Dr Edward Wickham
Artistic Director, and Director of Music at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge

Dr Edward Wickham was appointed Director of Music at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge in 2003 and later became Fellow and Director of Studies in Music. In 2008 he formed the St Catharine’s Girls’ Choir, the first and only college-based choir for girls in the country.   He is also the Director of Gramophone Award-winning vocal group The Clerks.

Dr Wickham has been an Affiliate Lecturer at the Faculty of Music in Cambridge since 2006, where he delivers courses on Late Medieval and Renaissance music and its notation. He is Course Director of the MMus in Choral Studies, and chairs a working party on Choral Outreach.  His current research interest entails the examination of modes of text understanding and intelligibility within a range of choral repertories.

Educated at Oxford and King’s College, London, where he received his PhD for a study in 15th century sacred music, Dr Wickham has throughout his career maintained a busy schedule both as conductor and academic. Soon after leaving Oxford he established the vocal ensemble The Clerks, with which he has made over two dozen recordings, and received many plaudits including the Gramophone Early Music Award. As director of The Clerks, his recordings and performances of Renaissance repertoire have made a significant contribution to the understanding and appreciation of composers such as Ockeghem, Obrecht and Josquin Des Prez; and their innovative performances from manuscript facsimiles (notably a late-night BBC Proms performance) have done much to illuminate issues of period performance in Renaissance polyphony. He is equally engaged with contemporary music, commissioning new work from composers as diverse as Christopher Fox, Joanna Marsh, Robert Saxton and Stevie Wishart.

Sarah MacDonald
Director of Music at Selwyn College, Cambridge, and Director of the Girl Choristers at Ely Cathedral

Sarah MacDonald is a Fellow and Director of Music at Selwyn College, Cambridge, and Director of the Girl Choristers at Ely Cathedral. A Canadian organist, conductor, pianist, and composer, she has been at Selwyn since 1999, and is the first woman to hold such a post in an Oxbridge Chapel. She studied piano, organ, and conducting at The Royal Conservatory of Music’s Glenn Gould School in Toronto with Leon Fleisher, Marek Jablonski, and John Tuttle. She continued her studies as Organ Scholar of Robinson College, Cambridge, where she read for a degree in Music, and studied the organ with David Sanger. ​ 

Drew Sellis
Organ Scholar, Jesus College

Drew Sellis is the Senior Organ Scholar at Jesus College, Cambridge, where he is in his third year reading for a Music Tripos. He studies organ playing with Ann Elise Smoot and improvisation with David Briggs. His responsibilities include the accompanying of and rehearsal for the Chapel’s five sung services per week and assistance with the training of the choristers and probationers. He is also Harry Gabb Scholar and prize-winning Associate of the Royal College of Organists, achieving the highest overall mark in the country for his cohort. He has recently given recitals in Liverpool Cathedral and various Oxbridge Colleges.  

In addition to organ playing and choral direction, Drew is an experienced saxophonist and pianist in classical and jazz genres, holding an ARSM Diploma with Distinction in both. 

In his spare time, Drew enjoys perusing medieval music manuscripts, riding electric scooters, and baking.   

Christopher Too
Organ Scholar, Jesus College

Chris is in his final year at Cambridge, studying organ with Margaret Phillips alongside his music degree. He began organ lessons as a chorister at Bridlington Priory under the newly founded Dr Martin Clarke Young Organ Scholars Trust. He joined Ampleforth College with a music scholarship between 2013 and 2018, during which time he gained his ARCO. Chris subsequently spent a year as the Organ Scholar at Gloucester Cathedral under Adrian Partington where he regularly accompanied the numerous choirs of the Cathedral, as well as a number of local choral societies, and for part of the famous Three Choirs Festival.

Throughout the national lockdowns, Chris has played an integral part of the regular live streams from Jesus College, conducting and accompanying services, and providing music for the organ meditations and recitals when singing was prohibited. After graduation, Chris is looking forward to joining Salisbury Cathedral as Organ Scholar, playing for their daily services as well as assisting with the training of their choristers.

Helen Groves
Vocal tutor

Helen has enjoyed a varied and high level career as a solo and ensemble singer. Solo highlights include her BBC Proms’ debut in 1996 and recitals at Wigmore Hall and the Purcell Room. Her repertoire ranges from Schütz to Szymanowski, appearing with many leading orchestras abroad and in the UK – including English Chamber Orchestra, The English Concert, The Tallis Scholars, Gabrieli Consort and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.

Helen has lived in Cambridge for twenty years during which time she has built an extensive teaching practice, working at many of the leading University colleges. Her professional performance experience underpins her teaching, providing an invaluable perspective on the joys and frustrations of singing in a team. Helen’s teaching style is light but informative and choral scholars appreciate her uplifting and sympathetic approach.

She lives in central Cambridge with her husband and two girls and, when teaching from home, finds students arriving early for a quiet moment or two with Freddie, her calm and friendly Goldendoodle!

Rebecca Duckworth
Vocal tutor

A former Choral Scholar reading History at Christ’s College, Cambridge, Rebecca toured widely with the University Chamber Choir, making recordings for BBC television and radio and , later, singing at Salzburg, Paris and Edinburgh Festival’s with professional freelance choirs. Leading solo roles include Hansel (Hansel and Gretel), Dorabella (Cosi fan Tutte), Zerlina (Don Giovanni) Gilbert and Sullivan (Duchess of Plaza Toro, Lady Psyche) and Oratorio (The Messiah, Haydn’s Nelson Mass, Vivaldi’s Gloria, Rossini’s  Petite Messe Solennelle). 

Rebecca is singing teacher to the choristers of  Norwich Cathedral, delivering both individual and group training. She has worked on vocal research projects with the Institute of Education and has been guest conductor at youth choir festivals .  Previously Assistant Director of Music at King’s College School, Cambridge, Rebecca is ‘Singing Animateur’  at Ely Cathedral, directing  its children’s choir, giving training and conducting performances for teachers and children; she aims to de-mystify and to practically apply vocal technique to the repertoire at hand. She enjoys coaching across a full age range both with the experienced and inexperienced singer.

George Herbert
Organ Scholar, St John’s College

Born in Manchester in 2001, George’s passion for music was kindled in earnest when he started singing in Manchester Cathedral Choir aged nine. George is now the Assistant Organist at St John’s College, following three years as Organ Scholar there whilst studying German and Music. He accompanies the choir’s regular services, recordings and concerts, and assists in the training of the choristers. In 2021 he conducted St John’s College Choir in their Advent Carol Service, which was broadcast live on BBC Radio 3.

George is now building a varied freelance career as an organist, conductor and animateur. He directs Aquila, the all-female a cappella ensemble at St John’s. He has coached on the Oxford and Cambridge Singing School and enjoys regular collaborations with groups including Kantos Chamber Choir, the Armonico Consort, and funk band Lepage-Dean. In March he played for the Manchester premiere of Bernstein’s Mass with the Royal Northern College of Music.