Prior to coming to the United States
in 1994, Simon Carrington was a creative force for twenty-five years
with the internationally acclaimed British vocal ensemble The King’s Singers, which he co-founded at Cambridge University. During his days with The King’s Singers, he gave 3,000 performances at many of the
world’s most prestigious festivals and concert halls, made more than seventy
recordings, and appeared on countless television and radio programs, including
nine appearances on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson!
After coming to the U.S., Carrington held the
position of Director of Choral Activities at the University of Kansas (from 1994 to 2001) and, then, at the New England Conservatory in Boston (from 2001 to 2003), where he was selected by the students for the Krasner
Teaching Excellence Award. From 2003 to 2009, he was professor of choral conducting at Yale University and director of the Yale Schola Cantorum, a 24-voice chamber
choir which he has brought to national and now international prominence,
attracting the interest of his successor, Masaaki Suzuki, director of the Bach
Collegium Japan.
Simon Carrington
During his Yale tenure, Carrington
led the introduction of a new graduate voice degree for singers specializing in
oratorio, early music and chamber ensemble, and helped guide two Yale graduate
students to their first prize wins in consecutive conducting competitions at
American Choral Directors Association National Conventions.
Now a Yale professor emeritus, Carrington
has conducted the Monteverdi Vespers
in Barcelona, the Fauré Requiem
in Chicago and New York, Handel's Messiah
in Dublin, Rachmaninov Vespers
in Victoria, Canada, and Prokofiev’s Alexander
Nevski in Poland. He is a regular guest conductor at the Monteverdi
Choir Festival in Budapest and the Tokyo Cantat in Japan and leads annual
conducting courses at the Chamber Choir Festival in Sarteano (Italy), and the Yale
Summer Festival in Norfolk, Connecticut. This season he has conducting engagements in
England, France, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Japan, South America, and New Zealand
as well as a selective round of performances in the U.S., including two of the
Choirs of America AMP Invitationals.
While in the U.S., Carrington will also work with his
own ensemble, the Simon Carrington
Chamber Singers, for concerts and recordings.
