St Salvator's Chapel Choir & Tom Wilkinson
Biographie St Salvator's Chapel Choir & Tom Wilkinson
St Salvator’s Chapel Choir
is the flagship choir of the University of St Andrews, Scotland. A mixed voice ensemble of around 30 students, its history extends back to the founding of the University in the early fifteenth century, when students were obliged to sing in the University’s chapel. These choristers were referred to as the ‘Choristi Sanctiandree’.
Today, under the direction of Tom Wilkinson, the choir performs a broad repertoire spanning the six centuries of the University’s history. In addition to three sung services per week and extensive ceremonial duties, the choir enjoys a busy schedule of concerts, international tours, broadcasts on radio and TV, as well as appearances at international festivals including, most recently, the Thueringer Bachwochen (Germany) and the Haarlem Koorbiennale (The Netherlands). Other recent tours have featured performances at Washington National Cathedral and Princeton University (USA) and with renowned baritone Peter Harvey in Sweden.
Recordings on the University’s own internationally distributed CD label have included Salvator Mundi charting 100 years of English church music after Purcell, Ca’ the Yowes, featuring British folk song arrangements and Bach and the Stile Antico, charting the evolution of the Credo from Bach’s Mass in B minor via works known to, and performed by, Bach during its composition.
Committed to the performance of new music, St Salvator’s Chapel Choir regularly commissions and performs works for both liturgical and secular contexts. In recent years the choir has been privileged to work with musicians such as Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Sir James MacMillan, Paul Mealor, Arvo Pärt and Dame Emma Kirkby.
Tom Wilkinson
is University Organist and Director of Chapel Choirs at the University of St Andrews. Under his leadership, St Salvator’s Chapel Choir has gained an international reputation for powerfully committed performances backed up by innovative research. Born in 1985, he studied at St Mary’s Music School, Edinburgh, and was subsequently Organ Scholar of Truro Cathedral, Cornwall. In 2004 he took up the Organ Scholarship at The Queen’s College, Oxford, and graduated with first-class honours in Music in 2007. In the same year, Tom took the Fellowship Diploma of the Royal College of Organists. From 2008-9 he held the position of Assistant Director of Music at Chelmsford Cathedral. Tom holds a Master’s degree in Early Keyboard Performance, with distinction, from the University of Edinburgh, and is engaged in PhD study of the pedagogical outputs of J. S. Bach and his pupils, under the supervision of Professor John Butt. He is known as a fine exponent of contemporary music, having premiered music by James MacMillan and performed as concerto soloist with Scotland’s Red Note Ensemble. In 2015 Tom founded the Kellie Consort, which exists to provide pre-professional training and performance opportunities for young musicians with a connection to Scotland.
