Featured Artists
Classical music has been around for centuries, and it continues to captivate and inspire listeners today. At the heart of this genre are the talented artists who bring the music to life. These individuals have dedicated themselves to mastering their instruments and interpreting the works of great composers from different eras.
The musicians we are privileged to work with.
Full gallery coming soon.
Virginia Black has enjoyed a dazzling worldwide performing career, specialising in the virtuoso harpsichord repertoire. She has now returned to her roots as a pianist.
She has made recordings for radio and television around the world and, in England, has been featured as ‘Artist of the Week’ on BBC Radio 3. Following a long career at the RAM, as professor of harpsichord, chair of postgraduate studies and senior postgraduate tutor, Virginia maintains her work in music education through giving masterclasses and recitals at conservatoires, universities and colleges worldwide.
Virginia is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music (FRAM). an honour limited to 300 members.
CRD has had the privilege to be a part of Virginia’s world-class harpsichord and piano career, releasing works by Mozart, Scarlatti, Rameau and Beethoven.
Edward Higginbottom is best known for his work as Director of New College Choir from 1976 to 2014. During that period, many recordings of the Choir appeared on the CRD label.
He continues to work as a freelance conductor and coach, both in the UK and abroad. His interest in French baroque music dates back to his graduate student days, over the years resulting in numerous publications and recordings in the field (Le Jeune, Charpentier, Fr Couperin, Desmarest, Lalande, Mondonville).
Edward has received from the French government the decoration of Commandeur de l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres for his promotion of French cultural interests.
Edward and CRD enjoy a long recording history together, having worked on nearly 30 discs when he was at the helm at New College, Oxford.
A versatile musician, soprano Holly Teague studied at the Royal College of Music, London, CNSMD (Paris), and the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.
She is as at-home with delicate 16th Century lute song as she is with Romantic Art Song, or 21st Century layered voice and electronics.
Holly enjoys a varied singing career, appearing as a soloist for symphonies, oratorios, concerts, gala evenings, recitals and new music projects in addition to stage work in the UK and internationally.
She is currently preparing her debut album for release.
Meanwhile, she has collaborated with Edward Higginbottom on his latest release with CRD, Rameau Reimagined.
The Choir of Keble College is one of Oxford’s leading mixed-voice ensembles.
In recent years the group has performed in France, Hong Kong, Singapore, the Czech Republic and Sweden. As well as widely in the UK, with an invitation to appear in the 2020 concert series at Saint Thomas Church, Fifth Avenue, New York.
The choir regularly broadcasts on BBC Radio 3. It plays a prominent role in the annual Keble Early Music Festival, with much of its repertoire based around the music of the 16th to 18th centuries.
Paul Brough
Paul Brough is Director of Music at both Keble College, Oxford and St Mary’s, Bourne Street in London’s Belgravia.
Since 2004 he has been a Professor at the Royal Academy of Music. As well as the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Philharmonic and the BBC Concert Orchestra. He has guest-conducted the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia, City of London Sinfonia, Manchester Camerata and St James’s Baroque.
With the BBC Singers (Principal Guest Conductor 2011-2016) he has conducted over sixty broadcasts of choral music from all over the world spanning seven centuries. His recordings include Britten with the BBC Concert Orchestra and Richard Rodney Bennett with the BBC Singers.
Instruments of Time and Truth, described on BBC Record Review as ‘an absolutely superb band of instrumental soloists’, was founded in 2014 by musicians Gabriel Amherst and Judith Evans to provide a platform for international performers resident in and around Oxford.
The ensemble has assumed a significant role in underpinning the tradition of choral excellence at the University of Oxford, collaborating with all of the University’s principal collegiate choirs, as well as with choirs from within the community.
It has appeared as part of Garsington Opera at Wormsley and Longborough Festival Opera. In addition to performing widely elsewhere in the UK has been in demand in Europe, performing in France, Spain, the Canary Islands, and as part of the Valletta Baroque Festival in Malta.
Young British-Chinese Tenor Philippe Durant studied at the Royal College of Music, where he was generously supported by a Leverhulme Arts Scholarship, Help Musicians UK and the Josephine Baker Trust. Having previously read Music at Durham University, Phil sang with the Chorus of English National Opera in 2021/22.
Recent operatic engagements include Shepherd/Spirit L’Orfeo with Garsington Opera, Rooster/Innkeeper (Cover) The Cunning Little Vixen and Commander X (Cover) The Handmaid’s Tale with ENO, the Tenor Coryphée (Cover) Le Comte Ory with Garsington Opera, and Bill A Hand of Bridge with Waterperry Opera Festival.
An established ensemble singer, Phil sings with The Sixteen, the BBC Singers, the Gabrieli Consort, and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.
Phil is delighted to have joined Keble College Choir as a soloist for their album ‘Resurrexi!’.
