Rutter, Chilcott & Millington
Soloists
Hariett Mountford
Soprano Harriet Mountford is a versatile performer, working in the areas of oratorio, consort music, recital song and historical performance. Harriet graduated from the University of York with a first class BA in Music. Prior to university, Harriet sang in the choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, under the direction of Judy Martin, and with the Charles Wood Singers, directed by David Hill. With both ensembles Harriet sang for BBC Radio 3 Choral Evensong broadcasts on numerous occasions. Whilst in Dublin, Harriet studied singing with Lynda Lee at the Royal Irish Academy of Music. Since graduating, Harriet has been studying singing and performance privately with Jane Highfield.
Ensemble engagements have included those with Nevill Holt Opera, Southern Sinfonia, the French ensemble Les Voix Animées, and Voces Sacrae under the direction of Judy Martin. She performs regularly as a guest soloist for choral societies across the UK. Recent engagements have included performing as the soprano soloist in a recording of Regards from Rochester (Thomas Hewitt-Jones) with the BBC Singers and the Royal Ballet Sinfonia, Messiah (Handel) with Henley Choral Society and the Nelson Mass (Haydn) with Wycliffe Choral Society. Harriet balances her singing career alongside being a primary school teacher with a passion for helping others bring music and singing into their classroom.
Tenor Soloist: Sam Dressel
Launched his solo career in 2019 after seven years singing as a full-time member of internationally-renowned vocal ensemble VOCES8. He began his singing career soon after graduating from Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge where he held a choral scholarship alongside his studies in French and Spanish.
Since then, he has toured extensively in Europe, Asia, America and Australia, and recorded regularly for the Decca Classics label.
Solo engagements in recent seasons include: Messiah at Truro Cathedral under Christopher Gray; Rossini Petite Messe Solenelle with Trinity School, Croydon; Messiah, Haydn Creation and Evangelist in Bach St John Passion, all with Academy of Ancient Music; Haydn Seven Last Words of our Saviour with Manchester Camerata, Bridgewater Hall; Bach B Minor Mass with Australian National Academy of Music, Melbourne; Mozart Requiem with O/Modernt Chamber Orchestra, King’s Place; and Monteverdi 1610 Vespers with Les Inventions, Milton Abbey Festival, Dorset. His recording of the Nunc Dimittis from Rachmaninov Vespers appears on the VOCES8 Decca Classics album Winter. His time with VOCES8 saw him perform in many of the most prestigious venues in the UK and abroad, including: Wigmore Hall, Royal Albert Hall, St John’s Smith Square, Cadogan Hall, King’s Place, Bridgewater Hall, Vienna Konzerthaus, Mariinsky Theatre Concert Hall, Oji Hall, Tokyo Opera City and Sydney Opera House - not to mention St Mary’s Church, Painswick. Festival appearances both at home and internationally include: BBC Proms, Three Choirs Festival (Hereford), St Magnus International Festival (Orkney), Schleswig-Holstein Festival, La Folle Journée (Nantes and Tokyo), and Morelia Festival (Mexico). Sam lives in Reading with his wife and two young sons. As well as his singing career, he is in demand as a workshop leader for choirs.
Music Director & Conductor
Peter Parshall - Music Director
Peter read Theology at, and was Organ Scholar of Westminster College, Oxford, from where he studied the organ with David Saint at the Birmingham Conservatoire. Having held church and cathedral posts in Oxford and Dublin, he is now based in Devon where he runs a private organ teaching practice and directs several choirs.
He worked for the Royal School of Church Music for many years, both in the UK and in Ireland, as an educator, examiner and facilitator, and was honoured recently with the award of Associate of the RSCM. Peter was the first Artistic Director of the new South Wessex Organ Society, and is currently Chapel Music Co-ordinator at Jesus College, Oxford.
He is an occasional composer, with works having been commissioned and recorded by choirs in the UK, Ireland and the USA, the co-editor of the choral anthology, Weddings for Choirs, published by Oxford University Press, and a contributor to the New Dictionary of National Biography.
Judy Martin - Conductor
Judy joined the staff of St Swithun’s School, Winchester in 2015 as an assistant housemistress, music teacher and conductor. She was previously head of music at The Abbey School, Reading, director of chapel music at Worcester College, Oxford and director of music at Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin.
Judy was an organ scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge, studying music and conducting. After graduating, she worked as an organist and conductor at Exeter College, The Queen’s College and at Christ Church Cathedral in Oxford. In 1989
she founded the nine-voice professional vocal ensemble, Voces Sacrae, a group she continues to direct, and which has appeared on BBC Radios 2, 3 and 4, on national television in Australia and has recorded and performed at venues both at home and abroad. In 2006 she was awarded an honorary ARSCM for her services to Church music.
Peter Lea-Cox ~ accompanist
Peter studied at the Royal Academy of Music before becoming Assistant Music Master at
Oundle School, Northants. In 1973 he returned to the R.A.M. where he combined administrative duties with teaching
keyboard skills, choral conducting and sight singing.
In 1987 he was appointed Cantor of the Lutheran Church of St. Anne and St. Agnes, near St. Paul's Cathedral. Here he completed performances of all the extant Bach Cantatas with the professional Lecosaldi Ensemble which he formed in 1976. Now resident near Shute, he is in demand as an organist, continuo player and teacher. He enjoys composition and spent the lockdown composing a set of twenty four keyboard fugues and has now embarked upon a second set! He continues to research into symbolism in the music of JS Bach.