The Parish Church of St John-at-Hampstead

Music Who’s Who

Geoffrey Webber
Director of Music

Geoffrey Webber is an organist, conductor and music historian. In addition to his work at Hampstead he is General Editor of the Church Music Society and Associate Artistic Director of Armonico Consort. His musical education began as a chorister at Salisbury Cathedral and he read music at Oxford University, initially serving as Organ Scholar at New College under Edward Higginbottom. He later became Assisting Organist at Magdalen College and University Organist, and also served as Acting Organist for spells at both New College and Magdalen. As a doctoral student he researched music of the German Baroque period, and his publications in this area include North German Church Music in the Age of Buxtehude (OUP 1996) and a web-based resource for the Royal College of Organists on Buxtehude’s organ music. He is also the co-editor of The Cambridge Companion to the Organ (CUP 1998), a general study of the history and repertoire of the instrument, and his most recent publication is a study of early Anglican church music for a German music encyclopedia.

From 1989-2019 he worked in Cambridge as Precentor and Director of Studies in Music at Gonville & Caius College, releasing many CD recordings with the Caius choir of varied repertoire from first-millenium chant to music by contemporary composers such as Judith Weir and Julian Anderson (mainly on the Delphian label). During this time he also taught extensively for the Faculty of Music, and from 2011-19 he served as Course Principal and Director of the MMus degree in Choral Studies which he helped establish, which attracted students from all over the world. As an organ recitalist he enjoys performing a wide range of repertoire (recent venues include Bradford Cathedral, St John’s College, Cambridge, and St Michael’s Cornhill where he performed Petr Eben’s dramatic cycle Faust) and he has also composed a chorale prelude for The Orgelbüchlein Project (which recently completed a task left unfinished by J.S. Bach) drawing inspiration from the music of Arnolt Schlick and György Kurtág.

Joshua Ryan
Organist

Australian organist and accompanist, Joshua Ryan, is quickly establishing a reputation as a performer of great virtuosity and interpretive range. Joshua is a prizewinning graduate of the Royal Academy of Music, where he studied as a Bicentenary Scholar under the tutelage of Professor David Titterington. He is establishing himself as one of his generation’s most exciting interpreters of Olivier Messiaen’s organ works, having performed almost all of Messiaen’s religious suites and standalone works. Joshua is currently Organist and Assistant Director of Music of Hampstead Parish Church, Organist of St. Sepulchre-without-Newgate in the City of London, and accompanist of Dulwich Choral Society.

Joshua’s musical interests are diverse and wide ranging. He has worked across Europe and Australia as a soloist, accompanist, and continuo player with a vast array of conductors, singers, choirs, and ensembles including the Academy of Ancient Music, London Mozart Players, Sydney Chamber Choir, Allegri Ensemble, Philippe Herreweghe, John Butt, Rachel Podger, Edward Gardner, Susan Landale, David Ponsford, Hans Davidsson, Eamonn Dougan, Nicky Spence, and Nicholas Mullroy. In 2022 Joshua made his debut performance at Wigmore Hall with the Academy Baroque Soloists under the direction of Rachel Podger.

Joshua has also featured on four critically acclaimed discs as the accompanist with the Choir of the Royal Hospital Chelsea and William Vann recorded for the SOMM and Albion labels. Reviews by BBC Radio 3 have described his accompanying as “wonderful and beautiful” and “full of colour.” Joshua is also immensely passionate about premiering and recording new commissions for organ, having been involved in the Royal Academy of Music’s RAM200 project where he worked with composers Morgan Hayes and Louise Drewett on their commissions celebrating the bicentenary of this institution.

Alongside Joshua’s performing, he is also actively involved in musical research. He is the curator of The Mulliner Project, a significant research project on the reinterpretation of the music of The Mulliner Book on a range of historical and modern instruments. The focal point of this project is a collection of recordings exploring different interpretations of little known works by early English composers. For more information you can visit themullinerproject.com to read about and listen to the project.

