Information for members of the choir
Author: Toby
Bruges services 2024–2025
Information for members of the choir
Melting Vox
This a cappella vocal ensemble from south of Brussels specialises in 20th and 21st century music. I became their director in 2024.
Melting Vox
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
Flemish singing holidays
I have organised and directed two major choral singing holidays in Belgium: a tour of churches in summer 2019, and a residential week in a Ghent monastery in 2023. More than 50 singers took part across the two courses. The 2019 event received overwhelmingly positive feedback in our follow-up questionnaire, including 100% of attendees saying they would recommend it to a friend. The 2023 event is still accruing feedback but that also looks overwhelmingly positive, with demand for a third trip in a future year.
English music in Belgium
I’m involved in various English-style choir activities in Belgium, including leading the choir at KU Leuven’s Anglican chapel (St Martha & St Mary’s).
Science advice for policy
Since 2018, I’ve led science communication for the European Commission’s Scientific Advice Mechanism as Head of Communications for SAPEA. It’s a very lively and challenging role which demands subject knowledge, creativity, hands-on communications skills, strategic thinking and (increasingly) team leadership. It’s not just about communicating the science behind our advice — it’s also about raising awareness of issues at the science-policy interface, and stimulating debate in society about the roles scientific evidence should play.
Choral music
I’ve conducted choirs and trained singers for more than 20 years. I’ve been lucky to be involved with some very exciting ensembles, ranging from really top-rate chamber choirs (and associated chamber orchestras) to community and youth groups in the north of England.
I also arrange and compose, mostly for choirs, mostly unreliably and inconsistently. Some of what I produce is worth listening to.
Txoriak
I arranged and directed three short (very short!) Basque songs for Lassenne Vocale, a choir in Brussels.
Singing week in a Ghent monastery, 2024
Singing in a monastery in Ghent.
Deep Dive choral music
In the first few years following my move to Belgium in 2016, I did very little conducting, but instead created some in-depth tutorial videos to help beginning choir conductors explore some of the classics of the repertoire. I occasionally add new videos now, at a rate of 1 or 2 per year.
Podcasting
I produce and present an ongoing podcast for the European Commission’s Scientific Advice Mechanism. It’s a series of long-form interviews about the interface between science and politics, focusing particularly on science advice and evidence-informed policymaking.
I’ve interviewed some big names (big in the science advice world, that is!), but also a range of early-career researchers and off-the-wall guests. The show has become pretty well known in science advice circles in Europe, and it’s a lot of fun — if you’re into that kind of thing.
Communicating uncertainty in science
In an extremely unlikely turn of events, I was the lead author for a paper about microplastics pollution published in the journal Environment International, and subsequently cited in Nature. I don’t think this is too bad an achievement, given that my highest science qualification is a school certificate from the age of 16.
Bru-Tube
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
Choral evensong in Bruges
The many Christian churches of the Belgian city of Bruges hold an annual massed service in the spectacular Sint-Salvatorskathedraal. In 2019, the Anglican community hosted a service of full choral evensong with more than a thousand people in attendance. I directed it.
Libricini
Libricini is an upper-voice chamber choir based in Norwich, UK. They perform a wide variety of music, much of it very challenging, and rehearse intensively for just two days before each performance. I was fortunate enough to direct the group from 2009 until I moved to Brussels in 2016, during which time we commissioned and premiered several new works.
Micklegate Singers
The Micklegate Singers is an amateur chamber choir, well known in the north of England, specialising in contemporary music and little-known older material. Their regular director is Nick Carter, but I was their Associate Conductor from about 2006 until 2015. This meant that I took rehearsals when their regular conductor was away, as well as directing their Christmas concert every year. I also took over as main conductor in 2012 when their regular director took an extended leave of absence, and led the choir on its first international exchange to Norway in 2013.
The Clerkes of All Saints
In the UK, I founded and directed the Clerkes of All Saints. We performed high-quality music, mostly in cathedral and church settings. I led the choir for six years, during which time we quickly established ourselves as Yorkshire’s leading liturgical chamber choir and developed a reputation for musical and liturgical excellence. We made our first studio recording in 2013, and were in residence at Gloucester cathedral in 2015.
