Jeremy Summerly (centre) playing crumhorn
with Michael Fontes (left) and David Tidy (right)

Jeremy Summerly was educated as a chorister at Lichfield Cathedral (1969-74), at Winchester College (1974-78), and at Oxford University (1979-82) from where he graduated with First Class Honours in Music (1982). While in Oxford he was a choral scholar at New College and conducted the New College Chamber Orchestra (1980-81) and The Oxford Chamber Choir (1981-2). 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 in the following year (1990) he was appointed conductor of Schola Cantorum of Oxford. He has also acted as guest conductor for the New London Chamber Choir, The Cardinall's Musick, and the Tallis Chamber Choir. Since 1991 he has conducted over thirty recordings spanning the music of nine centuries and as a writer he has contributed articles to Early Music, The Musical Times, Choir & Organ, Leading Notes, and Classic CD. In 1996 he became Head of Academic Studies at the Royal Academy of Music and in 1999 he was also appointed Head of Undergraduate Programmes.

Jeremy Summerly has given concert tours throughout Europe and the United States as well as in Japan, Indonesia, Hong Kong, South Africa, and Botswana. He has conducted at the BBC Proms, at the Aldeburgh, Exeter, Ryedale, South Kesteven, Docklands, and Kumamoto Festivals, and at the Tage Alter Musik in Regensburg. He has conducted world premières of music by Sir John Tavener, Giles Swayne, Tarik O'Reagan, Viktor Ekimovsky, and Dimitri Smirnov, 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, and the Britten Sinfonia in Oxford. 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 awarded honorary associateship 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 four 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), Fair Oriana - Madrigals in celebration of Elizabeth I (February, 2002), and Thomas Tallis - English Sacred Music (June, 2004),