Our team
Multitude of Voyces has no employees: all workers are self-employed contractors or volunteers who may contribute small, discrete pieces of work, or who may be longterm contractors managing the organisation's running and development.
Louise Stewart
Founder and Director
Associate
Louise is responsible for leading, researching and developing the organisation's projects and scope, and for the day-to-day running of the organisation. Her work is partly paid and partly voluntary at this stage of the organisation's development.
Louise read Music at the University of Exeter in the late 1980s, where she had the extraordinary privilege of studying ‘Cello under Naomi Butterworth and Recorder under Piers Adams. Her degree included a focus on Music Therapy. Following a PGCE in Primary teaching (also at the University of Exeter) she taught at Exeter Cathedral School and was houseparent to the cathedral choristers with particular responsibility for nurturing the welfare and supporting the musical education of the probationer choristers (boarders), moving to a fulltime teaching post at Salisbury Cathedral School in 1994, where she also worked as the Assistant Housemistress in the girls' boarding house, again with responsibilities for the pastoral welfare of choristers when the cathedral Girls' Choir was in its infancy.
In 1999 she broadened her life experience by becoming manager of the country’s first Oxfam Fairtrade Shop, (in Salisbury, Wiltshire). The role introduced her to the challenges of addressing social-justice issues outside the classroom.
In 2001 she moved to the Maintained Sector, teaching across the Primary curriculum and leading the Music for Worship in three Salisbury primary schools. Through that teaching she built up inter-generational and social-justice community projects through contact with local churches and charities, often using Music as the focus.
In 2006 Louise studied for a PG Cert in Dyslexia (through the University of York) to develop her skillset and to be able to provide inclusive, holistic support to children struggling to access education and to adults whose unaddressed educational needs had limited their life chances. That teaching led to an extensive period of work supporting children unable to attend Mainstream Wiltshire schools and working for Swan Advocacy where her role included supporting adults with Learning Difficulties, Learning Disabilities, Mental Health issues, and women in Refuge.
In 2019 she set aside that work to formalise Multitude of Voyces C.I.C., drawing her various community music projects and interests in social-justice issues together under the one umbrella, and combining her experience in the education and charity sectors to develop this work on a larger scale in collaboration with likeminded individuals and organisations.
Alongside her other roles Louise has always maintained a small practice teaching recorder to adults and children of all ages. She is a very experienced singer and her extensive experience of singing in church, cathedral and secular choirs has informed her leadership of the Anthology project. She is a longtime member of Pro/Am chamber choir Sarum Voices, and was a founder member of Salisbury Cathedral Chamber Choir.
Louise is one of the Salisbury area Ambassadors for Inclusive Church and was a founding Trustee of the Species Recovery Trust.
Jane Ebel MBE
Trustee
Jane volunteers her time to advise Louise on 'meta' aspects of the organisation's work, on grant applications, financial management and on Human Resources matters. Jane is an Advisor on our Makaton Mass project.
Jane Ebel MBE is widely experienced in the charity and non-profit sectors as a Trustee and Director, particularly in the fields of music and disability. In 2019 she was recognised for her work helping disabled people in Moldova to become more socially integrated through programmes including early years inclusive education and therapeutic music and initiatives to involve disabled children and adults in inclusive sport. Jane is the Director of MUSE (Moldova UK Social Enterprise) C.I.C. & MUSE SW C.I.C. and works as an advisor and enabler for Safer and Supportive Salisbury
Andrew Stewart
Associate
Andrew volunteers his time to support and advise Louise with all aspects of the organisation's work. He is also a regular contractor as the organisation's IT Advisor and IT Technician and on the Elizabeth Poston Project.
Andrew enjoyed a career in music from an early age as a chorister at Salisbury Cathedral under Richard Seal in the 1970s. At Exeter University he studied for a degree in Geography while also a choral scholar at Exeter Cathedral under Lucian Nethsingha. After a short period teaching Geography at Reading Grammar School for Boys (where he was also Staff Governor) he moved to Salisbury in 1992 and took the position of Head of Geography and IT, and Head of Boys' boarding at a time of great development and change for the school with the introduction of the Salisbury Cathedral girl choristers.
He soon joined the Cathedral Choir where he remained happily in his Cantoris Alto choir-stall for nearly 25 years before taking early retirement from that role and from his role at Salisbury Cathedral School, to support Louise in the development of Multitude of Voyces C.I.C., to broaden his repertoire and experience as a countertenor soloist and to develop his own skills working in the adult community.
Andrew works part-time as a digital inclusion expert for Music and Wellbeing C.I.C. and for the Safer and Supportive Salisbury dementia and music project.
