Musical Director and Accompanist
Musical Director
David Temple MBE
In 2018 David Temple was awarded the MBE for services to music. He has been Musical Director of Hertfordshire Chorus since September 2000. Under his direction the Chorus has performed a wide range of music, including several world premières including Roland Perrin songs from the cage, Howard Haigh’s Land of Light, Orlando Gough’s Ice, Will Todd’s Mass in Blue (which has been one of the most successful choral commissions in recent years, with over 200 performances) and Ode to a Nightingale, and James McCarthy’s Codebreaker and One Giant Leap. The most recent commission was Shruthi Rajasekar’s Sarojini in 2022. David has also recorded both James McCarthy’s Codebreaker and Will Todd’s Ode to a Nightingale with the BBC Concert Orchestra for Signum Records. He has also recently completed the recording of the ensemble version of Karl Jenkins’s The Armed Man.
David’s musical life began when he joined the London Philharmonic Choir as a tenor in 1972, where he performed with many great conductors, including Boult, Stokowski, Solti, Haitink, Tennstedt, Barenboim, Giulini and Rattle. David developed a passion for music that has driven him ever since. He co-founded Crouch End Festival Chorus (CEFC) in 1984. He remains its musical director.
David’s work with CEFC includes: Mahler’s 8th Symphony to a sell-out Royal Festival Hall (a joint concert with Hertfordshire Chorus) and John Adams’s Harmonium in the presence of the composer. Recording work includes the successful Bach’s St John Passion (in English) with Chandos Records. Recent film work included A Cure for Wellness and Loving Vincent. He also directed the chorus on the soundtracks for the Elton John biopic Rocketman, Good Omens and The Crown. He regularly appears as chorus master at the BBC Proms, preparing choirs for Valery Gergiev, Esa-Pekka Salonen, François-Xavier Roth, Edward Gardner and Jiří Bělohlávek. In 2019, he made his conducting debut at the Proms in John Luther Adams’s In the Name of the Earth.
David’s collaborations with the pop and rock worlds include conducting on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury with Ray Davies and touring with him in the United States – and most recently at the 2017 Proms in the Park. David was the UK chorus master for the late Ennio Morricone from 2001 – 2018 and also for Andrea Bocelli since 2000. He has also worked with Noel Gallagher (High Flying Birds CD, and UK and Ireland Arena Tour), including Hertfordshire Chorus. He also works regularly with Hans Zimmer and Danny Elfman and most recently with Joe Hisaishi. In the pop and rock world, David has also worked with Muse, Take That, Procol Harum and Oasis.
Accompanist
Photograph courtesy of Glyn Davies
RUFUS FROWDE
Rufus Frowde read music at Oxford University (where he was Conductor of the Oxford University Philharmonia, Organ Scholar of Merton College and a tenor in Schola Cantorum). He performed his Finals Recital as a violinist. He subsequently became Organ Scholar of Worcester Cathedral. In 2003, Rufus took up his current post as Organist and Assistant Director of Music at the Chapel Royal, Hampton Court Palace. He combined this with prize-winning postgraduate study in Choral Direction and Church Music at the Royal Academy of Music.
Rufus appears as a conductor and organist on the Divine Art and Diversions labels. He is a passionate educator and is heavily involved in the work of Hertfordshire Music Service as an orchestral conductor and animateur (most notably as Artistic and Musical Director of the Hertfordshire Schools’ Galas at the Royal Albert Hall).
Contemporary music features highly in Rufus’s diary and he has conducted and played for numerous premieres including works by Judith Weir, Richard Allain, Ben Parry, Graham Ross, Sasha Johnson Manning, Richard Sisson and Will Todd. 2014 included his first organ recital at Westminster Abbey and the premiere of his carol Adam lay bounden at the Annual Carol Service for the Royal Academy of Arts. In 2012, Rufus was awarded Her Majesty’s Diamond Jubilee Medal.