Ikon & David Hill
Biography Ikon & David Hill
Ruairi Bowen
Highly acclaimed British tenor Ruairi Bowen is increasingly in demand on both the operatic and concert stage.
Engagements during 2024 / 2025 include Damon Acis and Galatea for Opera Holland Park; Thespis – Mercure Platée for National Theatre, Prague; Evangelist / Arias St John Passion with Polyphony & Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, A Baroque Christmas with English Baroque Soloists and Lechmere Owen Wingrave at Festival della Valle d'Itria in Martina Franca.
Engagements in the 2023 / 2024 season included his debut with English National Opera as Earl Tolloller Iolanthe; First Armed Man Die Zauberflöte with Scottish Chamber Orchestra at Edinburgh International Festival; staged performances of Die Schöpfung at Lithuanian National Opera; Handel’s Messiah at Dubai Opera House, multiple roles in Purcell's The Indian Queen with Le Concert d’Astrée, Cyril Princess Ida with Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Evangelist / Arias St John Passion with Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, J. S. Bach’s Easter Oratorio with Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Lili Boulanger’s Faust et Hélène with Royal Orchestral Society
Ruairi is an established interpreter of Baroque music in the UK and abroad, collaborating with some of the leading conductors in the field including Emmanuelle Haïm, Sir John Eliot Gardiner and Stephen Layton, Vaclav Luks, Peter Whelan and Christophe Rousset. An experienced Evangelist of Bach's Passions, he has performed at Wigmore Hall, Bachfest Leipzig and Snape Maltings, as well as with numerous choral societies across the UK; he will undertake the role at the annual Good Friday performance of St John Passion at St John’s Smith Square in 2025.
Other concert engagements have included B Minor Mass with Opole Philharmonic Orchestra and Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra; Christmas Oratorio with Britten Sinfonia; Magnificat and Messe in h-moll at Tilford Bach Festival, St John Passion with both the Adelaide and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras, Handel’s Messiah at Händel Festspiele Halle; The Creation with London Mozart Players; and Vaughan Williams’ A Cotswold Romance with the Lebanese Philharmonic Orchestra. He made his debut with the Philharmonia singing Dvorak’s Requiem at the 2022 Three Choirs Festival, returning in 2023 to sing Vaughan Williams Sancta Civitas.
A graduate of King's College, Cambridge, Ruairi Bowen was invited to sing on Proud Songsters, an album of English Solo Song recorded with pianist Simon Lepper, featuring distinguished former members of the world-famous chapel choir. His broadcasts and recordings further include Delius’ Hassan – Complete Incidental Music with Britten Sinfonia on Chandos CD, Percy Grainger’s Brigg Fair and Nathaniel Dett’s Music in the Mine for BBC Radio 3 and Stanford's Mass Via Victrix with the BBC National Orchestra & Chorus of Wales on Lyrita CD.
Growing up in the Welsh Marches, he developed a keen interest in exploring the integrated relationship between poetry and nature through pastoral song with recent highlights including a recital on Innocence & Experience with William Vann, performing Finzi's A Young Man's Exhortation and Tippett’s Boyhood’s End . During the live music hiatus in 2020/21, he was a Support Worker for the Children's Section of the British Refugee Council, and formed part of The Hampstead Collective, an ensemble drawn from the musicians in the resident octet at Hampstead Parish Church, with whom he has performed many of Bach’s sacred works. He continues his studies with John Lattimore and Sam Queen, and plays regularly for Addiscombe Cricket Club in the Surrey Championship.
Hilary Cronin
Selected by BBC Music Magazine as a Rising Star of 2022, Hilary Cronin won both First Prize and the Audience Prize at the 2021 London Handel International Singing Competition.
Hilary trained at Trinity Laban Conservatoire and at Royal Holloway University of London where she was awarded the Dame Felicity Lott Bursary and the Driver Prize for Excellence in Performance.
Since then, she has established a reputation as an outstanding performer of Baroque music, gaining engagements with ensembles including Academy of Ancient Music, Arcangelo, English Baroque Soloists, The English Concert, Florilegium, Irish Baroque Orchestra, London Handel Players, La Nuova Musica, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Polyphony, The Sixteen, English Chamber Orchestra, London Mozart Players, and Scottish Chamber Orchestra, as well as making her debut at the Handel Festival, Halle for Handel’s Diva, at Teatro la Fenice for Fauré Requiem and at Carnegie Hall for Handel L’Allegro with the Monteverdi Choir.
