Seán Doherty,

Seán was introduced to music through the Irish fiddle tradition of his hometown of Derry. He read music at St John’s College, Cambridge, after which he completed a PhD in musicology at Trinity College Dublin. He is now an assistant professor of music in Dublin City University, where he lectures in music history, harmony and counterpoint, and contemporary composition. With his colleague, the choral conductor Dr Róisín Blunnie, he leads DCU's new MA in Choral Studies, the first course of its kind in Ireland. Seán is active as a choral singer, singing with the internationally acclaimed chamber choir New Dublin Voices, conducted by Dr Bernie Sherlock.

Seán’s choral works and commissions have received many international performances and have garnered numerous awards: he has won the Feis Ceoil choral composition award, the Choir and Organ Magazine composition competition, the St Giles’s Cathedral Edinburgh anthem composition competition, the Fragments Choral Composition Award (in association with Historic Scotland), and prizes for best contemporary work at international choral festivals Florilège Vocal de Tours, France, and Béla Bartok Competition, Hungary. His choral works have been performed by choirs including the choir of Merton College, Oxford, Kamikuoro Kampin Laulu, Finland, the National Youth Choir of Scotland, Chicago a cappella, Grant Park Chorus, Chicago, Laetare Vocal Ensemble, the Mornington Singers, and New Dublin Voices.

Seán has also written much chamber music: he has twice been awarded the Young Composers’ Bursary at the West Cork Chamber Music Festival (2013, 2014), and the Jerome Hynes composition competition (2011). Commissions have been received by Vanbrugh Quartet, West Cork Chamber Music Festival, and EstOvest Festival. He has been selected for the ‘Adopt a Composer’ programme in association with Making Music and BBC Radio 3, and the ‘Composer Lab’ project for the Contemporary Music Centre, Ireland.

David Hill
Renowned for his fine musicianship, David Hill is widely respected as both a choral and orchestral conductor. His talent has been recognised by his appointments as Chief Conductor of The BBC Singers, Musical Director of The Bach Choir, Music Director of Southern Sinfonia, Music Director of Leeds Philharmonic Society and Associate Guest conductor of The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. He was awarded an honorary Doctorate by the University of Southampton in 2002 for services to music.

Born in Carlisle and educated at Chetham's School of Music, he was made a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists at the tender age of 17. He took an organ scholarship to St John's College, Cambridge under the direction of Dr George Guest, returning there as Director of Music from 2003-2007. David's previous posts have included Master of the Music at both Winchester and Westminster Cathedrals as well as Music Director of The Waynflete Singers and Artistic Director of the Philharmonia Chorus. He is in great demand for choral training workshops worldwide and is a choral advisor to music publishers Novello. As an organist he has given recitals in most major venues in the UK and toured extensively abroad.

David has made over 70 recordings and contributed to the film sound tracks of Narnia and Shrek the Third. He is engaged in recordings for Naxos of major English choral composers with The Bach Choir and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. David has also appeared as guest conductor with more than a dozen orchestras in the UK, Europe and the USA. His commitment to new music has led to his conducting first performances of works by Judith Bingham, Carl Rütti, Francis Pott, Patrick Gowers, Jonathan Harvey, Philip Moore and Naji Hakim, Sir John Tavener and Philip Wilby amongst others.