HRH THE Duchess of edinburgh

We are extremely honoured that Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Edinburgh GCVO is our Royal Patron. Sophie is the wife of Prince Edward, The Duke of Edinburgh, the youngest son of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip. Married in 1999, she worked in public relations until 2002 and now assists her husband in his various activities. The Duke and Duchess have two children: James, The Earl of Wessex and Lady Louise Windsor. 

The Rt Revd Michael Beasley, Bishop of Bath and Wells

The Rt Revd Michael Beasley is the 80th Bishop of Bath and Wells and was installed in Wells Cathedral on 12th November 2022. He grew up in rural Staffordshire and was educated in Stafford before studying biology and epidemiology at Imperial College, London and Oxford University.

Bishop Michael trained for ministry at Cranmer Hall, Durham, before being ordained in the Diocese of Lichfield in 1999. Initially combining his scientific career with his Christian ministry. In 2015, he became the Bishop of Hertford in the Diocese of St Albans before coming to Bath and Wells.

Bishop Michael says he is ‘married into Somerset’ where he loves to walk with his wife Lizzie and their two children. He is delighted to be a Patron of Wells Cathedral Chorister Trust.

david buckley

Emmy-nominated composer David Buckley is currently scoring Kandahar starring Gerard Butler and directed by Ric Roman Waugh. Recent film scores include Universal’s Nobody starring Bob Odenkirk, Greenland also starring Butler, the remake of Papillon starring Charlie Hunnam & Rami Malek, Jason Bourne directed by Paul Greengrass and The Nice Guys for Shane Black and Joel Silver. Previous scores include the Joel Schumacher-directed thriller Blood Creek, Ben Affleck’s crime drama The Town, Taylor Hackford’s action feature Parker and Rob Minkoff’s fantasy adventure The Forbidden Kingdom. His soundtracks to the blockbuster films Papillon and Greenland both featured the voices of Wells Cathedral Choir.

For television, David composes the music for The Sandman (Netflix/WB), Your Honor (Showtime), Evil (CBS) & The Lincoln Lawyer (Netflix/A&E). He has also composed the scores for the hit Scott Free/CBS drama series The Good Wife and its spinoff The Good Fight for which he received an Emmy nomination for ‘Outstanding Title Music’.

David’s first involvement with film music was as a Wells Cathedral Chorister performing on Peter Gabriel’s score for Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ. He continued his musical education at Cambridge University. In 2006, David moved to Los Angeles where he began working with Harry Gregson-Williams on scores including Shrek The Third and Gone Baby Gone. He has written music for films including Wonder Woman, all the Fifty Shades movies, Big Eyes and American Hustle, and his music was featured in David O’Russell’s Joy.

In 2011 he was selected by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts as a ‘Brit To Watch’.

“Without hesitation, I can say that the eight wonderful years at Wells provided me with the musical foundation that has led me to where I am today. I feel hugely privileged to have been surrounded by such talented musicians, both the staff and my peers, and many remain firm friends and colleagues to this day.”

Dr Anthony crossland

Born in Nottingham, Dr Anthony Crossland studied music at Christ Church, Oxford from 1957 to 1961, where he also served as Assistant Organist at the Cathedral. After gaining the degrees of BA and BMus he was appointed as Assistant Organist at Wells Cathedral and ten years later succeeded his predecessor as Organist and Master of the Choristers there. He also conducted the Cathedral Oratorio Society for thirty years and under his baton the Society gave its first performances of such works as Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius, The Kingdom and The Apostles, Britten’s War Requiem and Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast. For some years he was an examiner at ‘O’ and ‘A’ level for the Oxford Local Examinations Board and since 1965 has been an examiner for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, on whose behalf he has travelled to many parts of the world. From 1983 to 1986 he was President of the Cathedral Organists’ Association.

Anthony married Barbara Pullar-Strecker in Christ Church Cathedral in 1960 and they have three children and six grandchildren. On retirement from Wells in 1996 they moved to Bradford on Avon where they still live.

iestyn davies MBE

Iestyn sang as a chorister in the choir of St John's College, Cambridge. He began singing countertenor in his teens, at Wells Cathedral School. He returned to St John's as a choral scholar and, after graduating in Archaeology and Anthropology, Iestyn studied at the Royal Academy of Music, London. 

