Choral Course 4: Selwyn College, Cambridge
Saturday 16th August - Friday 22nd August 2025
Director: Simon Toyne
📸 By Arevik
Simon Toyne has been a Director of the Rodolfus Choral Courses since 2012, leading courses every summer in Cambridge, Cheltenham, Durham, Liverpool, Oxford and York. One of the country’s leading music educators and choral conductors, he received his musical training as a chorister in Exeter Cathedral Choir, later becoming Organ Scholar of University College, Oxford. For 24 years, he was Director of the Tiffin Boys’ Choir, preparing them for projects with the major conductors in the world, including Pappano, Rattle, Gergiev, Maazel, Elder, Masur and Salonen, leading the choir on over twenty foreign tours, including to Australia, New Zealand, the USA and Russia, and conducting the choir in concert with the Brandenburg Symphony Orchestra, London Mozart Players, Sinfonia Britannica and Philharmonia Orchestra. Under his direction, the choir took part in over 270 performances of operas at the Royal Opera House, also working with the Bolshoi Opera and Mariinsky Opera. As Director of Music at All Saints’ Church, Kingston, a post he held consecutively with that of Assistant Head & Director of Music at Tiffin School, the choir broadcast on BBC1, Radio 4 and World Service Radio, and over 20 choristers gained choral scholarships to Oxford and Cambridge.
Since 2015, he has been Executive Director of Music of the David Ross Education Trust, where he is responsible for the development of a music programme for over 14,500 children across 34 state primary and secondary schools in the East Midlands. His work at DRET has included the award-winning Singing Schools programme for primary schools, developing a trust-wide primary and secondary music curriculum, fostering a network of partner organisations including Gabrieli Roar, Nevill Holt Opera, Sing Up, the Royal Opera House and the Voices Foundation, creating a team of professional musicians in residence, and devising The DRET Music Way, a guide for music teachers and senior leaders to develop meaningful music provision in schools.
Simon is a member of the monitoring board for the National Plan for Music Education, having previously served on the Department for Education’s Expert Panels for developing the National Plan for Music Education and the Model Music Curriculum. His chapter on curriculum music in the recent book What Should Schools Teach? was published in January 2021 and is available as an open access pdf from UCL Press. He is the Founder President of the Music Teachers Association and is Music Director of the Northampton Bach Choir.
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Selwyn College, Cambridge, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Cambridge. The college has a strong tradition of choral excellence, with its chapel choir renowned for high-quality music. The college is situated on Grange Road, Cambridge CB3 9DQ, within easy reach of Cambridge city centre.
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You must be between the ages of 15 and 22 to apply for this course. If you are 15, you must currently be in Year 11. If you are in year 10, please take a look at our Choral Course in York or at the Junior Choral Courses.
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The cost of this course is ÂŁ1275. There are a number of payment options available:
ÂŁ250 deposit followed by an invoice to pay the remaining balance via a bank transfer by 31st March 2025
ÂŁ250 deposit followed by two invoices - one to pay 50% of the remaining balance by 31st March 2025 and the other to pay the remainder by 5th July 2025.
The full ÂŁ1275 on application using a credit card (plus a 1.5% Stripe transaction fee)
A monthly payment plan to be completed 6 weeks before the start of the course (5th July 2025) following a deposit of ÂŁ250 on application. (monthly payments will be subject to a 1.5% Stripe processing fee)
Through one of the Foundation’s means-tested bursaries. See more below.
The refund policy is the same whichever payment option you choose. A full refund is available if you cancel the place by 5pm on 5th July 2025. 50% refund is available if cancelled after 5pm on 5th July and before 5pm on 26th July 2025. No refund is available if you cancel after 5pm on 26th July 2025. (Stripe processing fees are not refundable.)
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Our bursaries are awarded based on financial need, and the amount awarded is calculated on a sliding scale, which is means-tested. You can read about the criteria here as well deadlines and what information we need. You can apply for a bursary as part of registering for the course.
If you do not meet the criteria to receive a bursary from The Rodolfus Foundation, you may wish to look for other sources of funding. We have a list here which you may find helpful.
VISITS & GUESTS
Ben Parry has a busy career as a conductor, composer, singer, arranger and music producer, and is Director of the professional choir London Voices. He studied Music and History of Art at Cambridge University, where he was a member of King’s College Choir. In the mid-1980s he joined The Swingle Singers with whom he toured globally and performed with some of the world’s greatest musicians including Stephane Grappelli, Pierre Boulez and Dizzy Gillespie. Moving to Edinburgh in 1995, he co-founded the Dunedin Consort, which has gone on to establish itself as Scotland’s premiere Baroque ensemble. He moved back to England in 2003 and has since held various prestigious directorial posts at St. Paul’s School, London, Junior Royal Academy of Music, King’s College Cambridge, Aldeburgh Festival and Artistic Director of the National Youth Choir. As director of London Voices he has performed in major concert houses around the world as well as conducting many major film soundtracks including Harry Potter, The Hobbit and Avengers. As an orchestral conductor he has worked with the Academy of Ancient Music, Britten Sinfonia, London Mozart Players, Seville Royal Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony, London Philharmonic and BBC Concert Orchestras. Ben’s own compositions and arrangements include a burgeoning catalogue of choral music for Peters Edition and OUP. He has enjoyed commissions from, among others, the St John’s College, Cambridge, BBC Singers, Chelmsford, Ely, Norwich and Worcester cathedrals, and his music has been heard at the BBC Proms and on the TV and radio. Ben features on the credits of well over 300 recordings, broadcasts and film soundtracks.
