My parents were writers and journalists, but interested in music. My dad listened to classical music and my mum was keen on Swinging Sixties’ pop. They took me to a performance by the Finchley Children’s Music Group, which was the professional children’s choir set up by Benjamin Britten. I ended up auditioning, and got in, which was a life-changing experience. When you’re eight years old, you don’t know that contemporary music is meant to be ‘difficult’; that’s just what you’re singing.

Ruth Mackenzie

Ruth Mackenzie. Photo © Kiran Ridley

So, that was my training, and it’s meant that I’ve always loved and accepted the work of living composers. There was an all-London schools’ choir, so later on I got to sing the St Matthew Passion every Easter and the Bach Chorales in the Royal Festival Hall. So, I started with Britten and his contemporaries, and then progressed to Verdi, Mozart, Beethoven and Bach – that’s an unusual musical education.

As for playing a musical instrument, I started on the recorder and graduated to the violin. I have a theory that you’re either a scraper or a blower. After a couple of years scraping away...