Sherborne
Summer School of Music
2024
The Art of Song : Biographies
Linda Hirst studied singing and the flute at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Her career as a mezzo soprano began in the early music revival of the seventies singing for Roger Norrington, John Eliot Gardiner and David Munrow as well as making Atom Heart Mother with Pink Floyd, recording Tommy with The Who and 2000 Motels with Frank Zappa. From 1974 to 1978 she was a Swingle Singer, she then co-founded Electric Phoenix. With both groups Linda travelled the world leading to an international career working with living composers; among them Ligetti, Berio and Henze and recording pieces written for her by Knussen, Weir, Holt and Osborne etc.
Linda has performed with many of the world’s leading orchestras, ensembles, festivals and opera companies with conductors Rattle, Gielen, Nagano, Howarth, Harding and more. Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire has been a constant thread throughout the last 40 years, a highlight being Glen Tetley’s ballet with the Royal Opera House. She has always worked in education and was Head of Vocal Studies at Trinity Laban Conservatoire from 1995 to 2017.
Currently she is vocal coach and singing teacher to the Lay Clerks and Choral Scholars at Canterbury Cathedral. Linda has given masterclasses in the Teatro Colon, La Fenice, several American Universities and for many years at Dartington and the Hilliard Ensemble Summer Schools. She is a fellow of Dartington College of Arts, an Hon DLit (Huddersfield) and a trustee of the Hinrichsen Foundation and was made President of the Kathleen Ferrier Society in 2013.
Alex Jenkins read music at the University of Nottingham graduating with a BA(Hons) and an MA. He was appointed Musician-in-Residence at Christ’s Hospital in West Sussex for two years, where he later worked as a visiting piano teacher. In 2017 Alex graduated with distinction in his MPerf in Piano Accompaniment at the Royal College of Music under the tutelage of Simon Lepper, Roger Vignoles and Andrew Zolinsky. Whilst there Alex was awarded the Titanic Memoriam Prize for best performance by a pianist in the Lies Askonas Vocal Competition and an accompanist’s prize at the Brooks-van der Pump English Song Competition, as well as performing at the Wigmore Hall, the Royal Albert Hall and the Victoria & Albert Museum.
He is currently a professional accompanist and vocal coach at the Royal Welsh College of Music, working predominantly with the Vocal, Choral Conducting and Opera Departments. He is musical director for the postgraduate opera scenes at the RWCMD as well as senior vocal coach in his regular summer residency at Sherborne Summer School of Music. In December 2022 Alex made his TV debut as the pianist for an S4C documentary alongside the ‘Only Boys, Girls and Kids Aloud’ choirs and the world-renowned soprano Rebecca Evans. Alex regularly works with choirs, currently accompanying for Swansea Bach Choir and the Kenfig Hill & District Male Voice Choir. Recent concert highlights include accompanying Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle and Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana. Alongside the wealth of vocal music he is involved with, Alex is also a member of the Apollo Trio with violinist Oliver Nelson and clarinettist Paul Vowles, having recently completed a thrilling recital series around the South of England.
Martyn Noble is currently Acting Director of Music at H.M. Chapel Royal, St. James’s Palace, Musician-in-Residence at Highgate School and Teacher of Organ and Piano Accompanist at the Royal College of Music Junior Department. As part of his role at St. James’s Palace, he led the choir in the National Service of Remembrance at the Cenotaph and directed the choir for the Annual Royal Maundy service with the distribution of Maundy Money by His Majesty The King. As a performer, his recital appearances include Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Canterbury, St. Paul’s and both Liverpool Cathedrals. In February 2020, he made his debut with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra in the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Hall.
More recently, Martyn has performed for the London Festival of Contemporary Church Music in London and, during Summer 2023, gave the opening recital at Himmerod Abbey’s Orgelsommer in Germany. In 2018, he was also fortunate enough to play Keyboard 2 for the UK tour of ‘Miss Saigon’.
In 2015,
Martyn graduated with a first class Bachelor of Music degree from London’s Royal College of Music and has completed his Fellowship of the Royal College of Organists (FRCO) and Licentiate of the Royal Schools of Music (LRSM) diplomas in Organ Performance in 2023 and 2011 respectively. Martyn has appeared live on BBC Radios 3 and 4 and has recorded for Novello, Boosey & Hawkes and for choral CD’s with Priory and Signum records. He also plays annually for Classic FM’s broadcast of Carols from Buckingham Palace, which airs immediately after H.M. The King’s speech on Christmas Day, although last Christmas he also directed the choir for it.
As a composer, Martyn has written several choral works, all of which have received premieres, he is currently published by Chichester Music Press.