BIOGRAPHY

Quintin Beer is a choral director, prize-winning conductor and well-established as a versatile musician. He enjoys a synergistic approach to music making, working with a group’s collective will to produce something greater than the sum of its parts. His aim is to lift music off the page and into something more animated and deeply felt. Known for his playful and imaginative rehearsal manner, Quintin's distinctive personality engenders inspirational musical moments amongst amateurs and professionals alike.

Quintin’s recent professional highlights include a concert of English Baroque music with Les Pages et Les Chantres du Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles in the Royal Chapel at the Palace of Versailles in May 2022. In July and August 2022, Quintin was a Chorus Master at the world-renowned St Endellion Festival, conducting concerts and services, as well as preparing the chorus for an immersive performance of Benjamin Britten’s Peter Grimes, directed by Rory Kinnear and conducted by Ryan Wigglesworth, with Mark Padmore in the title role, Roderick Williams as Balstrode, and Sophie Bevan as Ellen.
 
On the international stage, Quintin is establishing himself as a major player; he won third prize at the first ever Conducting Competition at the International Choral Festival of Preveza, Greece, 2022 He has also won Best Interpretation of a French Baroque Piece at the International Competition for Young Conductors, Paris, 2019, second prize at the Dima International Music Competition, Cluj, Romania, 2018 and gained a place on the Jury’s List of the World Choral Conducting Competition, 2019. He was awarded a fellowship to the Yale School of Music 2019 Summer School programme in Norfolk, Connecticut under the direction of Simon Carrington. He was made Associate Conductor of the Brandenburg Choral Festival in November 2019 and has previously been contracted by the Rundfunkchor Berlin. In October 2019, he conducted the Choeur de l'Orchestre de Paris in movements from Rachmaninov's All-Night Vigil and a new commission Brightest Star by Cecilia McDowall

In October 2020, Quintin was appointed Director of Music at St Peter's College Oxford, succeeding Jeremy Summerly and Edward Higginbottom. He is also Director of Music at St Cuthbert’s Church, Earl's Court, Musical Director of Saffron Walden Choral Society and Choral Director at the Junior Department of the Royal Academy of Music. He was appointed Associate Conductor of Ex Cathedra in September 2021. Previously he has had positions with Pegasus Chamber Choir, University of London Chamber Choir, Yateley Choral Society and St Bartholomew the Great, Smithfield.
 
Quintin is frequently invited to conduct choirs, choral societies in the UK. Amongst his recent conducting performances are Carl Orff Carmina Burana and Jonathan Dove Arion and the Dolphin (Saffron Walden Choral Society), Frank Martin Mass for Double Choir (Pegasus Chamber Choir), Handel Messiah (Yateley Choral Society), and Christmas Music by Candlelight (Ex Cathedra). In March 2019, in a creative collaboration with the Oxford-based charity Cantata Dramatica and the composer’s grandson, Quintin re-surfaced and made the first recording of the oratorio Andromeda written by Cyril Bradley Rootham in 1903-5.

Quintin gained his MA in Choral Conducting from the Royal Academy of Music, studying under Patrick Russill and graduating with a distinction in July 2019. He was awarded the DipRAM, the Academy's own premier-prix for an outstanding performance in a final recital. At his graduation ceremony, Quintin was the recipient of the Academy's Foundation Award, a prize for excellent studentship and all-round contribution to the institution.
 
Prior to the Academy, Quintin studied music at St John’s College Cambridge (where he held a choral scholarship), and became an Assistant Conductor for the University Musical Society in 2013, conducting concerts and fully-staged performances of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin and Mozart’s The Magic Flute. He has also studied orchestral conducting with Peter Stark, Cathal Garvey and on the London Conducing Workshop with John Farrer and Neil Thomson.
 
Beyond conducting, Quintin remains active as a Baritone, frequently singing as a deputy in the choirs of St Paul’s Cathedral, Westminster Cathedral, St George’s Chapel Windsor, and Westminster Abbey. During his MA he regularly sang with the Royal Academy of Music Chamber Choir.
 
A keen teacher, Quintin is always happy to share his experiences with others. He has previously serviced as Musician-in-Residence at North London Collegiate School and continues to tutor on the annual Rodolfus Foundation Choral Courses (previously Eton Choral course) since 2012. He teaches Musicianship at Junior Academy and Choral Conducting at the University of Oxford.

Quintin is the recipient of the Stanley Vann Scholarship, and the Alan Kirby and Irene Burcher awards from the Royal Academy of Music. He is grateful to the Nicholas Boas Charitable Trust, the Royal College of Organists and the St John’s College Cambridge Choir Association for their generous support during his MA.