Fulham Camerata is a chamber choir of around thirty-five voices based in south-west London.
It is supported by an ensemble of semi-professionals, allowing the choir to tackle exciting repertoire and maintain high musical standards.
Members span all age groups, various nationalities and are drawn from diverse professional and ethnic backgrounds.
The joy of singing is what binds us together!
Meet the people
HARRY GUTHRIE— Music Director, starting in September 2024
Harry Guthrie is a choral conductor, baritone and teacher based in London. He founded Continuum in 2018 and directs the group in concerts and recordings in and around London. In addition to being Director of Music at St Barnabas’ Church, Ealing, he has been a Guest Conductor for the Cambridge University Chamber Choir, the Rodolfus Choir and has directed Ely Cathedral Choir. Harry started his new role as Musical Director of Fulham Camerata in September 2024.
Passionate about working with young people, Harry is Head of Choral Music at Notting Hill and Ealing High School. He has previously worked at Wells Cathedral School, St John’s College School, Cambridge, St Catharine’s College, Cambridge and at Ely Cathedral. Harry enjoys annual work with the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain and the Rodolfus Foundation, both of which were instrumental in developing his love of choral music.
After growing up in Bedford, Harry read Music at Trinity College, Cambridge where he held an Academic Scholarship and a Choral Scholarship under Stephen Layton. Before coming up to Cambridge, he spent a year as the Bass Choral Scholar at Wells Cathedral. Harry has studied conducting with Stephen Layton and Paul Spicer.
CHRIS POTTS — Accompanist, Interim Music Director 2024 summer term
Christopher Potts began his musical life as a Chorister at Manchester Cathedral where he was also a student at Chetham's School of Music. Following this he won a scholarship to Eton College and continued with undergraduate studies in Music at Durham University as well as postgraduate studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
A teaching career saw years spent at Ampleforth College, Sevenoaks School, the City of London Freemen's School, and now The Royal Ballet school. Chris is the co-founder of Coro Spezzato, a choir of young, professional singers who commission new choral music.
Chris is also project manager for the Hamish Ogston Foundation who are committed to promoting the UK’s renowned choral and organ traditions. In addition, Chris carries out freelance work as musician, and has been accompanist for Fulham Camerata since September 2021.
COMMITTEE
A committee of elected trustees runs the choir for the benefit of members and the public. Trustees are elected at the Annual General Meeting and any member can stand for election. The choir is run collaboratively, with all choir members contributing to events and activities. Committee officers are Judith Nugée (chair), Tom Beach (treasurer) and Lucy Schoonhoven (secretary).
ALEXANDER HOPKINS — Composer in Residence
Alexander started his musical career as a chorister at Westminster Cathedral from 2007 and was made head chorister in 2011. Simultaneously he was singing on tours and doing recordings, broadcasts, and televised services. He attended Ampleforth College until 2017, when he started a music degree at the University of Manchester. Having graduated, he worked as a lay clerk at St John’s College Choir Cambridge for two years, after which embarking on a freelance career as a choral singer, soloist, and composer.
Alexander’s composing started from a young age, but took off after a Mass setting based on the plainsong Mass XIII was taken on tour in Italy by the Ampleforth Singers. He continued to compose at school, writing and performing a Requiem Mass for choir and strings among other works. Whilst in Manchester, he studied composition under Camden Reeves and, in 2020, had his choral work ‘Wash Me Throughly’ broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and sung by Coro Spezzato, a choir co-founded by Alexander. ‘O Vos Omnes’, a later commission was also picked up by BBC Radio 3 and broadcast in 2021. Whilst a lay clerk at John’s Cambridge, Alexander enjoyed writing arrangements for a capella group The Gents of St John's and received a commission from Andrew Nethsingha to write a piece for the college choir – ‘Salvator Mundi, Domine’, which was premiered in May 2021 and since been recorded for release in the summer of 2023. Alexander is now working as a freelance musician based in London.
