Sidney Sussex rose from the ruins of a Franciscan Friary in 1597 and has long been a nest for professional musicians. One of the earliest was the Royalist pamphleteer, author, and violist Roger L'Estrange (1616 - 1704), whose family were patrons of the composer John Jenkins. Earlier still, the great Elizabethan composer William Byrd would have been well-known to the foundress, Lady Frances Sidney; two very fine elegies by Byrd survive for her nephew, the poet and courtier Sir Philip Sidney.
The college now boasts one of the finest mixed choirs in Cambridge, which has recently made a niche in making professional recordings for specialist markets, including museums, art galleries, and national libraries.
The choir sings evensong during University terms, gives regular concerts and tours at home and abroad, and records for Classical Communications and Obsidian Records.
David Skinner is known primarily for his combined role as a researcher and performer of early music, and is Fellow and Director of Music at Sidney Sussex Collage, Cambridge, and an Affiliated Lecturer in the Faculty of Music. He teaches historical and practical topics from the mediaval and renaissance periods.
David is director of Alamire, a consort of some of the finest singers in the UK who specialize in historical performance, commercial recordings, and sountracks for film and television.
From 1989 to 2004 he was co-artistic director of the award-winning ensemble The Cardinall's Musick, with whom he had produced more than 25 recordings.
As a record producer he has been involved with a number of award-winning projects (including two Gramophone Awards and three runners up, Diapason d'Or, Deutche Schallplatten, and a Grammy nomination).
He has also served as academic advisor and music editor for a number professional vocal ensembles, including the Hilliard Ensemble, Tallis Scholars, The Sixteen, and several collegiate choirs in Oxford and Cambridge.
From 1997 to 2001 he was a Postdoctoral Fellow of the British Academy at Christ Church, Oxford (where he was a Choral Scholar from 1989 to 1994), and was the Lecturer in Music at Magdalen College, Oxford, from 2001 to 2006. At Cambridge he conducts the Choir of Sidney Sussex College, with whom he has toured and made professional recordings.
David has published widely on music and musicians of the early Tudor England, and his most recent projects include the collected works of Nicholas Ludford (Early English Church Music, 2003 & 2005) and The Arundel Choirbook (Duke of Norfolk: Roxburghe Club, 2003).
Jamal Sutton was a student at Magdalen College School, where he was organist under the direction of Malcolm Pearce and Bill Ives. He is currently the senior Organ Scholar at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge.
Sopranos:
Abigail Armstrong
Crace Capel
Heather Coleman
Elizabeth Dearnley
Miri Gellert (soloist in 3,5,7,11,13)
Anna Goldbeck-Wood,
Sarah Robbins (soloist in 5,11)
Pippa Woodrow.
Altos:
Sarah Bennion
Clare Buckley
Rachel Dilworth
Pamela Machala
Pippa Morton
Michelle Oyen
Emma Parnes
Jamal Sutton
Tenors:
Thomas Athorne
Robert Busch
Paul Kilbey
Lex Paulson
Basses:
Paul Eastham
James Freeman
Duncan Hewitt
Ronald Horgan
Copyright: Classical Communications Ltd.
The Choir of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge in Thomas Tomkins' 'These Distracted Times'