Maya Magub is a British violinist living and working in Los Angeles. She has led a varied career performing in the world’s greatest concert halls as well as playing on numerous movies and records.
As a solo artist Maya has performed concertos by Vivaldi, Mozart, Mendelssohn, Bruch and Tchaikovsky. She performed the complete Bach and Brandenburg concertos in London’s St Martin in the Fields, and Dvorak’s “Romance” in the Royal Albert Hall. Maya has given solo performances for the Prince of Wales and for Professor Stephen Hawking, and was invited to Buckingham Palace where she met the Queen. She has also enjoyed playing with numerous pop icons including Adele, Bono, Paul McCartney and Sting.
Maya was awarded scholarships at the Purcell School and the Royal Academy of Music in London, graduating with a 1st class degree in music from Cambridge University. She continued her studies at the Vienna Hochschule, as an ESU scholar at Aspen and participated in many master-classes, including two with Lord Yehudi Menuhin broadcast on British television. Following her passion for chamber music, she was a founder member of the Mainardi Trio, performing and broadcasting internationally for over ten years. Maya has played in chamber music festivals across the UK, USA, France, Belgium, Norway, Iceland and India, collaborating as a guest artist with the Calder Quartet, the Emperor Quartet, the London Mozart Players Chamber Ensemble and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields.
Maya has made two critically acclaimed recordings for CRD: a double CD of the complete Mozart and Michael Haydn duos with violist Judith Busbridge, and the complete Telemann Solo Fantasias.
Benjamin Sheen is Director of Music at Jesus College, Cambridge and formerly Sub-Organist at Christ Church Cathedral in Oxford.
He is an established liturgical and concert organist on both sides of the Atlantic. Hailed as ‘brilliant’ by the New York Times, he is the 2013 winner of the Pierre S. du Pont First Prize in the inaugural Longwood Gardens Organ Competition and received Second Prize and the Jon Laukvik prize at the St. Alban’s International Organ Competition of the same year.
Benjamin has acted as Associate Organist and Acting Director of Music at the world-famous Saint Thomas Church, Fifth Avenue, New York. As a concert organist, he has toured across the world, most recently in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa and has collaborated with numerous orchestras including the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the City of London Sinfonia and the Auckland Philharmonic.
Benjamin’s debut album, In London Town, released to critical acclaim in 2022.
Emily Dickens is an internationally established soprano and conductor. A full-time member of the critically acclaimed British vocal ensemble VOCES8 for eight years. Emily has performed music from Renaissance England to contemporary commissions and American pop all over the world and now performs as a soloist and consort singer internationally.
She read music at Trinity College, Cambridge before beginning her professional career on stage with VOCES8. Emily is the Choral Conducting Fellow at St Martin-in-the-Fields where she directs St Martin’s Voices and Chorus, most recently on BBC Radio 4 Sunday Worship, Director of the London Symphony Orchestra Junior Choir, Associate Choral Director at the Royal College of Music Junior Department and an advisor to the Rhinegold Music & Drama Education Expo.
In demand as a choral director and coach, Emily devised and directed many of the VOCES8 workshops and courses in the UK and internationally and directs regular singing and performance workshops for organisations including the Voices Foundation, NYCGB and The Bach Choir.
She is known for her versatility, energy and interesting arrangements and is published by Edition Peters.
Emily has performed in many of the world’s leading concert halls and is heard regularly on international TV and radio including MPR, the BBC and Classic FM.
Mezzo soprano Rebekah Jones read music at King’s College London and studied on the Masters course at the Royal College of Music as a Leverhulme Arts Scholar under the tutelage of Tim Evans-Jones.
Rebekah regularly appears as a soloist with Pembroke College, Cambridge, the Covent Garden Chorus and the Vasari Singers, and with groups nationwide such as the Monteverdi Choir, Siglo de Oro, the choir of the OAE, the BBC Singers and the Marian Consort.
She made her solo debut at the Haus für Mozart with the Monteverdi Choir in Summer 2021. In June 2019 made her debut in the RCM International Opera School as The Grand Duchess (A Dinner Engagement).
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.
Rebekah is grateful to have been supported by the Josephine Baker Trust and Nicola Jenkin.
Graham Kirk
Graham Kirk is a baritone based in London.
He began his musical education as a chorister at St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral, Edinburgh. He went on to hold choral scholarships at Jesus College, Cambridge, where he read History, and subsequently at York Minster.
Graham moved to London in 2002 and since then has worked as a freelance choral and solo singer in the UK, France, Spain, the USA and Japan. He is a member of the eight-voice professional choir at St Mary’s, Bourne Street in London (under William Whitehead, David Trendell and, most recently, Paul Brough). Other groups he regularly sings with include The Brabant Ensemble, De Profundis, Epiphoni Consort and Pegasus Chamber Choir.
When he is not singing, Graham spends his spare time working as a corporate lawyer, specialising in international mergers and acquisitions.
Many more artists to celebrate.
Coming soon…