Revd Canon Jeremy Davies
Trustee
Honorary Liturgical Advisor for Anthology project, Inclusive hymnal and Makaton Mass.
Jeremy brings a lifetime of involvement in the Anglican church, and a keen interest and involvement in matters of social-justice to support the organisation in meeting our objects. He volunteers his time to advise Louise on liturgical matters and provides pastoral support for the core team.
Born in Manchester in 1946, he was brought up in South Wales and London during which time he was a chorister for five years at Llandaff Cathedral. He went on to a Woodard School in Sussex and then went up as a choral scholar to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge where he read English. He then went on to Westcott House, for his ordination training and a further degree in theology.
He was ordained deacon in 1971and ordained priest in 1972 by Bishop Trevor Huddleston and served
as curate in the parish of St Dunstan’s, Stepney for three years, after which he became Chaplain at Queen Mary, University of London from1974 -1978. In 1978 he was appointed Senior Chaplain to the University Colleges in Cardiff and the Polytechnic of Wales.
In 1985 he was appointed Canon Precentor of Salisbury Cathedral, where he was responsible for the Cathedral’s liturgy and music and pattern of worship.
During his twenty six years at Salisbury he also served as a Member of the General Synod of the Church of England (1993-2000), and as a member of Fabric Advisory Committee of three other cathedrals. He was a member of the Board of Salisbury International Festival of the Arts, and a member of the Cathedrals Fabric Commission for England from2005 until 2015 and Chaplain to the Salisbury Playhouse since 2008.
He was Lent Missioner at Harvard University in 2004, and Mere Commemoration Preacher in the University of Cambridge in 2014.
He retired from full-time ministry in 2012 and began research for a PhD on ‘theological perspectives in the novels of Iris Murdoch’ at Chichester University. In addition he has exercised his ministry for several months in an American parish in St Louis, Missouri, and for two years as Chaplain and Fellow at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. He has also continued his preaching and retreat leading ministry in this country and abroad, especially in his capacity as the Warden of the Fellowship of the Hidden Life.
In his earlier chaplaincy ministry he was editor of the journal Christian (1979-1987). He also wrote the text for the oratorio The Resurrection, for which Simon McEnery wrote the music. His book on preaching (In Season and Out of Season) was published by Canterbury Press in 2014, and he continues to write hymns, some of which have been published.
Anna Williams
Associate
Anna is our senior typesetter and co-editor of Multitude of Voyces' published resources. Anna works very closely with Louise to edit and prepare our resources for publication.
Sarah MacDonald
Associate
Sarah generously volunteers her time and skills to advise Louise and other team members in ensuring that our resources are suitable for inclusion within the Anglican choral tradition. She assists Louise in reaching sympathetic individuals and organisations with shared aims.
Sarah Macdonald is a Canadian-born conductor, organist, and composer, living in the UK, and she holds the positions of Fellow and Director of Music at Selwyn College, Cambridge, and Director of Ely Cathedral’s Girl Choristers. She has been at Selwyn since 1999, and was the first woman to hold such a post in an Oxbridge Chapel. Sarah came to the UK from Canada in 1992 as Organ Scholar of Robinson College, Cambridge after studying piano, organ, and conducting at The Royal Conservatory of Music’s Glenn Gould School in Toronto with Leon Fleisher, Marek Jablonski, and John Tuttle. At Cambridge she read for a degree in Music, and studied the organ with David Sanger. Sarah has played numerous recitals and conducted choirs throughout the UK, North America, the Middle East, New Zealand, and much of mainland Europe. She has made over 35 recordings, variously in the guises of pianist, organist, conductor, and producer, and currently works most frequently with Regent Records. Sarah is a winner of the Royal College of Organists’ (RCO) coveted Limpus Prize, and she has taught organ and conducting for Eton Choral Courses, Oundle for Organists, the Jennifer Bate Organ Academy, and courses run by the RCO. For its first decade, she was a Director of the annual Girl Chorister Course at St Thomas Church Fifth Avenue, in New York City. Sarah holds the Fellowship diploma of the RCO, and is a teacher and examiner for the University of Cambridge and the RCO. She has had numerous choral compositions published in the UK, and she is series editor for ‘The Sarah MacDonald Choral Series’ with Selah Publishing in Pittsburgh. Her liturgical music is performed regularly throughout the world. Sarah also writes a popular monthly column for the American Guild of Organists’ magazine The American Organist, called ‘UK Report’. She is a Patron of the Society of Women Organists, and an Honorary Patron of the Herbert Howells Society. In 2018 Sarah received the honorary ARSCM in recognition of her contribution to choral music in the UK and Canada, and the citation made particular mention of her support of contemporary British composers.
