CHORAL COURSE 5: LIVERPOOL
Thursday 15th August - Sunday 18th August 2024
Fee: £350* - BURSARIES AVAILABLE
📸 By ingusk
LIVERPOOL ANGLICAN CATHEDRAL
COURSE VENUE
Simon Toyne has been a Director of the Rodolfus Choral Courses since 2012, leading courses every summer in Cambridge, Cheltenham, Durham, Liverpool, Oxford and York. One of the country’s leading music educators and choral conductors, he received his musical training as a chorister in Exeter Cathedral Choir, later becoming Organ Scholar of University College, Oxford. For 24 years, he was Director of the Tiffin Boys’ Choir, preparing them for projects with the major conductors in the world, including Pappano, Rattle, Gergiev, Maazel, Elder, Masur and Salonen, leading the choir on over twenty foreign tours, including to Australia, New Zealand, the USA and Russia, and conducting the choir in concert with the Brandenburg Symphony Orchestra, London Mozart Players, Sinfonia Britannica and Philharmonia Orchestra. Under his direction, the choir took part in over 270 performances of operas at the Royal Opera House, also working with the Bolshoi Opera and Mariinsky Opera. As Director of Music at All Saints’ Church, Kingston, a post he held consecutively with that of Assistant Head & Director of Music at Tiffin School, the choir broadcast on BBC1, Radio 4 and World Service Radio, and over 20 choristers gained choral scholarships to Oxford and Cambridge.
Since 2015, he has been Executive Director of Music of the David Ross Education Trust, where he is responsible for the development of a music programme for over 14,500 children across 34 state primary and secondary schools in the East Midlands. His work at DRET has included the award-winning Singing Schools programme for primary schools, developing a trust-wide primary and secondary music curriculum, fostering a network of partner organisations including Gabrieli Roar, Nevill Holt Opera, Sing Up, the Royal Opera House and the Voices Foundation, creating a team of professional musicians in residence, and devising The DRET Music Way, a guide for music teachers and senior leaders to develop meaningful music provision in schools.
Simon is a member of the monitoring board for the National Plan for Music Education, having previously served on the Department for Education’s Expert Panels for developing the National Plan for Music Education and the Model Music Curriculum. His chapter on curriculum music in the recent book What Should Schools Teach? was published in January 2021 and is available as an open access pdf from UCL Press. He is the Founder President of the Music Teachers Association and is Music Director of the Northampton Bach Choir.
SIMON TOYNE
COURSE DIRECTOR
THE TEAM
Daniel Greenway is senior organ scholar at Keble College, Oxford reading for a degree in Music. He began his musical studies as a chorister at Liverpool Cathedral. Whilst there, he developed a keen interest in the organ, becoming a student, and later scholar playing regularly for services. During this time, he studied with the cathedral organist Ian Tracey. Although primarily an organist, he is a collaborative pianist and studied at the junior department of the Royal Northern College of Music.
He has won recital prizes to play at various Cathedrals and venues around the country. Recently, they have included Queens and Merton Colleges in Oxford, Coventry and Truro Cathedrals, and Bloomsbury Organ Day. He has also performed on multiple BBC Radio 3 and Television broadcasts.
Daniel has also performed orchestral organ and piano with ensembles such as the Philharmonia Orchestra, and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. As a continuo player, he has appeared with Instruments of Time and Truth and the London Mozart Players. In addition to his role at Keble, he is organist to Campion Hall and principal accompanist to Oxford Bach Choir. In 2023, he was made a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists, winning multiple prizes.
DANIEL GREENWAY
PRINCIPAL ACCOMPANIST
English freelance baritone Damian O’Keeffe began his musical career as Head Chorister at Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, moving on to be a Choral Scholar at St John’s College Cambridge under Dr George Guest. He has sung with a range of Early Music ensembles including the Cardinall’s Musick, King’s Consort and Binchois Consort singing in venues across Europe and America including, Lufthansa Festival, Spitalfields Festival, The Purcell Room, BBC Proms, Cadogan Hall and the Bath Festival, Princeton and Columbia Universities, Rutgers, Amsterdam, Turin and Milan. While working with the Cardinall’s Musick, he recorded the discography of William Byrd (The Byrd Edition). As a member of The King’s Consort, he has been involved in several recordings including Lo Sposalizio and Let the Bright Seraphim and appeared in live Radio 3 broadcasts at Cadogan Hall and the Bath Festival. Recently he has appeared with the London based Early Music group Alamire at the York Early Music Festival performing Tallis Songs of Reformation and The Regensburg Early Music Festival performing motets by Hieronymus Praetorius.
