Staff
Greg Skidmore
Course Director
Born in Canada, Greg Skidmore arrived in England as an undergraduate at Royal Holloway College, University of London. After graduating with First Class Honours in Music, his post-graduate Choral Scholarship at Wells Cathedral led him to Lay Clerkships at Gloucester Cathedral and Christ Church Cathedral in Oxford. He now lives in London and pursues a varied career as a consort, choral, and solo oratorio singer alongside his growing commitments as a conductor and workshop leader.
Greg is one of the UK’s leading consort and choral singers, having appeared with The Tallis Scholars, The Sixteen, The Cardinall's Musick, I Fagiolini, Tenebrae, The Gabrieli Consort, Alamire, Contrapunctus, The Eric Whitacre Singers, EXAUDI, Collegium Vocale Ghent, Ensemble L’Arpeggiata, Cappella Amsterdam, La Grand Chapelle (Madrid), and the Tafelmusik Baroque Chamber Choir (Toronto), and others. He can be heard on discs released by Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, Harmonia Mundi USA, and others, including Alamire’s recent Gramophone Early Music Award winning disc, ‘The Spy’s Choirbook’ and The Tallis Scholars’ final recording in their Josquin Masses series, ‘Missa Hercules Dux Ferrarie, Missa D'ung aultre amer & Missa Faysant regretz’, which also won a Gramophone Early Music Award. In 2015, he featured in I Fagiolini’s Betrayal, a fully staged presentation of the madrigals and sacred music of Carlo Gesualdo, and in 2019 I Fagiolini toured their recent recording project Leonardo: Shaping the invisible extensively in the UK and abroad. During the pandemic, he featured in all of the Voces8 LiveFromLondon festivals, with I Fagiolini and the Voces8 Foundation Choir. Recent highlights have included performances with actress Tamsin Grieg as part of I Fagiolini’s Re-Wilding the Waste Land project and singing in his hundredth concert with The Tallis Scholars.
Solo engagements have included working with ballet dancer Carlos Acosta in his A Classical Farewell at the Royal Albert Hall; Handel’s Messiah with the Irish Baroque Orchestra; Purcell’s Ode for St Cecilia's Day with the Orchestra of the Age of the Enlightenment; Purcell's Fairy Queen with the Gabrieli Consort at the Spitalfields Festival; and Monterverdi’s 1610 Vespers at the Brighton Early Music Festival, and with I Fagiolini and the BBC Singers at the Barbican Centre’s Milton Court Concert Hall. A recent Ex Cathedra CD release of Alec Roth’s oratorio A Time to Dance features Greg in a role written for him. Greg has given workshops and masterclasses in the UK, France, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia in association with The Sixteen, I Fagiolini, and on his own. In 2015, he led The Corsham Winter School, and has worked with Eamonn Dougan, Associate Conductor of The Sixteen, and Justin Doyle, Chief Conductor of RIAS Kammerchor, as Assistant Director of the Ludlow Summer School. He is increasingly engaged in Canada as a guest conductor, clinician, and record producer, founding The Canadian Renaissance Music Summer Schools in 2018. 2023 saw an expansion of his work in Canada with the organisation, which now runs two courses each year in Ontario and British Columbia. He has been published in Early Music and his writing has appeared in programmes and CD liner notes for The Tallis Scholars, The Sixteen, The Cardinall’s Musick, The Gabrieli Consort, Tenebrae, and Ex Cathedra.
Hugh Lydon
Associate Course Director
Hugh Lydon is a teacher, singer and conductor who is passionate about choral music. This love was developed as a chorister in Westminster Cathedral from 1992-1997. Hugh studied Music Education at Trinity College Dublin, before moving to Perth in 2010. In 2017, Hugh founded the Perth Choral Institute; an organisation that delivers choral education to singers of all genres. PCI operated residential courses from 2017-2019 and multiple Boot Camps throughout each year, where singers could experience styles from Gospel to Opera Choruses.