On the opera stage, he has appeared at the Metropolitan Opera, New York; the Chicago Lyric Opera; La Scala Milan; the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; English National Opera; Glyndebourne Festival Opera; Welsh National Opera, and in Munich, Vienna and Zurich. 

Concert highlights include performances at La Scala Milan; the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam; Tonhalle, Zurich; the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Paris; Lincoln Centre, New York and the BBC Proms. He has appeared in concert and recital at Carnegie Hall and regularly appears at Wigmore Hall, where he has curated his own Residency. He recently delighted London theatre audiences singing the role of Farinelli, in Farinelli and the King with Mark Rylance at the Globe Theatre and subsequently on the West End stage at the Duke of York’s theatre. 

A prolific recording artist, he is the recipient of the Royal Philharmonic Society’s 2010 Young Artist of the year prize, the 2012 Gramophone Recital Award, the 2013 Critics’ Circle Awards for Exceptional Young Talent (Singer) and the 2014 Gramophone Recital Award for his disc Arise, my muse on the Wigmore Live label.

Iestyn received his MBE in the 2017 New Year Honours for services to music.

neal davies

Welsh bass-baritone Neal Davies made his Royal Opera debut in 1997, singing Satyr (Platée) at the Barbican in a production with the Mark Morris Dance Group. He went on to sing Figaro (Le nozze di Figaro) with The Royal Opera at Shaftesbury Theatre in 1998 and has since returned to sing Alaska Wolf Joe (Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny) for The Royal Opera on the main stage.

Davies studied at King’s College, Cambridge, the Royal Academy of Music and the International Opera Studio in Zürich. Awards early in his career include the Lieder Prize at the 1991 Cardiff Singer of the World Competition. He performs regularly for Welsh National Opera, where his roles include Zebul (Jephtha), Papageno (Die Zauberflöte), Guglielmo and Don Alfonso (Così fan tutte), Dulcamara (L’elisir d’amore) and Sharpless (Madama Butterfly). Other appearances include Pallante (Agrippina) for Berlin State Opera, Ko-Ko (The Mikado) for Lyric Opera of Chicago, Bottom (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) for Garsington Opera and Ariodates (Xerxes) and Dr Kolenaty (The Makropulos Case) for English National Opera.

Davies is renowned for his interpretations of baroque repertory and works regularly with leading period ensembles. Engagements include Saul (Charpentier’s David et Jonathas) in Aix-en-Provence, Edinburgh and New York with Les Arts Florissants, Handel’s Belshazzar in Aix-en-Provence, Berlin and Innsbruck under René Jacobs, Valens (Theodora) with Les Arts Florissants in Paris and Salzburg and on tour with The English Concert and Handel’s Athalia with Concerto Koeln.

Robert Drewett

Robert Drewett is a former High Sheriff of Somerset (2023-2024).  Robert has a particular interest in issues affecting the rural community.

Robert is a solicitor and a consultant at Womble Bond Dickinson in Bristol, specialising in property and charity law. Having read law at New College Oxford, he trained in London before moving to Osborne Clarke in Bristol in 1987. After 27 years with the firm he moved to Bond Dickinson (as they then were) to launch their Private Wealth offering in the South West.  

For 30 years he has been Clerk to the Society of Merchant Venturers of Bristol, and is or has been a trustee of a variety of charities, including the Royal Agricultural Society of the Commonwealth, Innovation for Agriculture, the High Sheriff of Somerset Charitable Trust, Sight Research UK, the Langford Trust for Animal Health and Welfare, Wells Cathedral Preservation Trust and the Grateful Society. He is a former churchwarden of St Margaret’s, Hinton Blewett. From January 2013 until August 2022 he chaired the Royal Bath and West of England Society, and previously chaired Folly Farm, being the trading operation of Avon Wildlife Trust as well as serving for 9 years as a trustee of the Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance.

He is married with three adult children and lives on the Mendips.

Jennifer Duke

Jennifer Duke is a Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Somerset and a former High Sheriff of Somerset (2022 – 2023).  As well as supporting the work of the police, the judiciary and the emergency services, the High Sheriff promotes and encourages a wide range of charities and volunteers across the county. Jennifer is especially interested in promoting opportunities in education and training for children and young adults.

