DIRECTOR
PATRICK CRAIG
Patrick Craig is a countertenor, harpist, teacher, lecturer and conductor.
He is a Vicar Choral at St Paul's Cathedral and over twenty years sang more than a thousand concerts with the Tallis Scholars. He is a member of The Cardinall's Musick who won the Gramophone Record of the Year award for their recording of William Byrd's Infelix ego.
Patrick Craig began conducting as Organ Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. It was here that he first staged a concert of music for women's voices featuring Britten's A Ceremony of Carols, which he also accompanied on the harp. On arriving in London to take up a place as a countertenor at the Royal College of Music, he formed Aurora Nova. Working with the finest female choral singers in London he was afforded unique opportunities as a conductor. Aurora Nova became the first all-female professional choir to lead Sunday worship at St Paul's Cathedral. He led them on their first tour of USA, and also conducted the City of London Sinfonia in a series of Orchestral Masses at St Paul's.
In 2016 Patrick became the Musical Director of the Temenos Chamber Choir in Sevenoaks. In March 2018 he conducted his first Bach B minor Mass with them, alongside soloists Rebecca Outram, Robin Blaze, Sam Boden and Tim Nelson. In March 2020 he returned to Pamoja Hall in Sevenoaks with the same forces to perform Handel's Dixit Dominus and Bach's Magnificat. Other conducting opportunities have included guest conducting The Tallis Scholars at the BBC Proms in the Albert Hall, and The Cardinall's Musick at the Lichfield, Brinkburn, Brighton and Aldeburgh Festivals. In 2019 he conducted his first Messiah in the Lichfield Festival, Biber's 53-part Missa Salisburgensis in Thaxted, and made his debut in Hong Kong conducting Tallis Vocalis. He is also Guest Conductor of the Cecilia Consort in Newbury where he has led performances of Poulenc's Gloria, Purcell's Dido and Aeneas and Rutter's Magnificat.
Patrick has also taught and directed on Tallis Scholars Summer Schools in UK, Spain, USA and Australia, and was a guest tutor on the first Early Music Academy Summer School. He has also guest conducted the Chiara Choir and led one day workshops for Beverley Early Music Festival, Brighton Consort, the Renaissance Singers and the Unicorn Singers, as well as Border Marches, Midlands, Thames Valley and Southern Early Music Forums. He also leads Lacock Courses in Monteconero, Jimena, Venice, Gargonza and Trogir, combining exploration of 16th and 17th century sacred music with its historical and cultural contexts, and courses in Krakow and Budapest for RunbySingers.
When all his conducting and singing work was cancelled in 2020, Patrick poured all his experience into online Zoom lectures which have raised significant funds for the Help Musicians Covid Relief Charity.
In 2021 Patrick was delighted to lead Aurora Nova in performances for Martin Randall Travel in Oxford, as well as recordings for the Multitude of Voyces website. Highlights in 2022 included celebrating 25 years of Aurora Nova at St Paul's, and conducting Tallis's Spem in alium for the Lichfield Festival's 40th Anniversary, as well as a new forty-part motet by Thomas Hyde. Byrd400 provided many high points in 2023 including performances on the Anniversary of the composer’s death in Wigmore Hall with The Cardinall’s Musick.