Advanced Masterclass 2024
Saturday 2 November 2024
This masterclass is an opportunity for conductors to work with leading British youth ensemble, The Rodolfus Choir, overseen by four distinguished choral directors who will guide conductors through a variety of interesting repertoire. Suitable for conducting students, music graduates and those working in the field of choral leadership, this masterclass will take place at The St Marylebone CE School on Saturday 2nd November from 10am – 4.30pm.
Ralph Allwood, Amy Bebbington, Patrick Russill and Bernie Sherlock will co-teach, providing insights on technical, practical and musical matters throughout the day. Individual workshop participants will enjoy 20-25 minutes of podium time. Repertoire lists are below.
This is a unique opportunity to meet other conductors, to work with a leading youth choir, to learn from an experienced team of choral practitioners and to receive valuable feedback and practical advice.
We have limited space for this event, so please contact [email protected] as soon as possible to register your interest and secure your place!
Applicants must have prior experience of conducting choirs, be of Intermediate/Advanced level and have a sound technical competency. Please briefly indicate on your email application what prior experience/training you hold. If you have a strong preference to work with a specific tutor, feel free to indicate this. Please note, however, that we cannot guarantee every request.
Tea and coffee will be available for all conducting participants and observers, but please bring your own reusable cup.
Ralph Allwood, Amy Bebbington, Patrick Russill and Bernie Sherlock will co-teach, providing insights on technical, practical and musical matters throughout the day. Individual workshop participants will enjoy 20-25 minutes of podium time. Repertoire lists are below.
This is a unique opportunity to meet other conductors, to work with a leading youth choir, to learn from an experienced team of choral practitioners and to receive valuable feedback and practical advice.
We have limited space for this event, so please contact [email protected] as soon as possible to register your interest and secure your place!
Applicants must have prior experience of conducting choirs, be of Intermediate/Advanced level and have a sound technical competency. Please briefly indicate on your email application what prior experience/training you hold. If you have a strong preference to work with a specific tutor, feel free to indicate this. Please note, however, that we cannot guarantee every request.
Tea and coffee will be available for all conducting participants and observers, but please bring your own reusable cup.
- Fee for participants: £95 (abcd/WCCN members: £85)
- Fee for students: £65
- Fee for observers: £40 (abcd/WCCN members £35)
Workshop tutors
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Read more about the four workshop tutors:
Ralph Allwood
Ralph Allwood MBE DMus was for 26 years Director of Music at Eton College and is now a freelance choral director, teacher and conductor. He is the Director of the Rodolfus (ex-Eton) Choral Courses, which he founded in 1980. He co-founded the Junior Choral Courses in 2012. Twelve thousand 8 to 20 year-olds have since been students on courses. In recent years he has launched courses in Texas, Shanghai and Shenzhen. The Rodolfus choir has produced over 20 CDs since he founded it in 1982.
Ralph is co-founder and conductor of Inner Voices, made up of singers from state schools in London. He was till recently also a Supervisor for harmony at Jesus College, Cambridge, Director of the only conservatoire chapel choir in the world, the Old Royal Naval College Trinity Laban Chapel Choir and an Honorary Fellow of University College, Durham.
Ralph has conducted choirs for over 40 broadcasts for BBC Radio 3. He has composed much music for Extreme Music Ltd, heard worldwide on radio, films and television. He teaches at his old grammar school, Tiffin and is a co-founder of the National Youth Music Theatre.
In 2015 he co-founded the Pimlico Musical Foundation to enable children from Pimlico Primary Schools to sing in choirs, particularly at St Gabriel's Church. In 2017, the Archbishop of Canterbury presented him with the Thomas Cranmer Award for Music and Worship and he is Chair of the Choral Evensong Trust.
Ralph is co-founder and conductor of Inner Voices, made up of singers from state schools in London. He was till recently also a Supervisor for harmony at Jesus College, Cambridge, Director of the only conservatoire chapel choir in the world, the Old Royal Naval College Trinity Laban Chapel Choir and an Honorary Fellow of University College, Durham.
Ralph has conducted choirs for over 40 broadcasts for BBC Radio 3. He has composed much music for Extreme Music Ltd, heard worldwide on radio, films and television. He teaches at his old grammar school, Tiffin and is a co-founder of the National Youth Music Theatre.
In 2015 he co-founded the Pimlico Musical Foundation to enable children from Pimlico Primary Schools to sing in choirs, particularly at St Gabriel's Church. In 2017, the Archbishop of Canterbury presented him with the Thomas Cranmer Award for Music and Worship and he is Chair of the Choral Evensong Trust.