Throughout his studies and career Joshua has received numerous prizes and awards. He is a Bicentenary Scholar of the Royal Academy of Music, a holder of the prestigious DipRAM award, one of only two organists to receive The University of Sydney’s University Medal, a Tait Memorial Trust awardee, and an Australia Council for the Arts awardee.

Aidan Coburn
Director of the Junior Choir,
Director of the Community Choir and Tenor

Aidan Coburn was educated at the London Oratory School and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he read music. As a young tenor, Aidan held choral scholarships with the Oratory Schola, St George’s Cathedral Southwark, Lichfield Cathedral and Caius College Choir, during which period he a sang as a soloist several times on BBC Radio (In Tune, Choral Evensong and The Early Music Show). Aidan has also sung extensively as a soloist around Cambridge and London (recently including Mozart’s Requiem, Haydn’s Creation, Tippet’s A Child of Our Time, Elgar’s The Kingdom, Britten’s St Nicholas and Finzi’s Dies Natalis) and continues to combine solo work with singing with several London church and Cathedral choirs, and is a regular singer in Hampstead Parish Church Choir. Aidan is currently studying at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama under the tutelage of Julian Gavin.

Whilst at university, Aidan started to combine singing with conducting, and has gained much experience in the symphonic and choral repertoire. In his second year he founded the Caius Consort, which specialised in performing music of the Baroque and then, in his final year, Shadwell Opera Company. With Shadwell Aidan has conducted several performances of operas (most notably Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte, The Magic Flute and Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream) in Cambridge and at Edinburgh Fringe Festival, where the Magic Flute won 5 star awards in several national papers and the coveted Herald Angel Award. Whilst working at the London Oratory School, Aidan was Acting Director of the London Oratory School Schola and is now the conductor of the Colla Voce Singers.

Members of the Choir

Ruairi Bowen

Tenor

A finalist in the International Handel Singing Competition in 2020, Ruairi Bowen is much in demand as an interpreter of Baroque repertoire in the UK and abroad, collaborating with some of the leading conductors in the field including Emmanuelle Haïm and Stephen Layton. An experienced Evangelist of J.S. Bach’s Passions, he made his debuts at Bachfest Leipzig and Snape Maltings with Solomon’s Knot, with whom he most recently sang Bach’s Weihnachts-Oratorium at London’s Wigmore Hall. Other engagements have included Bach’s B Minor Mass with the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra, the St John Passion with both the Adelaide & Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras, as well as for the annual Good Friday performance with Polyphony and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. 

​Equally at home with larger-scale symphonic works, he sang in the world premiere & recording of Stanford’s Mass Via Victrix with the BBC National Orchestra & Chorus of Wales and Adrian Partington, Dvorak Requiem with the Philharmonia Orchestra at the Three Choirs Festival, Mendelssohn’s Elijah in Worcester Cathedral, Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with Ben Palmer/Covent Garden Sinfonia and Vaughan Williams’ A Cotswold Romance with the Lebanese Philharmonic Orchestra. He performed Finzi’s Dies Natalis, Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn & Strings and Verdi’s Messa da Requiem for the first time in 2023.

On the operatic stage, he will make his stage debut at English National Opera this autumn as Earl Tolloller in Gilbert& Sullivan’s Iolanthe. He sang Prologue/Quint in Britten’s The Turn of the Screw at Barnes Music Festival and took on multiple roles in Purcell’s The Indian Queen with Le Concert d’Astrée at l’Opera de Lille. He returned to Barnes Music Festival to sing Satvayān in Holst’s Savitri and featured in Sivan Eldar’s Like Flesh at Opéra national de Montpellier. He was an Emerging Artist for Longborough Festival Opera 2022 singing Vistola Fiume in F. Caccini’s La liberazione di Ruggiero dall’isola di Alcina and reprised The Indian Queen in Caen, Antwerp and Luxembourg during the 2022 / 2023 season. Recent engagements included staged performances of Die Schöpfung at Lithuanian National Opera; First Armed Man Die Zauberflöte with Scottish Chamber Orchestra at Edinburgh International Festival; Jim Cocks Robinson Crusoe for West Green House Opera and Cyril Princess Ida with Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.

