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TOM HAMMOND-DAVIES is a prize winning choral conductor, studying with Paul Spicer. Since 2005 he has been Director of Music at the city church of Oxford, St Michael at the North Gate. He is also the founder and director of The Blenheim Singers at Blenheim Palace, the birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill. In addition, Tom is currently a countertenor Lay Clerk with the multiple Gramophone Award-winning Choir of New College, Oxford.

Previously, he was organ scholar at Hertford College, Oxford and countertenor Lay Clerk with MagdalenCollege, Oxford. He won the Birmingham Conservatoire Sir Michael Beech Conducting Award in 2011, and the 2010 Three Choirs Festival Conducting Masterclass.

He has recently been involved in a number of recording projects, particularly with the Birmingham Conservatoire Chamber Choir, a disc of James Macmillan and Kenneth Leighton which received glowing five-star reviews. Tom also recently made his solo debut as a countertenor with New College Choir and the Oxford Philomusica in the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford. As a conductor, he performed Handel’s Alexander’s Feast in the Turl Street Arts Festival, and has conducted concerts with The Blenheim Singers in Germany. In addition, he has recently completed a recording with the Choir of St Michael at the North Gate - an exciting disc of Walford Davies’ rarely performed Requiem and previously unrecorded works by Vaughan Williams and Paul Spicer (to be released September 2012).

Projects on the horizon as a conductor include the second series of Bach Cantatas at St Michael at the North Gate, and a Christmas performance of Handel’s Messiah at Blenheim Palace with The Blenheim Singers. As a singer, he will be recording Benjamin Britten’s choral works with New College Choir.

Since his first days as a choral conductor, his work has been consistently received with critical acclaim. His concerts in Germany with The Blenheim Singers prompted the President of the Bavarian Music Council to remark: “Under [his direction], the choir performs with artistic perfection combined with a rarely heard homogeneity - choral sound at its best!”. The Oxford Times also commented on a local performance: “[He] brought out dynamic contrasts with great care, culminating in the most exquisite [and] magnificent choral attack”.

The Director of Music, Tom Hammond-Davies is always pleased to hear of prospective singers to join the choir, including those who wish to join the deputy list. For further information please contact Tom by email at tomhammonddavies@gmail.com

 

 

 
St Michael at the North Gate, Cornmarket, Oxford, OX1 3EY