AMY BEBBINGTON
Sought-after for her dynamic and engaging teaching style, and her wealth of choral and pedagogical experience, Amy is a passionate advocate for choral singing and choral conductor training. With degrees in Piano Performance (UK) and a Doctorate in Choral Conducting (USA), Amy is the Director of Training for the Association of British Choral Directors, co-founder of the London International Choral Conducting Competition (LICCC) and a founding board member of the World Choral Conducting Network.
Amy leads choral conducting masterclasses and teaches at international summer schools, including Cork, Limerick and Sherborne. Her successful online training course, Choral Leadership and Pedagogy (CLP), created as a direct result of the pandemic, enabled her to share good practice, engage with and inspire choral conductors from all over the world.
Amy was delighted to be a recent guest clinician at the Leading Voices Festival, Utrecht, and will also present clinics at Chor.com (Germany) this year. Known for her advocacy for female composers and conductors, she champions marginalised musicians through innovative choral programming, repertoire Discovery Days and private mentoring.
Amy has choral works published by Banks Music Publications and Multitude of Voyces, and is proud to be Musical Director of Corra Sound, Harlequin Chamber Choir, Nota Bene and Sempre Fidelis Singers. She is in demand as a leading choral clinician, adjudicator, mentor and teacher. www.amybebbington.co.uk
Amy leads choral conducting masterclasses and teaches at international summer schools, including Cork, Limerick and Sherborne. Her successful online training course, Choral Leadership and Pedagogy (CLP), created as a direct result of the pandemic, enabled her to share good practice, engage with and inspire choral conductors from all over the world.
Amy was delighted to be a recent guest clinician at the Leading Voices Festival, Utrecht, and will also present clinics at Chor.com (Germany) this year. Known for her advocacy for female composers and conductors, she champions marginalised musicians through innovative choral programming, repertoire Discovery Days and private mentoring.
Amy has choral works published by Banks Music Publications and Multitude of Voyces, and is proud to be Musical Director of Corra Sound, Harlequin Chamber Choir, Nota Bene and Sempre Fidelis Singers. She is in demand as a leading choral clinician, adjudicator, mentor and teacher. www.amybebbington.co.uk
BERNIE SHERLOCK
Bernie Sherlock is a leading choral conductor. She is an adjudicator of both conducting and choral performance at international competitions across Europe, and has given choral workshops and masterclasses in conducting in Canada, China, Europe and the United States. She is a founding board-member of the World Choral Conducting Network, represents Ireland on the World Choir Council, and for twelve years directed the International Choral Conducting Summer School hosted annually at the University of Limerick.
Bernie is founder-conductor of the internationally-acclaimed chamber choir New Dublin Voices. She is also artistic director of the Irish Youth Choirs, a guest conductor with Chamber Choir Ireland and a former co-conductor of EuroChoir. She has won prizes for her conducting in Finland, Germany, Hungary, Belgium, Italy, Slovenia, Wales and Poland. Her work in oratorio spans more than 25 years. She takes special pleasure in exploring the music of living composers and has given over one hundred world premieres.
Bernie lectures at the TU Dublin Conservatoire where she directs the Masters programme in choral conducting and where she conducts the prize-winning TU Chamber Choir. After her music degree in Trinity College Dublin, Bernie studied conducting for two years in Hungary with Ildikó Herboly-Kocsár and Péter Erdei, followed by Masters and Doctorate degrees in conducting in Dublin.
Bernie is founder-conductor of the internationally-acclaimed chamber choir New Dublin Voices. She is also artistic director of the Irish Youth Choirs, a guest conductor with Chamber Choir Ireland and a former co-conductor of EuroChoir. She has won prizes for her conducting in Finland, Germany, Hungary, Belgium, Italy, Slovenia, Wales and Poland. Her work in oratorio spans more than 25 years. She takes special pleasure in exploring the music of living composers and has given over one hundred world premieres.
Bernie lectures at the TU Dublin Conservatoire where she directs the Masters programme in choral conducting and where she conducts the prize-winning TU Chamber Choir. After her music degree in Trinity College Dublin, Bernie studied conducting for two years in Hungary with Ildikó Herboly-Kocsár and Péter Erdei, followed by Masters and Doctorate degrees in conducting in Dublin.
PATRICK RUSSILL
Professor Patrick Russill is one of the leading figures in English choral music as conductor and pedagogue.
Patrick is Emeritus Head of Choral Conducting at the Royal Academy of Music, where from 1997 to 2024 he led the UK’s most successful postgraduate choral conducting course. Awarded a personal professorial chair in 2022, he is now an Emeritus Professor of the University of London. He was Visiting Professor of Choral Conducting at the Leipzig Hochschule für Musik und Theater 2002-2023 and has also been a guest professor in conservatoires in Vienna, Helsinki, Stockholm, Berlin, Düsseldorf, Strasbourg and Cluj-Napoca. In 2015 he was honoured by the Association of British Choral Directors with its annual ‘Chair’s Award for Choral Leadership’, in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the development of conservatoire choral conducting training in the UK.
