Ian de Massini

Ian de Massini is the founder and director of Cambridge Voices.

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Ian de Massini began life under a different name (Ian Moore) and spent much of his mis-spent youth as a chorister and keen campanologist at the village church of Cuckfield, Sussex.

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During his teens, he attended the local grammar school in Haywards Heath as well as studying the piano, albeit half-heartedly, with the redoubtable Joan Last, under whom he won no prizes or any engagements. Yet, to everybody's amazement, Ian was then awarded a scholarship to sing in the choir of King's College Chapel, Cambridge and to read music at Cambridge University, now and then.

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Following graduation, he held a number of organist positions, including Little Saint Mary's Church, Cambridge, Saint Alban's Church, Holborn and Ely Cathedral. Ian continues to play organ, and his repertoire includes the complete works of Bach, Duruflé, and Messiaen.

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In 1987, he founded his own choir that later became known as Cambridge Voices, for which Ian commissions new choral works from leading European composers, as well as writing music himself for the choir. Ian's works are published by Stainer & Bell.
 

He is currently joint Director of Music (with Mark Dawes) and Assistant Caretaker at Downing Place United Reformed Church in the heart of Cambridge.