Dr Edward Wickham

Edward Wickham was appointed Director of Music at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge in 2003 and later became Fellow and Director of Studies in Music. His duties at the College include direction of the two choirs, curating the Kellaway Concert series, and supporting a wide range of collegiate musical activities. In 2008 he formed the St Catharine’s Girls’ Choir, the first college-based choir for girls in the UK. Under his direction, the choirs of St Catharine’s have made several recordings – latterly on the Resonus label – and toured as far afield as China and the United States. The choirs have gained a reputation for ambitious and innovative programming, which has included commissioning contemporary works, collaborations with musicians from non-Western and non-classical traditions. The choirs' work is broadcast regularly on BBC Radio 3 and 4. 

Dr Wickham is an Affiliate Lecturer at the Faculty of Music in Cambridge, and delivers courses on Late Medieval and Renaissance music and its notation; for several years he was the Course Director of the MMus in Choral Studies  His current research interest entails the examination of modes of text understanding and intelligibility within a range of choral repertories. He is also the co-director of the Cambridge Early Music Consort and of the Cambridge Institute of Renaissance Studies.

Educated at Oxford and King’s College, London, where he received his PhD for a study in 15th century sacred music, Dr Wickham has throughout his career maintained a busy schedule both as conductor and academic. Soon after leaving Oxford he established the vocal ensemble The Clerks, with which he made over two dozen recordings, and received many plaudits including the Gramophone Early Music Award. As director of The Clerks, his recordings and performances of Renaissance repertoire have made a significant contribution to the understanding and appreciation of composers such as Ockeghem, Obrecht and Josquin Des Prez; and their innovative performances from manuscript facsimiles (notably a late-night BBC Proms performance) have done much to illuminate issues of period performance in Renaissance polyphony. He is equally engaged with contemporary music, commissioning new work from a wide range of British composers.

With The Clerks, Edward Wickham also collaborated with artists from different traditions, disciplines and media: including a collaboration with singers from Syria, a 24-hour sound installation involving community choirs and inter-faith groups, and a programme mixing live singing and electronics, presented in unusual venues such as a Victorian Pumping Station and Edwardian swimming baths. With the support of a Wellcome Trust grant, he worked with speech scientists and cognitive psychologists on a series of programmes exploring the intelligibility of words in music, and musical hallucinations. 

Dr Wickham is much in demand as a choral coach, and has given workshops and masterclasses throughout Europe, the USA and Far East. He is a committed advocate of choral outreach, and is the founder and Artistic Director of The Oxford and Cambridge Singing School, which runs vacation singing courses for children around the UK and internationally; and a Director of The Cambridge Choral Academy.