Who we are
Rufus Frowde, Musical Director
A freelance conductor, organist, pianist and composer, Rufus was Organist and Assistant Director of Music at the Chapel Royal, Hampton Court Palace from 2003 to 2023 as well as a long-serving Musical Director of Surrey Youth Choir. He has been the Musical Director of Vivamus chamber choir since 2008. He is also the Accompanist of Hertfordshire Chorus, one of the UK’s finest symphonic choirs. He became Artistic Director of The English Chamber Choir in 2024.
Rufus studied music as an Organ Scholar at Merton College, Oxford University. He subsequently became Organ Scholar of Worcester Cathedral and undertook prize-winning postgraduate study in Choral Direction and Church Music at the Royal Academy of Music.
Rufus has always maintained a versatile approach to music-making, seeking to ensure that barriers to quality music-making are overcome. As such, alongside his work as a professional musician, he nurtures the music at his local primary school (Samuel Lucas JMI School, Hitchin) as well as working as an animateur for the Chorister Outreach Project at St Albans Cathedral.
Rufus’ performances have included numerous UK cathedrals, Westminster Abbey, La Madeleine (Paris), Kaunas Cathedral, St Thomas’s Leipzig, St Paul’s Basilica (Rome), Cologne Cathedral, Haarlem Cathedral and Longwood Gardens (Pennsylvania). He has worked with musicians and performers including Emma Johnson, Crispian Steele Perkins, Kiri te Kanawa, José Carreras, Ian McMillan and Michael Rosen. He works with numerous orchestras as a guest conductor including The Hanover Band, Brandenburg Sinfonia, Southbank Sinfonia and the Brandenburg Baroque Soloists in collaboration with his choirs.
Rufus appears as a conductor, organist and composer on the Signum Classics, Resonus Classics, Diversions and Divine Art record labels and his work is frequently broadcast on national radio and television. Rufus was awarded Her Majesty’s Diamond and Platinum Jubilee Medals as well as a 2023 Coronation Medal.
Richard Hills, Accompanist and Associate Director of Music
Richard Hills is widely acknowledged as one of the very few musicians to have bridged and mastered the divide between the classical and theatre organ worlds. Having studied with William Whitehead at Rochester Cathedral he went on in turn to the organ scholarships of Exeter College Oxford, Portsmouth Cathedral and Westminster Abbey where his teachers included Rosemary Field and David Sanger. He now combines a freelance solo career with continuo, choir-training and teaching work and is the Organist of St Mary’s, Bourne Street, a central-London church noted for its Anglo-Catholic Liturgy and fine musical tradition. In January 2022 he also took up the position of Director of Music and Organist of the West London Synagogue, and is only the fifth holder of that post since 1859.
Richard’s career in the theatre organ world has been equally prestigious. He has numerous prizes and awards to his credit, both in this country and in the USA, where he was named ‘Organist of the Year’ in 2010 by the American Theatre Organ Society. He has appeared many times as a soloist on national and international TV and Radio in programmes as diverse as BBC Radio 3’s ‘Choral Evensong’ and BBC Radio 2’s ‘Friday Night is Music Night’, and he made his solo debut at the BBC Proms in 2013. He returned again to the Proms as a soloist in 2015, and appeared with the BBC Scottish Symphony and John Wilson Orchestras during the 2019 Proms season. 2019 also saw a solo recital at London’s Royal Festival Hall, alongside concerts in the USA, Europe and Sweden. His many recording credits include, most recently, a disc of British music made on the magnificent dual-purpose Compton organ of Southampton’s Guildhall, which earned a five-star review in Choir and Organ magazine.
Richard is a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists and a strong supporter of the work of the UK’s Cinema Organ Society, to whom he serves as Musical Adviser.