After gaining an MA in English, Jennifer worked in Singapore for the British Council, then joined Longman as a Book Editor in Melbourne, Australia. On returning to the UK she became a Commissioning Editor for Heinemann and for several years juggled a busy career with the demands of a growing family. 

Jennifer has lived on Exmoor in Somerset for the past twenty-four years and has actively encouraged bringing music and song into churches across the moor. She has also been an enthusiastic supporter of the Dunster Music Festival with its ongoing programme of education and outreach work.

Jennifer is very excited to have been invited to become a Patron of the Wells Cathedral Chorister Trust and believes that their work in raising funds to be able offer every child the opportunity to develop their interest and skill in music and song is invaluable.

lady gass DCVO, former lord-lieutenant of somerset

Dame Elizabeth Periam Gass, Lady Gass DCVO JP was Lord-Lieutenant of Somerset from 1998 to 2015.

Having graduated from the University of Cambridge, Lady Gass worked as a schoolteacher, teaching mathematics. 

In 1985 Lady Gass was elected to Somerset County Council, as a Conservative Party Councillor for the Quantock district, and remained a member until 1997. From 1989-93 she was Chairman of the Exmoor National Park Committee and at the same time was Vice-Chairman of the county council's Social Services Committee. In 1994 she was High Sheriff of Somerset, the next year was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant for Somerset, and in 1996 was promoted to Vice Lord-Lieutenant and appointed as a Justice of the Peace for the county. In 1998, she became Lord Lieutenant of Somerset, a position she still held until 2015.

adam hickox

Former Wells Cathedral Chorister and young British conductor, Adam Hickox was recently described by the Boston Musical Intelligencer as a 'consummate, well-mannered musician of skill; all was elegantly rounded in both physical and musical contour.' In 2022 he completed his tenure as Assistant Conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and he looks forward to many debuts in the coming seasons.

In 22/23, Hickox will make his debut with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London and the regions, at the Wigmore Hall as part of the Royal Academy of Music’s Bicentenary celebrations, with the Romanian Radio Chamber Orchestra and the Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León. He will also return to the BBC Symphony Orchestra for a studio concert, and to the Rotterdam Philharmonic for concerts in their subscription season. In the opera house, Hickox conducts performances of Tosca with Opera North and in a coming season he will conduct a full production with Glyndebourne Touring Opera.

In recent seasons, Hickox has conducted the Orchestre de Paris, Gävle Symphony Orchestra and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. He has conducted concerts at the St Endellion and Klosters Music Festivals, and the UK premiere of Thomas Larcher Still for viola and chamber orchestra with Lawrence Power as soloist. In opera, he conducted a new production of Hansel and Gretel at the Royal Scottish Conservatoire, and he was due to return to English National Opera to conduct Knussen Where the Wild Things Are and Ravel L'Enfant et les Sortilèges, following his work assisting Music Director Martyn Brabbins on Birtwistle The Mask of Orpheus. He recently assisted Robin Ticciati at Glyndebourne (Poulenc La Voix Humaine and Les Mamelles de Tiresias). 

He has assisted conductors including Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Roth, Orozco-Estrada and Manze and was asked to take a full day’s rehearsal for Sir Simon Rattle with the London Symphony Orchestra.

In Summer 2021 Hickox was invited to Tanglewood as one of the Tanglewood Festival's two Conducting Fellows, which involved working alongside Nelsons, Blomstedt and Gilbert with the TMC Orchestra, as well as giving performances of his own at the Koussevitzky Music Shed. Hickox also took part in the fellowship's corresponding residency with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig.

After leaving Wells, Hickox studied music and composition with Robin Holloway at Gonville and Caius College Cambridge, and conducting with Sian Edwards at the Royal Academy of Music.

lady hobson obe

Lady Marina Hobson is a philanthropist and supporter of the arts, for which she received and MBE in 2000 and OBE in 2011.

