Graham Ross

Graham Ross is a conductor, best known as the leader of the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge, but also with wide experience leading a variety of modern orchestras and early music groups. Ross is also a composer who has written more than 100 works. As a conductor, he has premiered works by some of Britain's most popular composers. His substantial recording catalog includes Attende Domine: Music for Lent & Passiontide, with the Bevan Family Consort (2025). Ross was born in Farnham, in England's Surrey County, on April 29, 1985. He studied violin, piano, organ, and treble vocals as a youth. Ross attended Clare College, Cambridge, studying composition with Giles Swayne. In 2004, while still a student at Cambridge, he formed his own group, the Dmitri Ensemble, and served as its conductor. In 2009, with that group, he issued a recording of MacMillan's Seven Last Words from the Cross. Ross attended the Royal College of Music in London, studying conducting with Peter Stark and Robin O'Neill. He landed a conducting scholarship with the London Symphony Chorus in 2008 and 2009 and was also the music director of the Concordia Chamber Choir and Kingston Choral Society during this period. In 2010, he became the conductor of the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge, and he continued to hold that position as of the mid-2020s, leading the group on tours of Europe, the U.S., Asia, and Australia. Ross has also undertaken a wide variety of conducting activities, leading operatic performances in Britain, France, and Israel, as well as conducting ensembles as varied as the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Aalborg Symphony Orchestra, and the Australian Chamber Orchestra. His compositions have been performed by the BBC Concert Orchestra, the City of London Sinfonia, and choirs across the UK. As a conductor, he has championed new music. Ross has given the world premieres of works by composers John Rutter, Gabriel Jackson, and Cecilia McDowall, among others. On recordings, he has programmed works by the likes of MacMillan, Judith Bingham, and Nico Muhly. With the Choir of Clare College, he has recorded exclusively for Harmonia Mundi, often releasing several albums a year. The year 2020 saw an album devoted to the choral music of MacMillan, Arvo Pärt, and Peteris Vasks, and another of Benjamin Britten's Ceremony of Carols, and in 2023 the choir released Rolling River: American Choral. The year 2025 saw Ross conduct the album Palestrina Revealed with the Choir of Clare College. He has also led other groups, and that year, he led the album Attende Domine: Music for Lent & Passiontide with the Bevan Family Consort on the Signum Classics label. ~ James Manheim, Rovi