Directors
Monica Huggett | Artistic Director
Monica Huggett was born in London, in 1953, the fifth of seven children. In order to differentiate herself from her piano-playing siblings, she took up the violin at age six. Her talent became apparent quickly and, by the age of twelve, it had been decided by her parents and teachers that she would become a violinist, which saved her from the agony of having to decide what to do with her life.
At age sixteen, she entered the Royal Academy of Music as a student of Manoug Parikian. Although she did well and won several prizes, she was not entirely comfortable with her instrument until she was given a baroque violin to try. She was immediately won over by the mellow quality of the gut strings and became a fervent champion of the baroque violin. From age seventeen, Monica has earned her living solely as a violinist and artistic director – beginning in London as a freelance violinist – and currently as the newly-appointed first artistic director of the Juilliard School’s Historical Performance Program.
Paul Hillier
Paul Hillier is from Dorset in England and studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. His career has embraced singing, conducting, and writing about music. Earlier in his career he was founding director of the Hilliard Ensemble, and subsequently founded Theatre of Voices. He has taught in the USA at the University of California campuses at Santa Cruz and Davis, and from 1996-2003 was Director of the Early Music Institute at Indiana University. He was Principal Conductor of the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir (2001-2007) and has been Chief Conductor of Ars Nova Copenhagen since 2003. His recordings, over a hundred CDs including seven solo recitals, have earned worldwide acclaim and won numerous prizes. His books about Arvo Pärt and Steve Reich, together with numerous anthologies of choral music, are published by Oxford University Press. In 2006 he was awarded an OBE for services to choral music. In 2007 he received the Order of the White Star of Estonia, and was awarded a Grammy for Best Choral Recording. In 2008 he took up the position of Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the National Chamber Choir of Ireland.
John Butt
John Butt was born in 1960 (in Solihull, West Midlands, UK) and was educated (on a music scholarship) at Solihull School. As an undergraduate at Cambridge University, he held the office of organ scholar at King's College. Continuing as a graduate student, he studied the music of Bach, surveying articulation markings in autograph manuscripts and receiving his PhD in 1987. He was subsequently a lecturer at the University of Aberdeen and a Fellow of Magdalene College Cambridge, joining the faculty at UC Berkeley in 1989 as University Organist and Assistant Professor in Music (Associate Professor in 1992). In Autumn 1997 he returned to Cambridge as a University Lecturer and Fellow of King's College, and in October 2001 he became the Gardiner Chair of Music at the University of Glasgow, and Head of the Music Department (2001-05).
Gary Cooper, Harpsichord
Gary Cooper studied at Chetham's School of Music and at New College, Oxford. He is now established as one of the foremost ambassadors of the harpsichord and fortepiano - in particular, as an interpreter of Bach’s & Mozart’s keyboard music – and as a director of period performances in concert and opera.
Mark Duley
Mark Duley was born in New Zealand. He studied at Auckland University, the North German Organ Academy and Amsterdam’s Sweelinck Conservatorium, where he was a pupil of Jacques van Oortmerssen. He came to Ireland in 1992 as organist and director of music at Christ Church Cathedral Dublin, a post he held for eleven years. For ten years he was also artistic director of the Irish Baroque Orchestra: he co-founded the ensemble in 1996, and over the ensuing period ensured its establishment as Ireland’s flagship baroque ensemble.