As a soloist Damian performs a wide repertoire from baroque to contemporary music in cathedrals, concert halls, music festivals and recitals. Notable performances across the country include, JS Bach: St John Passion (under Paul Agnew) and JS Bach: St Matthew Passion (under Nathalie Stutzmann), Elgar: The Kingdom, Orff: Carmina Burana all with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Mozart Requiem with Westminster Cathedral Choir.
Recent engagements include: Goodall: Eternal Light Requiem, Stanford: Bible Songs, Handel: Samson, Haydn: Nelson Mass, Dvorak: Stabat Mater, A.Scarlatti: St John Passion, Handel: Messiah, Brahms: German Requiem, Faure Requiem, JS Bach: St Matthew Passion, JS Bach: St John Passion, Chilcott: St John Passion, Finzi: In Terra Pax, JS Bach: Wachet Auf, recitals including - American Song, Finzi and Vaughan Williams and female composers.
Future engagements include: Handel: Messiah, Puccini: Messa di Gloria, Schubert: Winterreise, Beethoven: 9th Symphony, Rutter: Mass of the Children, recitals – Blackburn Cathedral, Brecon Cathedral, Nantwich Parish Church, Holy Trinity Southport.
When not performing, Damian leads workshops and teaches singing to pupils of all ages on a private basis successfully preparing pupils for Oxbridge choral scholarships and conservatoires alongside working with both boy and girl choristers at a range of cathedrals. He is also a singing teacher for the Rodolfus Foundation and Choral Courses.
DAMIAN O’KEEFFE
SINGING TEACHER
VOCAL MASTERCLASS
JENNIFER JOHNSTON
Celebrated British mezzo soprano Jennifer Johnston is a distinguished performer in opera, concert and recital. Winner of multiple awards including the Royal Philharmonic Society Singer of the Year and Gramophone’s Recording of the Year, she is a former BBC New Generation Artist, and has “one of the most generous and beautiful voices in the business” (Prospect Magazine). Featuring the iTunes No.1 hit single ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’, with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra & Choir, for whom she was their Artist In Residence, her debut solo album ‘A Love Letter To Liverpool’ (Rubicon Classics) is a deeply personal and affectionate tribute to her native city and the place she calls home.
She has sung leading roles at the Bayerische Staatsoper, La Scala, the Salzburg Festival, Glyndebourne Festival, and the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence. She has appeared with many of the world’s most distinguished orchestras and conductors, including the Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, London Symphony, BBC Symphony, Bavarian Radio Symphony, Royal Concertgebouw, Academy of Santa Caecilia, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic and Cleveland orchestras with K. Petrenko, V. Petrenko, Mäkelä, Rouvali, Oramo, Hrusa, Linttu, Gardner, Welser-Möst, Zinman, Slatkin, Harding and Rattle. Her extensive discography includes Anthony Payne’s arrangement of Vaughan Williams’ Four Last Songs with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Brabbins (Albion Records) commissioned for her by the BBC, which she premiered at the BBC Proms (Vänskä/BBCSO) and was nominated for a GRAMMY award. She is a distinguished recitalist who appears at London’s Wigmore Hall and on BBC Radio 3 with Malcolm Martineau.
EVENSONGS & SERVICES
LIVERPOOL METROPOLITAN CATHEDRAL
MASS
LIVERPOOL ANGLICAN CATHEDRAL
EVENSONG (SAT & SUN) & EUCHARIST (SUN)
BURSARIES
The Rodolfus Foundation offers generous bursaries to help with the costs of our courses. You can apply for a bursary as part of the online application process, and all details provided will treated confidentially.
REFERENCES
As part of your application, we request a brief reference from a singing or music teacher. Please note that this reference does not impact your acceptance onto the course. Its purpose is solely to provide our directors and singing teachers with some additional insight about you and your musical experience so far. Please be aware that references are only accepted through our online portal.
AGE RANGE
To attend this course, you must be in year 10 or above and between the ages of 14 and 21 as of 31st August 2024.
NON-RESIDENTIAL
This course is non-residential however we will be able to offer applicants advice on where to stay locally if they are not already living close by.
*INTERNATIONAL APPLICANTS: We can only take payments for international applicants through Stripe this year. Course fees will have an approximately 3% card processing fee.