CONDUCTOR - Frikki Walker Further to his work with the National Youth Choir of Scotland, Frikki has been the Musical Director and Conductor of Bearsden Choir since 2008, and in that time has covered a huge and diverse repertoire from Monteverdi to new commissions. With him, the choir has also broadcast on BBC Radio and has just released its first CD recording. Frikki is also Organist and Director of Music at St Mary’s Cathedral, Glasgow, and conducts the Changed Voices of the RSNO Junior Chorus and the RSCM Scottish Voices, which he co-founded. He has also worked with the RSNO Chorus and Junior Chorus, the Glasgow Chamber Choir and the Chapel Choir of the University of Glasgow. A keen educator, Frikki regularly works with the choirs of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, where he is also an examiner, runs choral workshops for Festivals and choirs throughout Scotland, and for the RSNO Education department, for whom he also gives regular pre-concert talks. He is also responsible for much of the Choral Programme at the High School of Glasgow, including their acclaimed Chamber Choir who have made several radio and TV appearances, including, in 2013, winning the title of “BBC Songs of Praise School Choir of the Year”.
CONDUCTOR - Mark Evans Mark studied music at Glasgow University, specialising in musicology, before moving to Lithuania where he studied choral conducting at the Lithuanian Music Academy and later also with Christopher Bell. The first joint Alexander Gibson Conducting Fellow with the RSNO Chorus, he worked with Takuo Yuasa, Alexander Lazarev, Gary Walker and with Walter Weller as assistant chorus master on the Chorus’ tour to Denmark. Mark is currently Head of Music at Douglas Academy in Milngavie, where amongst many other activities he directs a 100 strong senior choir, and a chamber choir. He has been Director of the NYCoS Edinburgh Choir since 2005, is the Musical Director of Voice Factory, a primary and secondary schools music education project at Glasgow’s City Halls, Musical Director of The Strathendrick Singers, and is Musical Director of the Aberdeen International Youth Festival. As well as working with NYCoS, Mark has worked with NYCoS Chamber Choir, NYCoS Training Choir, has been a choral coach with NYCoS National Girls Choir for the past four years and has been director of NGC Training Choir since 2011.