Jeremy Summerly graduated from Oxford University with First Class Honours in Music in 1982. After graduating, he worked as a Studio Manager for BBC Radio (1982-89), founded the Oxford Camerata (1984), and undertook musicological research at King's College, London (1987-97). In 1989 he became a lecturer in the department of Academic Studies at the Royal Academy of Music, and from 1990-96 he was conductor of Schola Cantorum of Oxford. He has also acted as guest conductor for the New London Chamber Choir, The Cardinall's Musick, the Tallis Chamber Choir, and the Elysian Singers of London. He has conducted over forty recordings spanning the music of nine centuries and as a writer he has contributed articles to Early Music, The Musical Times, BBC Music Magazine, Choir & Organ, Leading Notes, and Classic CD. From 1996 - 2007 he was Head of Academic Studies at the Royal Academy of Music and from 1999 - 2007 he was also Head of Undergraduate Programmes. In 1997 he was appointed Sterndale Bennett Lecturer in Music.

Jeremy Summerly has given concert tours throughout Europe and the United States as well as in Israel, Indonesia, Hong Kong, South Africa, and Botswana. He has conducted at the BBC Proms, the Berlin Philharmonie, the Palestine Mozart Festival, and at the Tage Alter Musik in Regensburg. He has conducted world premières in the composers' presence of music by Viktor Ekimovsky, Dimitri Smirnov, Joel Eriksson, Ruth Byrchmore, Mark Edgeley-Smith, Nicholas O'Neill, and Antony Pitts, UK premières of music by Franco Donatoni and Maciej Zielinski, and the London premiére of I am the true vine by Arvo Pärt. As well as working with choirs, he founded the Oxford Camerata Instrumental Ensemble in 1992 and the Royal Academy Consort in 2002; he has also conducted the Northern Chamber Orchestra in Manchester, the Ensemble Ste Geneviève in Paris, the Britten Sinfonia in Oxford, and the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields in London. In 1995 he was a recipient of a European Cultural Prize from the European Association for the Encouragement of the Arts (Basel, Switzerland) and in 1997 he was made an honorary associate of the Royal Academy of Music. As a liturgical musician he sang for over a decade (1987-98) at St Margaret's Westminster and has conducted the liturgical choirs at many other London churches; from January 1999 until June 2002 he was Director of Music at Christ Church, Chelsea. As a BBC Radio 3 writer and presenter he has made programmes in locations all around the UK as well as in Belgium, France, Holland, Iceland, Israel, and the USA. He has published three volumes for Faber Music: Gaudete! - Medieval Songs and Carols for upper voices (August, 1999), Passetime with good company - Medieval Songs and Carols for mixed voices (June, 2000), and Fair Oriana - Madrigals in celebration of Elizabeth I (February, 2002). Since January 2003 he has been a regular contributor to BBC Radio 4's daily arts programme Front Row.
 

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Last modified: Tuesday, 20 November 2007