A graduate of King’s College, Cambridge, Ruairi was invited to sing on Proud Songsters, an album of English Solo Song recorded with pianist Simon Lepper, featuring distinguished former members of the world-famous chapel choir. Growing up in the Welsh Marches, Ruairi developed a keen interest in exploring the integrated relationship between poetry and nature through pastoral song with recent highlights including a recital on Innocence & Experience with Anna Tilbrook, performing Tippett’s Cantata Boyhood’s End and Finzi’s A Young Man’s Exhortation for Finzi Friends at Ashmansworth. He also performed on themes of The Games & Battles of Love for Recitals at Raynham and The Grange Festival, featuring Monteverdi Songs of Court directed by Michael Chance. 

During the live music hiatus in 2020/21, Ruairi was a Support Worker for the Children’s Section of the British Refugee Council, and formed part of The Hampstead Collective. His membership of the church choir continues a familial link to Hampstead that goes back to 1958. At one point or another, his Grandfather, both parents and Uncle have contributed to the musical life of the church and all remember former Director of Music Martindale Sidwell and his wife Barbara with fondness and gratitude.

Christine Buras

Soprano

Soprano Christine Buras has been praised for her rich lyrical timbre, dynamic stage presence, and fearless approach to 20th and 21st century repertoire. Equally at home on operatic and concert stages, Christine’s repertoire spans from Baroque chamber music, to the operas of Verdi and Strauss, to contemporary performance art. Having grown up in Washington, DC, she has been based in London, UK since 2013, where she enjoys a busy career as an emerging artist. Christine’s operatic roles include Contessa Almaviva (Mozart Le Nozze di Figaro), Gretel (Humperdinck Hänsel und Gretel), Helmwige (Wagner Die Walküre), Erste Dienerin (Strauss Die Ägyptische Helena), Suor Dolcina (Puccini’s Suor Angelica), Hélène (Chabrier’s Une Éducation Manquée), Lucy (Menotti’s The Telephone), Theodora (Handel’s Theodora). In concert she has been a frequent soloist at St. Martin-in-the-Fields and St. John Smith Square in works including the Bach St. John Passion, St. Matthew Passion, and B minor mass; Handel Messiah, Dixit Dominus, Judas Maccabaeus, and Samson; Mozart Exsultate jubilate, Requiem, and C minor mass; Haydn Creation; Brahms Ein deutsches Requiem; Mendelssohn Elijah; and the Verdi Requiem. This season Christine made her debut with Merry Opera in their immersive production of Handel’s Messiah, returns to Regent’s Opera as Fiordiligi in Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte, and performed the title role in Handel’s Theodora with the Hampstead Collective. When she’s not singing, Christine enjoys knitting jumpers and hosting fabulous dinner parties.

Eoghan Desmond

Baritone

Eoghan Desmond is a baritone from Cork. His oratorio repertoire includes Elijah, Die Erste Walpurgisnacht (Mendelssohn) Messiah, Alexander’s Feast(Handel), St Matthew Passion, St John Passion, B Minor Mass, Magnificat, Christmas Oratorio (J.S. Bach), Der Tod Jesu (Graun), Hodie, Fantasia on Christmas Carols (Vaughan Williams)and the Requiems of Brahms, Duruflé, Fauré, Howells, Mozart and Verdi.

Outside of his singing work, Eoghan is a sought-after choral composer. Recent commissions include a song cycle entitled New Light, and Nothing in Vain, which can be heard on a recently released disc from The Sixteen.

Eoghan holds a PhD in Composition from The University of Aberdeen.

James Geidt

Baritone

Born in Northampton, James Geidt is a recent graduate from the Opera Course at the Royal Academy of Music where he studied with Glenville Hargreaves and Jonathan Papp, having previously completed his Masters with Distinction at the RAM.  Prior to this, James was a Choral Scholar in the choir at New College, Oxford.