Choral scholars
CHARLIE BROAD — Bass scholar
London-born baritone Charlie Broad completed his under and postgraduate studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama under the tutelage of Robert Dean and John Evans. A finalist of the 2023 Maureen Lehane Vocal Awards at the Wigmore Hall and the Dame Patricia Routledge English Song Prize, he has taken part in masterclasses with Mark Padmore, Lisette Oropesa, and Joel Prieto amongst others. During his time at Guildhall he performed in the chorus of three opera productions, including Judith Weir’s recent work ‘Miss Fortune’, and covered Vittorio I due timidi by Nino Rota (GSMD Opera) and Guard I Dead Man Walking by Jake Heggie (GSMD Opera). Chorally, Charlie sang as part of the National Youth Choir in their performance of Walton’s ‘Belshazzar’s Feast’ at the BBC Proms in 2017, and also performed Faure and Durufle’s Requiems in a concert at the Royal Festival Hall with the Rodolfus Choir. Since then, and throughout his studies at Guildhall, Charlie was active as a deputy in various church choirs across London.
HENRY LAIRD — Tenor scholar
Henry Laird was raised in North Yorkshire, where his passion for singing began as a chorister with the Choir of Ampleforth Abbey. He later became a choral scholar with the Choir of St. John's College, Cambridge, under the esteemed direction of Andrew Nethsingha, from 2017 to 2020. Prior to this, Henry sang at Truro Cathedral under Christopher Gray.
Today, Henry regularly performs with renowned ensembles such as the choirs of Westminster Abbey, Westminster Cathedral, and Continuum. Notably, he participated in the internationally televised Commonwealth Service at Westminster Abbey. As a soloist, Henry is particularly acclaimed for his interpretations of works by J.S. Bach and Handel. Recent highlights of his solo career include tenor roles in Handel's Messiah, Bach's St. John Passion and St. Matthew Passion, Handel's Brockes Passion, and Rossini's Petite Messe Solennelle. On the side, Henry is a trainee solicitor at RW Blears LLP, a corporate finance firm in the city. Before joining the firm, he earned his Graduate Diploma in Law and completed the Legal Practice Course at BPP University. He previously studied Theology at the University of Cambridge. At RW Blears, Henry focuses on a broad range of corporate matters, with a particular specialisation in venture capital, including mergers and acquisitions, funding rounds, and analysis of EIS, SEIS, and VCT investments.
History
Fulham Camerata was formed in 2007 by Hermione Ruck Keene and Christopher Wray, both committed to the idea of bringing young professionals and amateurs together to develop in singing and musicianship. The choir grew from a small group of barely ten singers to a choir of thirty. When Chris and Hermione stepped down in 2014, Fulham Camerata came under the new management of a committee drawn from the members and has gone from strength to strength, becoming a registered charity in November 2022. The founders’ commitment to the development of singing, both amateur and professional, remains important. We aim to encourage and support talented young professionals when appointing our accompanists, choral scholars, soloists and Musical Directors, as well as composers in residence, to help us deliver excellent music to our members and audiences.
Ralph Allwood was Director of Music at Eton College for 26 years 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 and has since launched courses in Shanghai and Shenzhen. The Rodolfus choir has produced over 20 CDs since he founded it.
Ralph is co-founder and conductor of Inner Voices, made up of singers from state schools in London. He is also Director of Chapel Music at Queen’s College Chapel, Cambridge and Director of the choir at the Old Royal Naval College Trinity Laban Chapel Choir and an Honorary Fellow of University College, Durham.
Ralph has conducted choirs for 40 live broadcasts for BBC Radio 3 and he teaches at his old grammar school, Tiffin.
In 2017, the Archbishop of Canterbury presented him with the Thomas Cranmer Award for Music and Worship.
Ben Rowarth: Composer in Residence, Fulham Camerata 2015 - 2020
Ben Rowarth is a young London based composer also performing regularly as a conductor and bass baritone. His music has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and received exceptional reviews.
