The Choir of Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge, Academy of Ancient Music & Matthew Martin
Biography The Choir of Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge, Academy of Ancient Music & Matthew Martin
Gonville & Caius College Choir
is a mixed choir of 24 voices. It is one of the UK’s leading collegiate choirs, with an international reputation for performances of exceptional quality but also for innovative and adventurous recordings. It tours regularly in the UK and around the world.
The College’s musical tradition began at the end of the nineteenth century with a choir of men and boys, founded by the celebrated composer of Anglican church music Charles Wood, and later became an exclusively undergraduate male choir under Wood’s successor the composer Patrick Hadley. Hadley was succeeded by Peter Tranchell, under whose direction the choir became mixed in 1979, and Geoffrey Webber directed the choir from 1989 until 2019. The current Director of Music (Precentor) is Matthew Martin.
“Impressively well–trained choir and skilled organists … crack Cambridge choristers.” — THE INDEPENDENT
Academy of Ancient Music
is an orchestra with a worldwide reputation for excellence in baroque and classical music. Using historically informed techniques, period-specific instruments and original sources, we bring music vividly to life in committed, vibrant performances.
Beyond the concert hall, AAM is committed to nurturing the audiences, artists and arts managers of the future through our innovative education initiative AAMplify. Working with music colleges and universities across the UK, we engage the next generation of period instrumentalists with side-by-side sessions, masterclasses and other opportunities designed to bridge the gap between the conservatoire and the profession, safeguarding the future of historical performance.
AAM proudly holds the position of Associate Ensemble at London’s Barbican Centre and the Teatro San Cassiano, Venice, and Orchestra-in-Residence at the University of Cambridge, Milton Abbey International Summer Music Festival and The Apex, Bury St Edmunds.
Established 50 years ago by Christopher Hogwood to make the first British recordings of orchestral works using original instruments, AAM has released more than 300 albums to date, collecting countless accolades including Classic BRIT, Gramophone and Edison awards.
We now record on our own label and are proud to be the most listened-to period-instrument orchestra online, with over one million monthly listeners on streaming platforms.
With Music Director Laurence Cummings, AAM celebrated the orchestra’s Golden Anniversary in 2023-24 with the completion of a landmark project to record Mozart’s complete works for keyboard and orchestra, the publication of a new book by Richard Bratby detailing the history of the organization, and celebratory performances across the UK and internationally.
Matthew Martin
Commissioned by the Genesis Foundation, Matthew Martin’s new Stabat Mater was premiered by The Sixteen and Harry Christophers at two separate concerts on 4 June 2014. The work forms part of the Genesis Foundation’s Stabat Mater 2014: Spirit, Strength and Sorrow project where The Sixteen and Harry Christophers performed the world premieres of three new Stabat Maters by Alissa Firsova, Tõnu Kõrvits and Matthew Martin at a free lunchtime concert at LSO St Luke’s and at a private event hosted by the Genesis Foundation at the Victoria and Albert Museum.
The three composers bring three very distinct voices to the traditional Stabat Mater text. Matthew Martin’s work as Organist of Brompton oratory has produced a detailed composition harking back to previous traditions of Stabat Maters.
The new commissions are part of a long-standing partnership with The Sixteen and Harry Christophers to commission and record new sacred choral music. In 2011, the Foundation commissioned Ruth Byrchmore, Tarik O’Regan and Roderick Williams to write music to poetry of the Spanish Mystics and in 2008, James Macmillan, Roxanna Panufnik and Will Todd wrote music to settings of Padre Pio’s Prayer. The three new Stabat Maters were recorded for release on The Sixteen’s own label CORO in 2015.
Matthew Martin studied at Magdalen College, Oxford and the Royal Academy of Music. He is one of the UK’s leading choral composers and is frequently commissioned to write for prominent ensembles, most recently BBC Singers, the choirs of Westminster Abbey, St Paul’s Cathedral, Chester Cathedral, St John’s College, Cambridge, and Magdalen College, Oxford. Upcoming projects include new works for the Sixteen, the Gabrieli Consort and the American Guild of Organsts. His work is now published exclusively by Faber Music.
