The Choir of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge

The Choir of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge

conducted by Catherine Groom

Founded in 1869, Fitzwilliam College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Cambridge. The choir, which has approximately 24 students, wants to look far beyond the traditional choir canon with its liturgical repertoire and welcomes committed singers with different musical backgrounds. It sings weekly services at Fitz Chapel and in concerts at College and beyond (most recently, Elgar's Dream of Gerontius at Ely Cathedral). The choir toured to Rome in 2022, singing at the Pantheon and to Ripon, Hexham and Lindisfarne Holy Island in 2023. They bring a varied program to the English Church for this free lunch concert.

Catherine Groom

Catherine Groom is director of music, preselector and bye-fellow at Fitz, where she directs the Fitz Opera and the Fitz Choir, coordinates music-making within the college, mentors students across the university in music history and writes on psalms and harps. She has played, sung and conducted for a wide range of theatres, including the Royal Shakespeare Company and Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, and in the West End, including the long-running RSC adaptations of Hilary Mantel's Booker Prize-winning novels Wolf Hall/Bring Up The Bodies, and in many dozens of operas, ranging from Monteverdi's continuo play to the world premiere of Louis Mander's opera Beowulf. She has worked extensively in film and TV, both on the soundtrack and on screen.