We are delighted to announce Sarah Latto and Tori Longdon as our first two Associate Conductors, following a highly competitive application process.

Sarah will join us in February and Tori will take over the baton in August.

A graduate of Cambridge University, Sarah Latto was a Conducting Scholar with Genesis Sixteen in 2015-16 and is the artistic director of the young professional ensemble Echo. Alongside conducting, Sarah works as an accompanist and orchestrator, and runs a composer collective called The Coveryard.

Tori Longdon studied at Durham University and the Royal Academy of Music. She now conducts a number of ensembles and has founded and directs the young professional ensemble Consort of Voices. Tori also works regularly with the National Youth Choir of Great Britain and is an adjudicator for BBC Songs of Praise’s Young Choir of the Year competition.

Both Associate Conductors will work closely with the many different elements of Ex Cathedra, and will rehearse and perform one of the widest repertoires of any choral group.

During the spring, Sarah will assist with our period performances of Purcell’s The Indian Queen (Birmingham Festival of Early Music and London Festival of Baroque Music), Monteverdi’s 1610 Vespers (St David’s Hall, Cardiff), Latin American Baroque music and two Bach cantatas. She will also be involved as Ex Cathedra give the premieres of new commissions from Alec Roth and Stevie Wishart.

Our programme for the autumn is yet to be announced, but Tori will be involved in an equally wide range of repertoire.

The Associate Conductors will take parts of the rehearsals for all of our projects and will conduct one concert from our season. They will also be involved in artistic planning, will get to know the composers we are commissioning and will engage with the research projects we have in the pipeline.

Jeffrey Skidmore said:

“I’m hugely excited about this scheme. The application process was very competitive and we were inspired by the number of applications. Having watched Sarah and Tori work during the autumn, and spent time getting to know them, I was keen to offer them both this opportunity to develop their career, and to work with a group of outstanding musicians who seek artistic excellence and enjoy making music together.”

We will reopen the application process later this year to recruit candidates for the scheme in 2020 as we build towards the appointment of an Assistant Conductor in 2021.

More details about the scheme are available here, and you can read more about Sarah here and Tori here.