As well as being an ardent supported of choristers, Lady Hobson has also supported the Royal Opera House for over 12 years, funding core as well as production costs. She has provided scholarships for young dancers and supported the Royal Ballet’s Chance to Dance programme, giving more than 20,000 children a chance to try ballet.

annie maw, former lord-lieutenant of somerset

Annie Maw was born into a naval family in Henley on Thames. She was educated at the School of St Helen and St Katharine in Abingdon. She trained to be a State Registered Nurse at Westminster Hospital in London where she then worked as a Staff Nurse. She married a St Bartholomew’s Hospital doctor and, when he took an appointment as a consultant surgeon at the Bristol Royal Infirmary in 1973, they moved to Somerset where they have lived ever since.

Annie has been involved with several different charitable movements and activities over the years supporting the elderly, children and, in particular, those who are disadvantaged. She has also taken various further educational courses with a special focus on social history and on fine art and history of art. Since 1999 she has been a guide in Wells Cathedral. Riding and horses have always been a much loved pastime. She also enjoys gardening, painting, reading and writing.

In 2002 she broke her back in a riding accident resulting in paraplegia. Despite life in a wheelchair, in 2008 she was High Sheriff of Somerset after which she chaired the Somerset Crimebeat Trust for one year.

At the end of 2014 Annie was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of Somerset, and from March 2015 until October 2022 she was Lord Lieutenant of the County of Somerset. She is patron, trustee or president of a large number of different organisations across the county.

Mrs Maw and her husband, Richard, ‘Dickie’ live in Pilton having formerly lived in the Chew Valley for many years. They have three children and five grandchildren.

David Morgan-Hewitt

David sang as a chorister in the choir of Norwich Cathedral in the 70s and early 80s. First as a treble and later, aged 17, as a baritone. Having been awarded a Choral Scholarship at Gonville and Caius Cambridge he took a surprising decision to go instead to Durham University to study law. On arrival there he declined an invitation to sing for the Cathedral Choir singing instead in the College Choir. This was to be the last choir David actually ever sang in.

The choice of a career in Hospitality simply did not allow the level of commitment required to sing in any choir. However, he has continued to love and support the choral and wider musical traditions. Amongst many positions he holds he is an official Ambassador for English National Ballet where he helped raise substantial funds for the company. Having based himself in London for over 30 years, where he runs the world famous luxury hotel - The Goring, David moved his main home to Wells. With his new base at The Rib in the Close he has become very involved with the choral community here at the cathedral and was thrilled to have been asked to become a Patron of the Trust.

meeta ravAl

Meeta Raval was one of the first girl choristers of Wells Cathedral Choir in the mid-1990s. She says: ‘It was at Wells that all my music foundations were built. I grew in confidence in that rich environment and it gave me a wonderful grounding. Having the opportunity to perform professionally from such a young age is an unbeatable opportunity for talented children.’

Raval went on to study at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, the Royal Academy of Music and the National Opera Studio. She was a finalist in the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition in 2011, and is the winner of the Dame Eva Turner Prize for ‘Soprano with Dramatic Potential’. Her operatic engagements include Cio-Cio-San (Madama Butterfly) for English National Opera, Donna Anna (Don Giovanni), Lisa (The Queen of Spades) and Ortlinde (Die Walküre) for Opera North, Nedda (Pagliacci) for Welsh National Opera and Countess Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro) for the RAM under Colin Davis.

Concert engagements include Simply Gershwin in UK concert tour with Raymond Gubbay, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with Fondazione Orchestra Sinfonica e Coro Sinfonico di Milano Giuseppe Verdi, Milan, and Ortlinde (Die Walküre, Act III) in concert with WNO.

Thomas Sheppard

Thomas is a solicitor who has held both professional and management roles in a top 100 law firm. Alongside his professional life he has been a trustee with arts-based charities, such as Bath Festivals, Bath Theatre Trust and the Arnolfini in Bristol; and also, health care organisations, such as Dorothy House Hospice Care, the Royal United Hospital NHS Trust and the mental health charity RICE. He was also the chair of the University of Bath Council and is currently a member of the PCC of Bath Abbey. He is the chair of the Bath Preservation Trust and several grant making charities including the newly formed Somerset Supports Ukraine. Thomas was the 960th High Sheriff of Somerset and lives in the Bath area with his wife Michelle.

He is delighted to be a Patron of the Wells Cathedral Chorister Trust and very keen on the glorious traditions of English Cathedral Music.