As a student at the Royal Academy of Music, James was a soloist for the RAM/Kohn Foundation Bach Cantata Series and was a finalist in the 2019 Richard Lewis/Jean Shanks award. James won the Joan Chissell Schumann Lieder Competition in 2016.

Operatic roles to date include Gaspar in Donizetti’s Rita for Opera South, The Sorceress in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas for the Vache Baroque Festival, Papageno in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, Le Comte in Massenet’s Chérubin, Forester in Janacek’s The Cunning Little Vixen, L’horloge Comtoise and Le Chat in Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges and Cadmus in Handel’s Semele all for Royal Academy Opera.  In 2021 James joined Garsington Opera as one of their Alvarez Young Artists.

In concert, James has appeared at the Birmingham Symphony Hall, St John’s Smith Square, Palau de la Música Catalana, Cadogan Hall and the Three Choirs Festival.

Current and future engagements include Handel’s Messiah at the Auditorio Nacional de Musica, Madrid for Edward Higginbottom, J.S. Bach’s St John Passion in Hereford Cathedral, Fauré Requiem in Exeter Cathedral, Mendelsohn’s Elijah for the Amersham Music Festival and Vaughan Williams’ Five Mystical Songs in Gloucester Cathedral.  In 2022, James returns to Garsington Opera as an Alvarez Young Artist where he will be covering the role of the Hunter in Dvořák’s Rusalka.

Jessica Gillingwater

Mezzo-Soprano

London born mezzo soprano Jessica Gillingwater studies with David Pollard and is a member of the BBC Singers and Exaudi. Recent operatic highlights include the roles of Eve in A Kind Man by Jonathan Finney, Sorceress in Dido and Aeneas with the BBC Singers, Lavinia in the Errollyn Wallen’s Dido’s Ghost at with Dunedin Consort at Buxton International Festival. On the concert platform Jessica’s recent performances include Berg’s Sieben Frühe Lieder with the South East London Orchestra, Bernstein’s Jeremiah symphony with the BBC Symphony Orchestra at Saffron Hall, Duruflé’s Requiem with Stephen Cleobury and the BBC Concert Orchestra at King’s College Cambridge and Mrs Noye in Britten’s Noye’s Fludde with Martyn Brabbins at Southwark Cathedral.

Jessica also has a keen interest in contemporary music and has recently performed Boulez’s Le Marteau Sans Maître and Ligeti’s Aventures and Nouvelles Aventures with the Psappha Ensemble at Hallé St Peter’s. Jessica has recently established a song recital series, “Proud Songsters” highlights of which have included Schumann’s Frauenliebe und Leben, Elgar’s Sea Pictures, Berlioz’s Les nuits d’été and Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder. Jessica’s oratorio repertoire includes Handel’s Messiah, Elgar’s Apostles and Dream of Gerontius; Bach’s Passions and B Minor Mass; Mendelssohn’s Elijah; Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle and Stabat Mater and Verdi’s Requiem.

Jessica also performs regularly with ensembles including Dunedin Consort, Solomon’s Knot, and The Marian Consort.

Rebecca Hardwick

Soprano

Rebecca read Music at the University of York, before studying at the Royal College of Music. She then completed the Opera Works course at English National Opera, and was an Apprentice with the Monteverdi Choir 2014-2015. 

Recent operatic highlights include sabella in L’inganno Felice (Rossini, Wexford Festival Opera) Belinda (cover) in Dido’s Ghost (Dunedin Consort), First Bridesmaid in Le nozze di Figaro (Royal Opera House Covent Garden), Victorian in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Will Todd, Linbury Theatre, Royal Opera House), and Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos. She performed in the ensemble for the world premiere of Sciarrino’s ‘Venere e Adone’ at Staatsoper Hamburg, and a number of productions with Bergen National Opera, including Wagner’s ‘Parsifal’. Her recent concert appearances include Dyson’s ‘Quo Vadis’ at the Three Choirs Festival in Hereford Cathedral, Haydn’s ‘Creation’ in the Southern Cathedrals Festival in Salisbury Cathedral, and Handel’s ‘Messiah’ in Tewkesbury Abbey. Handel’s ‘Messiah’ with the CBSO at Birmingham’s Symphony Hall, Verdi ‘Requiem’ with the English Festival Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall, and Howells ‘Hymnus Paradisi’ with the British Sinfonia in Gloucester Cathedral

