Simon Carrington

Simon Carrington, Yale University professor emeritus, has enjoyed a long and distinguished career in music, performing as singer, double bass player and conductor, first in the UK, and latterly in the USA and round the world.

From 2003 to 2009 he was professor of choral conducting at Yale University and director of the Yale Schola Cantorum, a 24-voice chamber choir which he brought to national and now international prominence. During his Yale tenure he led the introduction of a new graduate voice degree for singers specializing in oratorio, early music and chamber ensemble, and he guided two Yale graduate students to their first prize wins in consecutive conducting competitions at American Choral Directors Association National Conventions. From 2001 until his Yale appointment, he was director of choral activities at the New England Conservatory, Boston, where he was selected by the students for the Krasner Teaching Excellence Award and from where he received an Honorary Doctorate in 2014. From 1994 to 2001 he held a similar position at the University of Kansas.

Prior to coming to the United States, he was a creative force for twenty-five years with the internationally acclaimed British vocal ensemble The King’s Singers, which he co-founded at Cambridge University and which celebrates its 57th anniversary in 2025.

Simon now keeps up an active schedule as a freelance conductor and choral clinician, leading workshops and master classes round the world. For further detail, read his biography.

He divides his time between southwest England and southwest France where he lives with Hilary, his wife of 56 years. Their daughter Rebecca, cellist, singer, impressionist and comedian, lives in Berlin, and their singer-songwriter son James moves between the UK and the US.