Christopher Monks is Assistant Director of Music at The Collegiate Church of St Mary, Warwick. He also leads a successful career as a freelance conductor and solo performer, and is in great demand as a private teacher and accompanist. Born and educated in locally in Solihull, he was organ scholar at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he studied under Dr Geoffrey Webber, David Sanger, Iain Simcock and Nicolas Kynaston. Subsequently he was assistant organist at at Winchester Cathedral and Winchester College studying conducting under David Hill.
Since arriving in Warwick, Christopher has formed 'St Mary’s Scholars chamber choir’, who over the past two years have performed several concerts, including two performances of Handel’s Messiah with ‘Armonico Tributo Baroque Orchestra’. They also travelled to Paris where they were privileged to sing for High Mass at Notre-Dame. Previous concerts have included ‘Monteverdi - Vespers of 1610, a tour to Cornwall, where they performed at St Just in the Roseland peninsula and the performance of several specially commissioned new works. Future engagements include a tour to Dublin and a concert with the band of the Royal Marines at St Mary’s, on Saturday 19th May.
A Fellow of the Royal College of Organists, he performs regularly as a recitalist at home and abroad, most recent venues have included Westminster Abbey, Oxford Town Hall, Bristol Cathedral, Coventry Cathedral, and a tour of Germany. This year, he has recitals at the three major London venues - Westminster Abbey, St Paul’s Cathedral, and Westminster Cathedral, and during the summer he will tour Norway. He has regularly performed with the world famous Carlo Curley, and has further engagements with him both in Warwick, and at Derby Cathedral. He has made 14 CD recordings, mainly for ASV, Hyperion, and Priory, either as a performer or accompanist, and has undertaken successful tours with choirs and as a soloist to America, Bulgaria, Germany and throughout the UK. He records and broadcasts live regularly for the BBC and has recently been heard on BBC1, the world service, and BBC Radio’s 2, 3 and 4, whilst his recordings are regularly played on Classic FM. He will also be making several CD recordings and performing a series of Duet Recitals around the country with Christopher Allsop from Birmingham Cathedral.
From September this year, Christopher will be beginning an exciting new venture - ‘Armonico Tributo Baroque Orchestra and Chorus’. It will be a collaboration between the current orchestra, and a new semi-professional chorus. Their future plans include a concert with Emma Kirkby, a ‘Venetian Vigil’ concert for Good Friday’ and a performance of Handel’s Messiah for Warwick Arts Society’s ‘Early Music Series.’
Christopher is also Musical Director of the Derwent Singers, in September 2000. He is very proud to be the conductor of this award winning chamber choir, who have a distinguished reputation for performances of all musical genres. Their future plans include a performance of Vivaldi’s ‘Gloria’ alongside Marcello’s ‘Oboe Concerto’ and F. Scarlatti’s ‘Miserere’, a tour to Paris and a performance of Bach’s ‘St Matthew Passion’ with Armonico Tributo Baroque Orchestra and Chorus next year in Derby Cathedral.
In his spare time, Christopher works hard to improve his golf swing, and is an avid fan of horse racing.
E-mail Christopher Monks