Olivia Sparkhall
Research and editorial team member for Anthology project, Makaton Mass and Inclusive hymnal.
Olivia worked with the Anthology team to develop the scope of the Anthology series, building out of our organisation's earlier work with Godolphin School on Salisbury's International Women's Day services. Her work for the Anthology series has included research, typesetting and writing of biographies and commentaries.
Olivia Sparkhall is a composer, choral conductor, and Head of Academic Music at Godolphin School, Salisbury. A passionate advocate for equality, diversity, and inclusion, Olivia ensures that her students’ music education reflects these values both in the classroom and on the concert platform. She is a member of her school’s Black Lives Matter Working Group and is an ambassador for the F-List Directory of UK Female Musicians. Olivia directs the prize-winning choir Godolphin Vocal Ensemble, for whom Multitude of Voyces’ International Women’s Day commissions were composed and conducts massed choirs for the charity Barnardo’s.
She studied composition at school with Derek Bourgeois and at Durham University with Paul Archbold, composing for the Northern Sinfonietta as part of her studies. She has recently completed an MA in Voice Pedagogy, researching vocal warm-ups for children, voice health for teenagers, and is working with Multitude of Voyces’ Learning Disability advisory team to develop that organisation’s Makaton Mass project. She is published in Choral Directions Research Journal (ABCD) and Women and Music (University of Nebraska Press).
Her choral music has been sung in the UK and abroad including on BBC One’s Songs of Praise programmes. Several original compositions, and editions and adaptations of historical women composers’ works feature within the anthology series Sacred Music by Women Composers, including Dona nobis pacem which was shortlisted in the 2018 Cappella Nova competition.
Olivia
Henry Websdale
Research and editorial team member for Anthology project; research lead Art Song project.
Henry's worked with Louise on the original research and scope of the Anthology project. His work included assisting with the shortlisting of works included within the series and editing and preparing scores for Volume 1 and advising on organ matters for Volume 3.
Caroline Grint
Artist
Caroline devised and created the artwork for our Anthology volumes and the icon for that project.
Caroline began graphic design work whilst reading Music at Murray Edwards College, Cambridge, where she was president of the Music society. During her time in this role, Caroline mandated all performers in the weekly recital series play at least one piece written by a woman composer in their programme, a rule that remains to this day. Her early design projects included posters, flyers and logos for regular recital series around Cambridge such as King’s College Music Society, Christ’s College Music Society and Minerva Festival’s 2019 International Women’s Day Concert. This later expanded to theatre work and student societies around the city more broadly. Now working as a Music Teacher at a secondary school in North London, Caroline continues to promote women composers in the classroom as well as through her work as Education Liaison and Graphic Designer for the High Barnet Chamber Music Festival.
George Richford
Research and editorial team member, Anthology project.
George worked with the team on the original research and scope of the Anthology project helping Louise to reach out to musicians active in tertiary education. His work included assisting with shortlisting and typesetting-preparation of scores within Volume 1 and sound engineering and editing of the Recording Project.
George Arthur Richford is a multi award-winning composer, conductor and producer who has a commitment to repertoire from under-represented voices. At the age of 20 he became the Acting Master of Music at Newcastle Cathedral where he started the Girls Choir and was the first to include female altos in a Cathedral in the Archdiocese of York. His work training girls voices is especially celebrated and his 'groundbreaking' recording of Poulenc and Boulanger with the Girls Choir from Romsey Abbey has earned special critical acclaim. He is passionate about the delivery of choral music within the state sector and the opportunities for children and young people from all social backgrounds having trained and recruited choirs in a number of deprived areas across the country. He currently holds positions at Salisbury Cathedral, Universal Editions Vienna and is a choir recruitment consultant.
Miriam Endersby
Research and editorial team member, Anthology project, Inclusive hymnal
Miriam worked as Louise's research assistant on the very early stages of the Anthology's planning, and carries out translations of texts (from modern European languages) within the volumes, and whenever the organisation needs to correspond in French or Italian. She volunteers time as an Ambassador for the organisation's wider work.
Nigel and Helen Williams
Associates
Nigel and Helen have supported the organisation since the preparation of the first volume of the Anthology series. They generously volunteer time to assist with proof-reading of scores and texts, and with the creative planning and development of our projects.
photo copyright Alan Wyatt
Yshani Perinpanayagam
Inclusion Advisor
Yshani advises us on matters of inclusion and outreach.
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