On 21 July, The Choir of King’s College, Cambridge kicks off its first Australian tour since before the pandemic and the second under its Director of Music, Daniel Hyde.

“I’d been lined up to take over the job [in 2019], but I wasn’t meant to be in Australia,” says Hyde, whose appointment had to be brought forward when his predecessor, Steven Cleobury, was indisposed.

Speaking to Limelight via Zoom from Cambridge, Hyde adds, “I ended up coming to Australia to meet the choir, essentially, and to direct the tour.”

Choir of King’s College, Cambridge. Photos © Choir of King’s College, Cambridge / Leon Hargreaves

 

In the five years that followed, Hyde faced the challenge of leading the Choir through the global pandemic. He explains that, thanks to the size of the chapel, the singers were able to come together as soon as people were allowed to emerge from lockdown.

“We were lucky in Cambridge. The boys were all living on top of each other in the boarding house at school, so they could stand in their normal places,” he says. “It was the adults behind them who had to be separated two metres apart,...