About

The other pages on this website contain around 80 musical samples for download. This page is a brief biography and a collection of links to other websites of interest. I have been involved in musical performance as a singer since the age of 8, and have gradually developed more and more musical interests as time has passed. This website collects the different musical activities I have been heavily involved in into one place.

I was born in 1978, and currently live in Canberra, the capital city of Australia, where I moved at the start of 2006 for (non-music-related) work. I went to school at Newington College in Sydney, with the exceptional good fortune to study and sing in the choir under Elizabeth Swain OAM. Her encouragement of my interest in medieval music, mixed with an ability to motivate her students to want to get better than just good enough have stayed with me. The great pleasure of performing again with Elizabeth Swain occurred in the latter half of 2005, when I sang as a lay clerk at St Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney, at which she is Assistant Director of the choir. That a figure who could be inspiring to a 12 year old can continue to be inspiring to a 27 year old is a truly amazing feat! I also studied vocal technique with counter-tenor Tobias Cole while still a treble, which contributed greatly to my love of music and performance.

In 1997 I began study at Sydney University in a double Science/Law degree, maintaining music as an extremely important (and extremely large) part of my life. I sang as a baritone with the highly-regarded Sydney Chamber Choir for many years under Nicholas Routley, and from 2000, with the choir of St James Church, King Street under David Drury. David has been a central figure in my musical development. His ability to have a workmanlike attitude to the prerequisites for good singing such as singing the correct notes and singing them in tune, mixed with his deeply felt connection to expressing emotions through music were an ideal combination to encourage me to improve my singing. His receptiveness to new compositions was a great inspiration to me to improve in the writing of music as well as the performing.

In this period and since, performing with Peter Wilkin (guitar and harp player, and singer) has been an immensely enjoyable and productive partership also, as a way of exploring solo performance, and as a way of specialising in early music. I also took voice lessons with outstanding teacher and performer Richard Black, tenor with The Song Company. Richard’s attitudes to music have substantially affected my own, and a large part of my desire and ability to improve as a musician is thanks to him.

I graduated from Sydney University with Double First Class Honours in Pure Mathematics and Law in 2003, and proceeded to study a Master’s in the History and Philosophy of Science at Cambridge Uni in the UK. The musical opportunities this opened up were immense. I sang with the choir of Jesus College, Cambridge on a scholarship as a counter-tenor under Daniel Hyde. I also sang with the choir of Sidney Sussex college under Catherine Langston and with the Cambridge Medieval Music Group under Edward Wickham. When time permitted I performed with the Schola Cantorum of Fisher House in Cambridge, as well as with a number of other choirs on an occasional basis. All in all I was singing regularly on thirteen nights out of every fourteen (with a fortnightly Tuesday on which to rest!). The amazing intensity of this experience led to immense and rapid improvement as a counter-tenor, and with the abiding and generous enthusiasm of Edward Wickham, my interest in early music persisted and grew.

In July 2004 I graduated with a Distinction for my thesis. Since then I have performed in a wide array of ensembles both in Australia and in the UK – at St James’ Church King Street, as a lay clerk at St Mary’s Cathedral, with medieval musicians Gaïta in Edinburgh and so on.

Please contact me at info@davidyardley.net if you would like to discuss musical opportunities, as a soloist or member of a chamber ensemble, or as a composer. Although my focus has been on early music, I am an experienced performer across all periods of Western music, and I am always interested to hear of performance or composition events with which to be involved.

I hope you enjoy the website and all of the musical samples it contains. Any comments you may have are greatly appreciated.

Links

David Mackay - David is a composer, singer, photographer and web designer/publisher - and one of my oldest friends. We currently sing together in Canberra.

Gaita - Gaita are an Edinburgh-based medieval music group. Their website has CDs available, including a recent one with Medieval Scottish works we performed together.