About us
About our choir, our music and our director
Kingsgate Voices is a chamber choir based in Winchester, Hampshire.
We sing a wide range of music, both sacred and secular. At the heart of our repertoire is unaccompanied music of the Renaissance and Baroque periods, but we enjoy music from across the centuries to the present day.
We were established in 2020, though a large proportion of our members have sung together for many years.
Musical Director: Andrew Hayman
Andrew is a versatile musician, balancing his time as a singer, accompanist, teacher, and director, working with a number of choirs in and around Hampshire.
He is the Musical Director of Southampton Choral Society and Kingsgate Voices; he is the co-founder and Musical Director of Nos Miseri Homines, a one-to-a-part consort of young professionals specialising in unaccompanied choral music from the past 500 years and more; he is Director of the Hampshire County Youth and Chamber Choirs; and he is the regular accompanist for the Twyford Singers.
Andrew received his musical education as a chorister, and later Choral and Organ Scholar, at Newport Cathedral, and on a Music Scholarship at Monmouth School. After a gap year spent singing with Wells Cathedral Choir, he read Music at Magdalen College, Oxford, in which he achieved First Class Honours, while also singing in the college choir, under the curious title of Academical Clerk. He gained his ARCO. Since completing his degree, Andrew has sung as a lay clerk in two cathedral choirs. During his musical career he has toured both in the UK and across the world, made recordings and live broadcasts, and has sung solos in oratorios and occasionally in opera. He was appointed first Musical Director of Kingsgate Voices in 2021.
The Kingsgate Arch
Kingsgate Voices is named after the historic Kingsgate area of Winchester.
Kingsgate is one of two surviving medieval gates and is on or near the site of one of the Roman gates to the city. The name was first recorded in 1148. The present gate is probably 14th century, with 18th century pedestrian walkways.