The Clerkes’ mass
In the Anglican choral tradition, there are lots of interesting unaccompanied settings of the evening canticles, but very few interesting unaccompanied mass settings. This is my attempt to fill the gap. It was premiered in 2019 by the Clerkes of All Saints, directed by Chris Hamlett.
Visual design and layout
As well as writing, I’ve done a lot of visual design for both printed and online communications over the years. Here are some samples.
Li p’tit banc
This is a romantic song in Wallonian French dialect, recorded by the excellent Brussels Chamber Choir directed by Helen Cassano, and available on their Made in Brussels CD.
Doctors’ moral beliefs and public policy
This is my PhD thesis, if for some reason you really want to read it.
Game tutorials
I wrote and edited the rules for several popular board games on the Dized app.
Philosophy
My PhD examines conscientious objection by doctors, a topic at the intersection between public policy, religious belief and medical ethics.
I have a professional interest in the philosophy of science and an ongoing amateur fascination with the philosophies of religion, language, cognition and games.
Skipton Choral Society
Skipton Choral Society sings a wide variety of works, large and small, including the traditional repertoire of English choral societies and a lot more besides. Sadly I could only work with them for a couple of years before moving abroad, but it was a very rewarding experience.
Speech-writing
I’ve written my fair share of speeches for people much more important than me to read from podiums. Here’s one I wrote for the erstwhile prime minister of Bulgaria. (Yep.)
South Bank Singers
The South Bank Singers is a group of about 30 adults who meet to tackle challenging music in a relaxed atmosphere, and perform at venues around York, UK. I was their founding conductor.
Magic words
This piece sets fragments from two national epic poems of Finland. According to these poems, music — and specifically singing — is not just a form of artistic expression but also a kind of creative magic.
Myn lyking
I collaborated with John Morgan, another York-based composer, to put together a set of English carols for the Micklegate Singers in York, UK. The other pieces were arrangements; this was my only original contribution.
Party of European Socialists
When I first moved from the UK to Brussels, I spent two years as Senior Communications Advisor to the Party of European Socialists. My particular responsibility was press and media relations, but I also had a role in publications, events planning, campaigns and many other areas.
Doorstep EU
I conceived and created a phone app, Doorstep EU, in the early days of Britain’s EU referendum campaign. Originally intended for doorstep campaigners, it provided daily in-depth analysis and mythbusting of the main EU-related stories in the British media. By the final weeks of the campaign it had over 20,000 active users — including Labour MPs, BBC journalists, politicians and activists.
UK referendum campaign
I was closely involved in the 2016 UK referendum on EU membership — on the losing side, unfortunately. Alongside being head of communications to the leader of the Labour party in the European Parliament, I was seconded as a communications advisor to former home secretary Alan Johnson, who led Labour’s campaign.
Political mythbusting
Mostly through being in the right place at the right time, I’ve had the opportunity to lead high-profile public communication campaigns on European issues in Britain — including conceiving and developing a widely-used mythbusting app during the EU referendum campaign, advising the Remain campaign for the UK Labour party, and serving as Head of Communications to a senior British MEP.
I’m now a post-Brexit Brit, living and working in Belgium.
How to talk about Europe
As part of the UK’s referendum campaign in 2016, I was commissioned to write some guidelines for well-meaning political journalists and campaigners on how to avoid traps when discussing Europe.
Sad to say, this stuff is no use to anyone any more. I guess we didn’t avoid enough of the traps.
The road goes ever on
This set of songs for upper voices and guitar, based on Tolkien poems, was first performed by the Larks quartet in Northampton. I originally composed it as a present for a friend.
Two Cornish songs
I composed two settings of texts by Cornish poet Maureen Jackett. ‘The freedom of Cornwall’ won the 2015 prize for composition at the Cornish Gorsedd, which is not an especially exciting achievement since I believe there were only two other entries.
Aeolian responses
These had their first outing at Gloucester cathedral on Trinity Sunday, 2015.
Fragments
An upper-voice choir in Norwich, UK, is called ‘Libricini’ after the famous notebooks in which Leonardo da Vinci scribbled various sketches and ideas throughout his life. For the choir’s first tour (to the Yorkshire Dales in 2015), I set some of Leonardo’s scribblings to music.
Volunteering at festivals
Until 2015, I was a supervisor every summer at one of the UK’s biggest popular music festivals. I managed a team of about 60 volunteer stewards, with frontline responsibility for the safety of thousands of music fans.