Winner of the NCEM Composer Award 2012 and Leeds International Film Festival Best Documentary Soundtrack (2013), he has received numerous commissions and international performances, including among many others, from Merton College Oxford (2014), The Tower of London ( 2017), The London Festival of Contemporary Church Music (2018) and Emmanuel College, Cambridge (2019).
Ben has been commercially recorded by ORA, The Rodolfus Choir and the Fieri Consort and also by the internationally acclaimed ensemble, The Tallis Scholars. Ben has also composed two live soundtracks for plays receiving exceptional reviews.
Following undergraduate and postgraduate music degrees at Durham and York Universities Ben now performs regularly as a baritone soloist in a number of ensembles around the UK including Britten Sinfonia, The OAE, I Fagiolini and The BBC Singers.
Whilst acting as Composer in Residence for Fulham Camerata he was commissioned to compose Life Cycle, a collection of short pieces for choir, and For the Fallen, a hauntingly beautiful setting of Laurence Binyon's renowned poem for Remembrance Sunday, which was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in 2021.
He now manages and conducts his own professional ensemble, Renaissance.
Harry Castle: Musical Director 2018-2024 Harry began his musical life as a chorister at St Peter’s Collegiate Church, Wolverhampton, where he became a choral scholar and from September 2017 to August 2018 was Acting Director of Music while completing his postgraduate certificate in education (PGCE). Before taking a place to read Music at Hatfield College, Durham, Harry sang as a countertenor choral scholar at Exeter Cathedral. At Durham, Harry held many conducting posts including Director of Music at Hatfield College, Conductor of Durham University Symphony Orchestra, Musical Director of Durham University Chamber Choir and Durham Opera Ensemble. Alongside conducting, Harry was also a choral scholar at Durham Cathedral under James Lancelot.
After leaving university to begin his teaching career at Norwich School, Harry held posts as Musical Director of Sheringham and Cromer Choral Society and The Iceni Choir. Since moving to London, Harry has recently been appointed Assistant Director of Music at Godolphin and Latymer School having held the same post at the Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School.
He is a founding member and Musical Director of The Sovereign Singers, a London-based chamber choir consisting of Durham University graduates.
Harry has conducted in major venues across Europe. Notable UK performances have included Holst’s Planets Suite in Durham Cathedral, Guillame de Machaut’s Messe de Notre Dame in Norwich Cathedral, numerous services in Westminster Abbey, York Minster, and Canterbury, Wells, Salisbury and Southwell cathedrals, while overseas he has conducted in Kaiser Wilhelm Church, Berlin, San Sebastian Church, Madrid and St Stephen’s Basilica, Budapest.
From 2015–2018 Fulham Camerata was brought to new heights by the dynamic young conductor James Day, pictured.
James is Artistic Director of the Pimlico Musical Foundation, Artistic Director of the Barnes Music Festival, and Director of Choral Music at Tiffin School.
Alexander (b.1984) has received over 100 commissions from organisations including The Royal Opera House, The Tallis Scholars and the Royal Ballet Sinfonia. His music has been performed in venues all over the world from Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall to Shakespeare’s Globe and Westminster Abbey to Christ Cathedral California and the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, New York City.
Alexander is conductor of the Oxbridge Singers and the minimaLIST ENsemble.
His passion for music education has led him to direct workshops for leading organisations including the Royal Opera House, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the Royal College of Music Sparks.
Alexander studied at Oxford University where he was choral and organ scholar, the Royal Academy of Music and the University for Performing Arts in Vienna. He has been elected an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music for services to music.
During his tenure as Composer in Residence, Fulham Camerata performed a number of Alexander's works including world premieres of Heaven-Haven and Jesu, meine Freude, and commissioned 90 Measures, a 6 minute piece based on the words William Shakespeare which have been broken down and exploded to last the duration of the entire piece. It was first performed in 2008 at St Luke’s Church, South Kensington, London by the Fulham Camerata, conducted by Christopher Wray.
Photo credits Carol Hartfree Bright Images Photography, jonathonvines.com and carmelking.com