and opera in concert, working closely with the world-renowned Gulbenkian Choir.
McCreesh has established a strong reputation in the opera house and has conducted productions at the Teatro Real Madrid, Royal Danish Opera, Opera Comique, Vlaamse Opera and at the Verbier Festival. Most recently he conducted Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Bergen Opera, and returned to Vlaamse Opera for a production of Idomeneo.
In 2011 McCreesh launched his own record label, Winged Lion, in collaboration with the Gabrieli Consort & Players, Signum Classics and the Wratislavia Cantans Festival, where he was Artistic Director from 2006-2012. To date they have made ten recordings, most recently A Rose Magnificat, music dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary from the Renaissance to the present day, released in May 2018 and lauded by critics: “Captivating … imaginative … ambitious” (Financial Times), “the superlative Gabrieli Consort give a formidably encompassing performance” (BBC Music Magazine), “pristine: carefully balanced and always cleanly tuned” (Gramophone). Other highlights include Haydn The Seasons, Britten War Requiem (BBC Music Magazine Award 2014), Mendelssohn Elijah (Diapason d’Or Award 2013), Berlioz’s gargantuan Grande Messe des Morts (BBC Award 2012), and a reworking of his earlier Gabrieli disc, A New Venetian Coronation 1595 (Gramophone Award 2013).

James Vivian has been part of the music department at the Temple Church since 1997 and was appointed Director of Music & Organist of the Temple Church in 2006. Previously, he worked closely with the then Director of Music, Stephen Layton, as Sub-Organist and subsequently as Organist. At the Temple Church, James presides over the famous four-manual Harrison & Harrison organ and directs the professional choir of men and boys about whom the Daily Telegraph commented, ‘The Temple Church Choir is a formidable force, finely honed and blended’. The choir’s latest CD was released on the Signum label in 2010. As an organist, he is known as much for his outstanding interpretation of the solo repertoire as for his colourful and inventive accompanying; he is one of England’s most sought-after young organists. James Vivian was educated at King’s College, Cambridge where, for four years, he worked closely with its world-famous choir as organ scholar. Before Cambridge, he was acting-Assistant Organist. of Lincoln Cathedral. He was a prize-winner in the Fellowship examination of the Royal College of Organists, and was awarded a scholarship to study the French organ repertoire with Marie-Louise Langlais in Paris. James has appeared in many Festivals (including the BBC Proms, Aldeburgh, The Three Choirs Festival, the Lincoln Festival in New York City, and Festivals in Bermuda, Germany and Italy), and has played recitals and concerts throughout the world (including Japan, Brazil, South Africa, USA, and Europe). He has broadcast on many national radio stations as a soloist, and has recorded with labels such as Decca, Priory, Signum, Sony BMG, EMI and Hyperion. James has also been an examiner for the The Royal College of Organists.
James was Artistic Adviser to the hugely successful year-long 2008 Temple Festival; highlights included conducting a new and fully-staged production of Dido & Aeneas in London which was highly praised: ‘…an uncommonly satisfying, very beautiful account of Dido and Aeneas’ (Opera). He is co-founder of two professional instrumental ensembles, The Temple Players and Temple Brass, as well as the Temple Singers, with whom he presents concerts at the Temple Church.