I started my musical life at the age of six in Leicester Cathedral Choir (where my dad was Choirmaster and Organist), before moving to St John’s College Choir, Cambridge, as a boy chorister. Aside from the daily three-hour commitment to Choir, I soon developed a passion for the violin and piano, which drove me to apply for a music scholarship to Eton College, where I happily spent my teenage years.
Six years later, I returned to St John’s to read Music, and experienced three of the busiest years of my life! Through daily choir commitments, singing lessons and directing The Gentlemen of St John’s (the choral scholars’ a cappella group), I realised that singing could become a potential career path for me – scary though that seemed at the time. So instead of following the seemingly normal convention a round me of trying to get a job or internship immediately after graduating, I went on a funded exchange year to Heidelberg University in Germany. Intensively learning German and planting myself in a completely different field (socially, geographically, linguistically and environmentally) was a great way of taking some time out and deciding what to do with myself. That year, I ended up applying successfully for a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music for a Masters in Vocal Performance, and making some friends for life from all over the world – something which struck a chord with my own international background, being half English, half Japanese.
What followed was a highly inspirational year at the Academy, opening up my mind to many of the various art forms and states of mind that a professional solo singer might encounter. Then in the summer of 2014, while I was singing in the Opera Chorus at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, I got a phone-call from Johnny, inv it ing me to audition for The King’s Singers – a rather different proposition to my solo career at the time. I was offered the tenor position immediately after the audition and my stomach dropped. I knew at that point that nothing would ever be the same again!
I’m so glad everything has worked out this way; my three years so far in the group have been a wonderful whirlwind and I eagerly await the challenges and adventures that lie ahead!