In 2017 Patrick was made a Fellow honoris causa of the Royal School of Church Music, and in 2023 was awarded the Medal of the Royal College of Organists for his seminal influence on choral conducting performance and education at conservatoire level and for achievement in church music – the highest honours of both institutions.
Patrick has been Director of Music of the London Oratory since 1999, with particular responsibility for its famous professional choir which is recognised as one of the leading exponents of music for the Latin liturgy. Earlier this year he was appointed a Papal Knight of the Order of St Gregory for his contribution to, and influence on Catholic church music in the UK.
Patrick Russill is also a distinguished organist. He made his Royal Festival Hall organ recital debut in 1986. In 2007 he introduced the reconstructed Tudor organs of the Early English Organ Project to London’s South Bank, in a Queen Elizabeth Hall recital acclaimed as ‘revelatory’ by The Independent, and as the outstanding London keyboard concert of that year by the Independent on Sunday. He was Chief Examiner of the Royal College of Organists 2005-2017.
Patrick’s performing and teaching is underpinned by his scholarly work which includes articles ranging from early Tudor liturgical organ music to Howells’s Latin church music and Marcel Dupré’s Vespers as well as editions of choral works by Sweelinck and Howells in particular. In 2007 he was appointed a Vice-President of the Herbert Howells Society. He was Musical Editor of the Catholic Hymn Book (1998) and a contributor to New Grove and The Cambridge Companion to the Organ. He is Chairman of the Church Music Society, and a trustee of the Nicholas Danby Trust and the Organists Charitable Trust.
Patrick is Emeritus Head of Choral Conducting at the Royal Academy of Music, where from 1997 to 2024 he led the UK’s most successful postgraduate choral conducting course. Awarded a personal professorial chair in 2022, he is now an Emeritus Professor of the University of London. He was Visiting Professor of Choral Conducting at the Leipzig Hochschule für Musik und Theater 2002-2023 and has also been a guest professor in conservatoires in Vienna, Helsinki, Stockholm, Berlin, Düsseldorf, Strasbourg and Cluj-Napoca. In 2015 he was honoured by the Association of British Choral Directors with its annual ‘Chair’s Award for Choral Leadership’, in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the development of conservatoire choral conducting training in the UK.
In 2017 Patrick was made a Fellow honoris causa of the Royal School of Church Music, and in 2023 was awarded the Medal of the Royal College of Organists for his seminal influence on choral conducting performance and education at conservatoire level and for achievement in church music – the highest honours of both institutions.
Patrick has been Director of Music of the London Oratory since 1999, with particular responsibility for its famous professional choir which is recognised as one of the leading exponents of music for the Latin liturgy. Earlier this year he was appointed a Papal Knight of the Order of St Gregory for his contribution to, and influence on Catholic church music in the UK.
Patrick Russill is also a distinguished organist. He made his Royal Festival Hall organ recital debut in 1986. In 2007 he introduced the reconstructed Tudor organs of the Early English Organ Project to London’s South Bank, in a Queen Elizabeth Hall recital acclaimed as ‘revelatory’ by The Independent, and as the outstanding London keyboard concert of that year by the Independent on Sunday. He was Chief Examiner of the Royal College of Organists 2005-2017.
Patrick’s performing and teaching is underpinned by his scholarly work which includes articles ranging from early Tudor liturgical organ music to Howells’s Latin church music and Marcel Dupré’s Vespers as well as editions of choral works by Sweelinck and Howells in particular. In 2007 he was appointed a Vice-President of the Herbert Howells Society. He was Musical Editor of the Catholic Hymn Book (1998) and a contributor to New Grove and The Cambridge Companion to the Organ. He is Chairman of the Church Music Society, and a trustee of the Nicholas Danby Trust and the Organists Charitable Trust.
Repertoire list
Ralph Allwood
- My Soul, there is a country, Hubert Parry
- There is an old belief, Hubert Parry
- God who made the Earth and Sky, Francis Grier
- Angelus ad pastores ait, Raphaella Aleotti
- A hymne to Christ, Imogen Holst
- Dieu! Qu’il la fait bon regarder, Claude Debussy
- Es ist ein Rose, Jan Sandstrom
- Regina Coeli, Cecilia McDowall
- Madonna mia mercé, Luca Marenzio
- Love bade me welcome, Judith Weir
- Justorum animae, Charles Villiers Stanford
- Cibavit eos, William Byrd
