The Choir of HM Chapel Royal, Hampton Court Palace, The English Cornett & Sackbut Ensemble & Carl Jackson
Biographie The Choir of HM Chapel Royal, Hampton Court Palace, The English Cornett & Sackbut Ensemble & Carl Jackson
The Choir of HM Chapel Royal, Hampton Court Palace
sing services throughout the year in the palace’s splendid Chapel Royal, whose ceiling was installed by Henry VIII in the 1530s. The gentlemen are joined by up to eighteen boy choristers, who are drawn from schools nearby, and led by Carl Jackson, Director of Music.
Just as in the sixteenth century, the choir’s personnel is adapted dynamically to the occasion and the demands of the repertory. In ordinary times, there are six Gentlemen (indicated opposite in italic), and for special occasions the ensemble can expand to as many as fourteen singers.
The English Cornett & Sackbut Ensemble (ECSE)
is a virtuoso period instrument ensemble with a host of distinguished recordings to its name.
Since its formation in 1993, the group has performed at countless major festivals in the UK and abroad. As well as sell-out concerts at London’s Wigmore Hall, St John’s Smith Square and the Purcell Room, it has also performed at the BBC Proms, York Early Music Festival, Bath International Festival, Spitalfields Festival, Tage Alte Musik Regensburg, Laus Polyphoniae and Misteria Paschalia. ECSE regularly works with leading vocal ensembles including I Fagiolini, Alamire and Westminster Cathedral Choir.
The group has appeared on numerous albums, including The Spy’s Choirbook with David Skinner and Alamire which won the 2015 Gramophone Award for Early Music. The group’s latest recording collaboration with I Fagiolini, entitled Monteverdi: The Other Vespers, was released on Decca Classics in 2017 to widespread acclaim.
This ensemble's first recording for Resonus Classics was part of The English Cornett & Sackbut Ensemble’s 25th anniversary celebrations in 2018. The group also marked the occasion by commissioning and premiering a substantial new work by composer Andrew Keeling entitled Loud Lament (with thanks to the Purbeck Art Weeks Festival).
Carl Jackson
was born in London and studied at the Royal Academy of Music with Malcolm Hill and Alan Harverson. He also held organ scholarships at the Chapel Royal, Hampton Court Palace, and at Downing College, Cambridge, where he was a pupil of Peter Hurford. He obtained a postgraduate teaching certificate at Goldsmiths’ College (University of London) before embarking upon a thirty-six-year teaching career, from which he retired in 2018.
Carl was Organist of Croydon Parish Church (now Croydon Minster) from 1986–1990, Sub Organist of the Chapel Royal, Hampton Court Palace, from 1990–1993, and Assistant Director of Music at St Peter's Church, Eaton Square, from 1993–1996. In October 1996, he returned again to the Chapel Royal at Hampton Court on his appointment as Director of Music. He has broadcast with the chapel choir on radio and television – notably in The Queen’s Christmas Message 2010 and in two documentaries for BBC Four.
As an accompanist he has worked with Sir Willard White, and with the Elysian Singers of London with whom he appears on their CD of the music of James MacMillan (Signum Records). Distinctions include Associateship of the Royal Academy of Music and of the Royal School of Church Music, and Honorary Fellowship of the Guild of Church Musicians. He was appointed MVO in the 2012 New Year Honours list.