As an ensemble singer, Rebecca appears internationally and on multiple recordings with the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestras, and was nominated by Sir John Eliot Gardiner for the Joaninha award. She is a Guest Artist with the Edvard Grieg Kor in Bergen, Norway, performing a series of concerts conducted by Ed Gardner. 

Rebecca is an advocate for contemporary repertoire, and has performed Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire at the RCM, Stockhausen’s ‘In the sky I am walking’ in Germany and the UK, Thomas Adès’ ‘Five Eliot Landscapes’ and ‘Life Story’ at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. She is currently a doctoral candidate at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, studying György Kurtág’s ‘Kafka Fragments’.

Rebekah Jones

Mezzo Soprano

Rebekah Jones is a Mezzo Soprano from Cheshire. She read music at King’s College London and completed her Masters at the Royal College of Music under the tutelage of Tim Evans-Jones. Solo career highlights include the roles of the Angel in Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius (2021), Mrs Lovett in Sweeney Todd, Waitress in Greek (RCM scenes 2020 and 2019 respectively), Alisa in Lucia di Lammermoor with Fulham Opera (reprised at Grimeborn 2018), oratorio performances at the St Endellion Music Festival and with the Vasari Singers (both 2017), Bach’s St Matthew Passion at Chichester Cathedral, masterclasses with Michael Chance and Sir Thomas Allen (RCM, Summer 2019) and performing as part of the Winter 2016-17 season at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. Rebekah sings with the Monteverdi choir and Siglo de Oro, as well as working for the BBC Singers, the Gabrieli Consort and the choir of the OAE, amongst others. She made her solo debut at the Haus für Mozart in Salzburg with the Monteverdi Choir last Summer. Rebekah has performed internationally as Solomon in Paris (2017) and at music festivals across Europe, including Switzerland, the Netherlands, Malta, Germany and Belgium. In June 2019 Rebekah made her debut in the RCM International Opera School as The Grand Duchess (A Dinner Engagement), and in 2022 was a member of the Grange Festival Chorus. 

As well as enjoying an exciting solo career, Rebekah is also an experienced educator. She works regularly with the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain, the London Youth Choir, Voces Cantabile Music, Cambridge University and the Muze Trust, and recently spent time delivering lessons and workshops in Thailand and Zambia.

Paul Robinson

Tenor

Paul read music and was both a chorister and choral scholar at King’s College, Cambridge. He continued his studies at the Royal College of Music and was awarded the Opera Scholarship and the Mills Williams Junior Fellowship. His recordings include Purcell’s Ode to St Cecilia and Mendelssohn’s version of Bach’s St Matthew Passion for Radio della Svizzera Italiana (RTSI) and a setting of Psalm 91 on the Hyperion Schubert series. Concert performances have included Beethoven’s Mass in C in Bergen; Bach’s St John Passion in Buxton; Handel’s Messiah and Mozart’s Requiem in King’s College, Cambridge; Haydn’s Missa Sancti Nicolae and Schubert’s Magnificat with the Philharmonia at the Royal Festival Hall; Britten’s Cantata Misericordium with the Bochum Symphoniker; Handel’s Solomon and Theodora in Darmstadt and Frankfurt, and concerts in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Shizuoka, Japan. Recent engagements have included Beethoven’s Mass in C in Bergen; Frederic, Pirates of Penzance in Buxton and Cheltenham, Bach’s St John Passion in Buxton, Handel’s Solomon and Theodora in Darmstadt and Frankfurt, and concerts in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Shizuoka, Japan. He has performed regularly with the Newbury Chamber Choir and the Hogarth Singers. He sings Evensong at Hampstead Parish Church as a member of the choir. Have a look at Paul’s website.