In 2019, Hugh began employment at Aquinas College, directing the inaugural Schola Cantorum. The choristers receive rigorous choral training and perform throughout Perth. They have sung alongside many WA ensembles, including WASO, Perth Symphony Orchestra and Australian Baroque. Hugh continues his own involvement in choral music, both as a singer and as conductor. He has performed in all major WA choral ensembles, and has conducted The Giovanni Consort, WASO Chorus and St George’s Cathedral Consort.
Amy Moore
Guest Artist
Soprano Amy Moore moved to Australia from the UK in 2015. With a voice praised for its “crystalline clarity”, Amy is an adept soloist and ensemble singer, and a particular affinity for both Early and Contemporary Music. During her distinguished career in the UK, she performed with many of the leading ensembles, including The Tallis Scholars, Tenebrae, The BBC Singers, and The English Concert. As a member of EXAUDI Vocal Ensemble, Amy premiered numerous new works and collaborated with some of the world’s foremost contemporary orchestras. Her solo career highlights include radio broadcasts with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, performances with The Gabrieli Consort, and concert appearances with the Bochumer Symphoniker, Irish Baroque Orchestra, Hanover Band, and London Contemporary Orchestra.
In Australia, Amy has performed solo concerts with Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Pinchgut Opera, Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Bach Akademie Australia, and Ensemble Apex, with whom she recently gave the Australian premiere of Kitty Xiao’s In flesh ii for soprano, chamber ensemble and electronics.
Amy serves as Co-Artistic Director and Second Soprano of The Song Company, which transitioned to an artist-led model in 2023. A dynamic and versatile musician, she frequently directs concerts from within the ensemble and is increasingly sought after as both an ensemble and vocal coach. Amy takes great pride in mentoring and coaching emerging talent through The Song Company’s Artist Development Program. She is also the co-founder of CASTALIA Vocal Consort and the conductor of Phoenix Choir, based in Blackheath in the Blue Mountains.
Bonnie de la Hunty
Vocal Coach
Bonnie de la Hunty is a West Australian soprano specialising in Baroque and Classical repertoire, art song, and folk song, and a co-director of Early Music ensemble, HIP Company.
A graduate of Early Music studies at the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague, Netherlands; Masters at Royal Academy of Music, London; and WAAPA, Perth; she has also been a concert and operatic soloist with companies including the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Pinchgut Opera, West Australian Symphony Orchestra, Bach Akademie Australia, Perth Symphony Orchestra, Freeze Frame Opera, Lost and Found Opera, Adelaide Baroque, Australian Baroque, Denmark Baroque, WASO Chorus, the UWA Choral Society, and Perth Symphonic Chorus.
Bonnie has given song recitals in the Netherlands, France, UK and Australia, and sings in the St George’s Cathedral Consort, having also previously sung with ensembles The Song Company, Giovanni Consort, and Polyphony (UK).
Rachel Singer
Course Manager
Rachel Singer is a versatile classical performer hailing from Perth, Western Australia, and has recently completed a Masters in Classical Consort Singing at the University of York. While based in England, she enjoyed performing with ensembles including Ensemble Pro Victoria, Ex Corde Vocal Ensemble, The Lacock Scholars, as well as regularly with the choir at York Minster. Among her accomplishments are performances on international stages including Carnegie Hall (New York), Sheldonian Theatre (Oxford), and Hamer Hall (Melbourne), as well as involvement in operatic productions including Bernstein's 'Trouble in Tahiti', Charpentier's 'Acteon' and Rameau's 'Castor et Pollux'.
Alongside these artistic pursuits, she is a passionate arts administrator, having been involved in the management of ensembles across Australia and the United Kingdom, including I Fagiolini, The National Youth Choir of Australia, The 24, The Giovanni Consort, and Madigan Consort.
David Valsamidis
Music Coach
David, originally from London, is a bass-baritone and vocal ensemble specialist who pursued his master’s degree in Vocal Ensemble Performance at the University of York. His career includes singing alongside groups such as I Fagiolini and Siglo de Oro.
David's expertise lies in unconducted vocal ensemble techniques, where he is fascinated by the interplay between vocal expression and balance, tuning and “blend”. He is also passionate about developing and coaching a free and efficient whole-body vocal technique, enhancing both the artistry and physicality of singing.