The internationally-acclaimed Youth Choir

NICHOLAS SHAW’s dynamic and vibrant approach to music making is quickly establishing him as an exciting and inspiring leader of young voices in choirs around the UK. Nicholas has been involved with Cantate since 2003 as Assistant Music Director and Principal Accompanist, and has appeared with Cantate at concerts and competition successes both in the UK and abroad. His abilities as an accompanist have seen him perform in venues as diverse as football stadiums and market squares, churches and concert halls, and he was part of the team that won the UK’s only gold medal in the 2008 World Choir Games in Austria. He took over the leadership of the choir with Graham Instrall in January 2010. Nicholas also directs the choirs of the Junior Department of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London where he has extended the reach of the choral programme of the School to include a popular boy’s choir and a series of collaborative events with other art forms, which will culminate with a newly commissioned work for singers and dancers at the Royal Festival Hall at the end of March. Nicholas’s commitment to the essential place of choral singing in every child’s education, his interest in making vocal physiology and good singing practice relevant to young people and his wide experience of a worldwide repertoire results in many invitations to lead workshops in schools and colleges, most recently as part of the Government’s initiative ‘Sing Up’, placing singing at the heart of every school child’s life.
Nicholas trained as an organist and choral director at Oxford, as Organ Scholar of Magdalen, and then at the Royal Academy of Music in London where he won a scholarship to study choral conducting. He worked at Westminster Cathedral and the Chapel Royal, St James’s Palace before being appointed Organist and Choirmaster to the Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn in 2004. He maintains a parallel career as an organist, with a busy diary of recitals and performances.

GRAHAM INSTRALL has been playing drums and percussion since he was at school
and now keeps himself busy as a professional freelance musician. He has performed across Europe and America with many different orchestras and choirs, including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony Chorus, Chamber Orchestra of London and the English Pops
Orchestra, and with rock bands such as Electric Music and Indigo Glass. Graham has recorded for numerous artists and ensembles, including the RPO (Tring), Billy Mackenzie (Nude), Daniella Ganeva (Cala, GMN & Signum), Cantate, Hertfordshire Chorus (Meridien), Philip Sheppard (Bluesnow), Electric Music, Boo Hooray and Songs from a Random House (Sargasso). He is an occasional composer, having written music for BBCTV and a variety of other groups and artists, and is also the resident teacher of percussion at the prestigious Latymer School
in north London.
Graham has been closely associated with choirs. In 1994, Michael invited Graham to play percussion for Cantate's very first Christmas concert, following which he has managed to play for almost every Cantate concert and event in the calender to date! Since those early days Graham's role has developed somewhat. In addition to his drumming for concerts, Graham has directed the choir
percussion groups and, as one of Michael's assistants, has worked very closely with the training choir, directing them both in rehearsal and performance. His skills as a choral rhythm coach have now been recognised beyond Cantate with Graham giving workshops to numerous choirs across the South East.