vocal tuition
All choir members and organ scholars receive regular free in-house training from one of our expert singing teachers – David Lowe and Kate Symonds-Joy.
Each choir member is encouraged to develop their voice as guided by their teacher. Some singers stay with the same teacher throughout their time at Caius, but change is often possible between years.
Kate Symonds-Joy
Kate Symonds-Joy graduated with a First Class music degree from Cambridge University and a DipRAM from the Royal Academy Opera Course.
Concert highlights include Bach's Christmas Oratorio in Sydney Opera House, Rutter's Feel the Spirit at the Barbican, Elgar’s Sea Pictures with the RPO and Christopher Robinson, Mahler's Symphony no.2 at Cadogan Hall, Handel's Messiah at Birmingham Symphony Hall, Mozart's Requiem with Sir John Eliot Gardiner and Verdi's Requiem at the Royal Albert Hall.
Kate cycled to the most northerly inhabited part of the UK to sing Judith Weir's King Harald's Saga in the Shetland Islands' Muckleflugga lighthouse, and joined The Prison Choir Project to sing the role of Carmen with a chorus of inmates in Dartmoor and Wandsworth Prisons.
Kate sings regularly as a core member of Solomon's Knot Baroque Collective who have performed recently in the Aldeburgh Festival, Leipzig Bachfest and this year made their debuts in Wigmore Hall and in the Royal Albert Hall for the BBC Proms.
Kate has taught choral scholars at both St John's Voices and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge since 2014.
David Lowe
David Lowe has been a Caius Voice Trainer for over 30 years. After holding similar positions at Reading, Warwick and Oxford Universities he has made Cambridge his base, helping train the choirs and preparing singers for their university recitals. Many Choral Scholars from Caius, St John’s, King’s, Trinity, Clare and Jesus Colleges have continued their post-graduate singing education with David at the Royal Academy of Music, where he was a professor of singing for some 15 years and at the Royal Northern College of Music, where he now works as a Principal Study Vocal Tutor.
David was a Choral Scholar at King’s College and studied singing at the Royal College of Music. Alongside his busy professional singing life he has developed a role as a conductor. He is a Director of the Cambridge University Chamber Choir, was the Associate Conductor of the Oxford Bach Choir and was Master of the Music of Norwich Cathedral from 2007-2011. He teaches singing to the Choristers at St John’s College.
He has worked at the Eton Choral Course each summer for many years and gives regular masterclasses at the Den Jyske Sangskole in Herning, Denmark.
“Voices of good, fresh quality, ears well-attuned to each other and admirable alertness on matters of phrasing and rhythm.”