Visiting Conductor
Ben Parry
Equally at home on the concert and opera stages, Carolyn Sampson has enjoyed notable successes in the UK as well as throughout Europe and the rest of the world.
Last season marked an incredible achievement for Carolyn as she celebrated her recording legacy with the release of her 100th album as a featured solo artist. Over the last twenty-five years of her career, she has sung with countless world-class musicians and these recordings serve as testament to both her versatility as an artist and the scope of her repertoire. In 2024 she was awarded an OBE in the King’s New Year Honours and was elected an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music.
Recent performance highlights include her debut at Berlin Staatsoper singing Créuse in a new Peter Sellers production of Charpentier’s Medée conducted by Sir Simon Rattle, Mahler’s 8th Symphony (soprano 1) with NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester under Semyon Bychkov, Bach’s Passions with the Netherlands and Rotterdams Philharmonisch Orckest and concerts with the Česká Filharmonie, Budapesti Fesztiválzenekar, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks and a European Tour with Bach Collegium Japan including a return to the BBC Proms. She presented recitals at the Wigmore Hall, Queen’s Hall Edinburgh, the Muziekgebouw Amsterdam as part of the Grote Zangers series, for Leeds Lieder and for International Lied Festival Zeist.
This season she looks forward to Haydn’s Die Schöpfung/Creation with both the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris under Masaaki Suzuki at the Paris Philharmonie and with the CBSO under Kazuki Yamada, another European tour with Bach Collegium Japan, solo programmes with La Scintilla at Opernhaus Zurich with Riccardo Minassi, with the Freiburger Barockorchester, and returns to the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks and Dresdner Philharmonie.
Having begun her career in the early music world she has forged long-standing relationships with many renowned groups among them Bach Collegium Japan, the Academy of Ancient Music, The Sixteen, and Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century. Carolyn also cherishes her relationships with some of the world’s finest symphony orchestras. She has been a regular guest with the Concertgebouworkest, Rotterdams Philharmonisch Orkest, Gürzenich Orchester Köln, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, the BBC Scottish and BBC Philharmonic as well as the Boston Symphony, San Francisco Symphony and Philadelphia Orchestra to name but a few. Recent additions to her repertoire have included Strauss’ Vier Letzte Lieder and Dutilleux’s Correspondances, which pieces she has performed in the UK, The Netherlands and Croatia. She is proud to be part of the Minnesota Orchestra’s Mahler series with whom she recorded both the 4th and 8th Symphony with Osmo Vänskä for the BIS label.
Carolyn has had the pleasure of working with other inspiring conductors such as Harry Bicket, Ivor Bolton, Riccardo Chailly, Jonathan Cohen, Andris Nelsons, Yannick Nezet-Seguin, Trevor Pinnock, Donald Runnicles and Ludovic Morlot. She is a regular at international festivals such as the BBC Proms, Aldeburgh, Schleswig Holstein and Dresdner Musikfestspiele.
On the opera stage her roles have included the title role in Semele and Pamina in The Magic Flute for English National Opera, various roles in Purcell’s The Fairy Queen for Glyndebourne Festival Opera (released on DVD), and Anne Truelove The Rake’s Progress and Mélisande Pelléas et Mélisande in Sir David McVicar’s productions for Scottish Opera. In the 21/22 season she sang Cleopatra in Handel’s Giulio Cesare at the Palau de la Musica in Barcelona. She has also appeared at Opéra de Paris, Opéra de Lille, Opéra de Montpellier and Opéra National du Rhin, and sang the title role in Lully’s Psyché for the Boston Early Music Festival, which was released on CD and subsequently nominated for a Grammy in 2008.
A consummate recitalist, Carolyn Sampson appears regularly at the Wigmore Hall and has given recitals at the Oxford International Song Festival, Leeds Lieder, Saintes and Aldeburgh Festivals as well as at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Barcelona, Freiburg, Oper Frankfurt, Pierre Boulez Saal Berlin, Vienna Konzerthaus, Carnegie Hall and on tour in Japan.
Carolyn has had a celebrated song partnership with pianist Joseph Middleton for over a decade. Their debut recording 'Fleurs', was released 2015 on the BIS label and was nominated in the solo vocal category of the Gramophone Awards as is their most recent album “But I Like to Sing”.
Alongside her longstanding relationship with the BIS label, she has released award-winning discs for Decca, Harmonia Mundi, and Hyperion, receiving accolades including the Choc de l'Année Classica!”, an ECHO Award, and a Diapason D’or. Gramophone Awards include 'A French Baroque Diva (recital 2015), Mozart’s Mass in C minor and Exsultate Jubilate (Choral 2017) and Bach St Matthew Passion (Choral 2020).
đź“·: Marco Borggreve
Vocal Masterclass
Carolyn Sampson
FURTHER INFORMATION
ARRIVAL TIMES
The arrival time on day 1 is different from that of any previous Choral Course. Singers must now arrive between 11:00am and 11:30am on the first day. The course will conclude on the final day between 5:00pm and 6:00pm.
REFERENCES
As part of your application, we kindly ask for a brief reference from a singing or music teacher. This reference does not affect your acceptance onto the course. Instead, it helps our directors and singing teachers better understand your musical journey so far. Please note, references are only accepted through our online portal. The link to the online portal will be emailed to you once you have registered.
INTERNATIONAL APPLICANTS
We welcome applications from singers outside of the UK. However, please note that course fees will include an approximate 3.25% card processing fee.
MORE QUESTIONS?
Please check out the main Choral Courses page for further information, including information for organists, Duke of Edinburgh Awards, and what’s included.