Hilary's operatic engagements have included Piacere Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno with The Early Opera Company at Buxton International Festival, Poppea Agrippina with English Touring Opera, Mother
Hansel and Gretel for Silent Opera at Opera Holland Park, Céphise Pygmalion for Dunedin Consort,
Télaïre Castor et Pollux with The Rameau Project and Mrs Waters The Boatswain’s Mate for
Grimeborne Festival.
A list of her 2025 engagements may be found on her diary page.
Her recordings include J.S.Bach Christmas Oratorio with English Baroque Soloists on DG, Second Lady Dido and Aeneas with La Nuova Musica on Pentatone SACD and Telemann Donner-Ode with Solomon's Knot on cpo.
Iain Farrington
has a busy and diverse career as a pianist, organist, composer and arranger.
Iain recently composed Street Party, an orchestral work for the final concert of Manchester Classical. It was performed at the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester by a combined symphony orchestra of players from the Hallé, BBC Philharmonic, Manchester Collective, RNCM as well as the ENO Chorus and Hallé Choir. He composed Songs of Summer, a new jazz-inspired cantata for the City of Bristol Choir. It was performed in June with Iain at the piano, alongside double bass and drum kit. Iain recently composed Talk of the Town, a new string orchestra work for his local ensemble, the Hitchin Chamber Orchestra. It celebrates their 10th anniversary and is based on places and events from the town. Iain made an arrangement for the Bastille Day celebration concert in Paris on 14th July. It was performed by the Orchestre National de France with La Maitrise de Radio France and Dom La Nena (cello/voice).
Iain made a chamber orchestra version of his score for Planet Earth III Live, which was performed in China this summer. Recent concerts include with his Art Deco Trio, chamber ensembles, singers and choirs in venues across the UK, including the Wigmore Hall, London. Iain has recently been made a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music (FRAM), awarded to select alumni for excellence in the profession. Iain has orchestrated many of the songs from the latest album by the singer/songwriter Laufey. He has also recently arranged a number of pieces for the saxophonist Jess Gillam. Iain recently composed an orchestral work for the London Soundtrack Festival called Quiz Biz. It is based on TV quiz themes, and was performed at London's Royal Festival Hall by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and at Alexandra Palace by the BBC Concert Orchestra for Friday Night is Music Night.
In 2024 Iain composed a piece for the Last Night of the Proms called Extra Time. It was performed at the Royal Albert Hall, London, with the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sakari Oramo. Iain composed/arranged a new piece for the BBC Singers centenary concert at the Barbican, London. It is called On with the Show, and is based on classic American songs from musicals. Iain composed, arranged and adapted the full orchestral score of Planet Earth III Live, for the 2024 European tour.
David Hill
Renowned for his fine musicianship, David Hill is widely respected as both a choral and orchestral conductor. His talent has been recognized by appointments as Musical Director of The Bach Choir, Music Director of Leeds Philharmonic Society and Associate Guest Conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. He was Chief Conductor of the BBC Singers (2007-2017), Principal Conductor of Yale Schola Cantorum (2013-2024), and is a former Music Director of Southern Sinfonia. In 2018 he was honoured with the prestigious Royal College of Organists medal, in recognition of distinguished achievement in choral conducting and organ playing.
In recognition of his services to music, David has been awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Southampton, an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal School of Church Music, and an Honorary Membership of the Royal Academy of Music. He has been Master of Music at Winchester and Westminster Cathedrals, Music Director of the Waynflete Singers, Artistic Director of the Philharmonia Chorus, and Director of Music at St John’s College, Cambridge. In the 2019 New Year’s Honours for services to music, David was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE).
He is in great demand for choral training workshops worldwide, and his handbook on the subject Giving Voice was published in 1995. He was previously a choral advisor to music publishers Novello, for whom he has edited several publications, and he regularly contributes articles to Choir & Organ.
With over 100 recordings to his credit, David Hill has performed virtually every style and period in the choral repertoire from Gregorian chant and Renaissance polyphony to Baroque oratorios and modern masterpieces for chorus and orchestra. He has commissioned dozens of works from leading composers of today, including Judith Bingham, Francis Pott, Patrick Gowers, Sir John Tavener, Philip Wilby and Jonathan Dove.
Guest conducting credits include some of the leading musical ensembles of Europe: the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the English Chamber Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Netherlands Radio Choir and the RIAS Kammerchor, Berlin. David also maintains an active career as organist and pianist in recitals worldwide.
