MEET OUR PERFORMERS

The Choir of Royal Holloway is considered to be one of the finest mixed-voice collegiate choirs in Great Britain, with their recordings attracting top reviews from all major music publications. Created at the time of the foundation of Royal Holloway in 1886, the choir was originally only for women’s voices. The mixed choir now comprises 24 Choral Scholars who undertake a busy schedule of weekly services, as well as concerts, international tours, recordings, and TV and radio broadcasts. They are the only choir to give a weekly concert performance and during an average year give around 40- 50 concerts with a particular specialism in contemporary music.

The choir has one of the busiest recording schedules of any collegiate choir with an extensive discography with Hyperion, Decca, Signum, and Naxos amongst others. The choir is renowned for its performances of Nordic and Baltic music and has recorded works by Vytautas Miškinis, Rihards Dubra, Bo Hansson, Tõnu Kõrvits, and Ola Gjeilo to great acclaim. The 2018 release Winter Songs with Gjeilo was No. 1 in the UK and US classical charts and they have now recorded a follow-up album with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra released in September 2023. The choir’s recording of Matthew Coleridge's Requiem is already in the top 50 of Classic FM's Hall of Fame’. Following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, the choir recorded several tracks for a commemorative album released by Decca Classics which was no. 1 in the Christmas Classical Charts.

Other recent projects include two recordings of the music of Dan Locklair, collaboration with the jazz-trio Acoustic Triangle and the choir have just returned from a concert tour of southern France. The choir regularly collaborates with and performs alongside many famous ensembles. These have included the King’s Singers, the BBC Singers, The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia, London Mozart Players, Onyx Brass, Fretwork and the jazz-trio Acoustic Triangle. The group also celebrates the work of living composers and has commissioned works from Sir James MacMillan, Gabriel Jackson, Richard Rodney Bennett, Cecilia McDowall, and Paul Mealor. International performances are also an integral part of the choir’s work. They have toured most European countries, and have been broadcast on national television and radio all over the world. A tour of all three Baltic states saw the choir performing in the Latvian Song Festival with the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, in a concert (sung in Estonian) broadcast nationally on the Estonian Day of Independence.

Further afield, the group has visited Beijing and numerous tours to the US and Canada. The choir regularly sings at high-profile events which have included the Annual Festival of Remembrance at the Albert Hall (live on BBC television), an awards ceremony at Buckingham Palace, and the Magna Carta 800 celebrations, in which they performed a new work by John Rutter in the presence of HM the Queen and the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Eamonn Dougan is an inspirational communicator with a wide- ranging repertoire and is a renowned vocal coach and baritone. Eamonn is Associate Conductor of The Sixteen, founding Director of Britten Sinfonia Voices, Music Director of the Thomas Tallis Society, and Chief Conductor for Jersey Chamber Orchestra.

Alongside Eamonn’s regular conducting, recent and upcoming projects include conducting the Royal Festival Hall’s annual Messiah with Philharmonia Orchestra and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, conducting BBC Scottish Symphony for the Scottish Premiere of Taylor Scott Davis’ Magnificat at the Cumnock Tryst; directing Chamber Choir Ireland alongside leadership of its CCI Studio training programme; and a third recording in his Morales series with De Profundis on CORO. Eamonn programmed and directed The Song Company for its May/June ’25 Australian tour, ’another very imaginative programme… the brainchild of visiting Programme Director Eamonn Dougan... performed to great emotional effect, and executed brilliantly.’ (Limelight).

Eamonn returns twice to Orquesta Ciudad de Granada in coming seasons and will conduct the inaugural concert of the In Tune European Choir – a new pan-European choral project conceived with the Conservatoire de Paris. Eamonn’s orchestral and opera experience has included repertoire from Purcell Dido and Aeneas, Mozart La finta giardiniera, and Cosi fan tutte to Zingari and Puccini Le Villi with London Philharmonic Orchestra and Opera Rara. He has conducted ensembles around the world including the likes of: English National Opera (Haydn), Real Orquesta Sinfónica de Sevilla, Danish NaBonal Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica de CasBlla y León, Accentus, Cappella Amsterdam, Britten Sinfonia, Bilbao Orkestra Sinfonikoa, Narodowe Forum Muzyki Choir, Irish Baroque Orchestra, BBC Singers, Royal Northern Sinfonia and Trondheim Baroque.

World Premieres include: Errolyn Wallen Triple Concerto, James MacMillan All the Hills and Vales Along with Ian Bostridge, Sir John Tavener Flood of Beauty, Ēriks Ešenvalds Aqua, Nico Muhly Looking Forward and Jóhann Jóhannsson Orphée at the Barbican. As a passionate chamber musician, Eamonn enjoys play/direct repertoire as well as collaborating with artists such as: Nicola Benedetti, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, Roman Simovic, Chloë Hanslip, Natalie Clien, Peter Donoghoe.

Eamonn is consultant coach for the Royal Academy of Music and a Visiting Professor to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London. As Associate Director of The Sixteen, Eamonn also leads the Genesis Sixteen courses as tutor and mentor. Eamonn Dougan is managed worldwide by Percius