Who’s who

Andrew Earis is Director of Music at St Martin-in-the-Fields, where he has overseen the growth of the music programme to now encompass a broad programme of concerts, worship services and special events. This includes several voluntary choirs, choral training programmes for children and young professionals, orchestral ensembles and the church’s flagship professional ensemble, St Martin’s Voices. Andrew has also been instrumental in extending St Martin’s music activity across the UK, including a successful choral scholarship programme based in Manchester. Among the regular concerts and church services which take place at St Martin’s, Andrew has established Great Sacred Music and Choral Classics, weekly events which sit at the intersection between concerts and worship, aiming to explore new choral music and to recontextualise well-known pieces.

In addition to the many performances given by St Martin’s Voices and other ensembles at the church, Andrew regularly conducts the Academy of St Martin in the Fields and has also directed performances by the London Mozart Players and Southbank Sinfonia. As an organist, he has performed at King’s College Cambridge, Westminster Abbey, Sherborne Abbey and Washington National Cathedral in repertoire including Poulenc’s Organ Concerto and Saint-Saën’s Organ Symphony.

Alongside his work at St Martin’s, Andrew acts as music consultant to the Church of England. He was responsible for producing online music resources which were used by thousands of churches during the Covid-19 pandemic and beyond. He oversees music for the Church of England’s weekly online services and has recorded all the music used in the Church of England’s Daily Prayer podcast, as well as special content at Christmas, Easter and other national occasions.

Andrew is also a frequent contributor to the BBC’s religious programmes as conductor and music consultant. He is a producer of programmes including Radio 4 Sunday Worship and Radio 3 Choral Evensong. He has recorded programmes from South Africa exploring the legacy of apartheid, Remembrance Sunday from Notre Dame Paris, and services of Thanksgiving from the USA, as well as broadcasts reflecting on major events including the deaths of HM The Queen and HRH The Duke of Edinburgh, the anniversary of the Manchester Arena bombing, and the death of Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

Andrew is a graduate of the Royal College of Music and Imperial College, London, and holds a PhD from the University of Manchester. He is also a Fellow of Trinity College London. In 2022 Andrew was made an Associate of the Royal School of Church Music and was also awarded the Thomas Cranmer Award for Worship by the Archbishop of Canterbury, which recognises outstanding contributions to all aspects of worship in the Church, including both words and music.

He is hugely excited by the many upcoming projects at St Martin’s and beyond, including the release of a CD of contemporary Christmas choral music with St Martin’s Voices on the Resonus Classics label, a concert tour to the USA and the establishment of a new Associate Choral Leaders Programme at churches across the UK.

Olivia is Associate Choral Director at St Martin-in-the-Fields where she oversees the Artist Development Programmes, including the St Martin’s scholars, emerging artists, and associate choral leader programmes, as well as conducting the St Martin’s Chamber Choir. At St Martin’s, she has enjoyed conducting for BBC Radio 3 broadcasts, Church of England recordings, concerts with the St Martin’s Voices and chamber orchestra, and has assisted in setting up the Manchester HeartEdge Choral programme.

Alongside her work as St Martin’s, Olivia is also the Carlos Miguel Prieto conducting fellow for 22-23, assistant conductor with the Ernest Read Symphony Orchestra and Blackheath Halls, musical director of Exodus choir and freelance workshop leader with The Sixteen and the Armonico Consort.

Previously, she was selected for the Dartington Summer School conducting course as well as being selected for Jette Parker Women Conductors Course at the Royal Opera House, where she went on to deputise as chorus master for Opera Holland Park’s The Cunning Little Vixen.

In 2020, Olivia was the Genesis Sixteen Conducting Scholar, and has gone on to become musical director of the Exodus choir, and as workshop leader for The Sixteen. In 2021, Olivia participated in the DIMA International Choral Conducting Competition, where she placed as a finalist and received the Gheorge Dima Special Prize.

She gained a distinction in her MA Choral Conducting from the Royal Academy of Music, under the tuition of Patrick Russill, where she also won the Alan Kirby Prize.

Jennifer Sterling began her training as a chorister at St Mary’s Cathedral in Edinburgh alongside studies in violin and piano at St Mary’s Music School. She subsequently read music as a first study singer at the University of York before establishing a career as a singer, choral conductor, teacher, and arranger. Alongside her role as Associate Choral Director of St Martin-in-the-Fields, Jennifer is Musical Director of Otley and Ilkley Choral Societies. She performs regularly as a soprano soloist, as a Scottish folk singer, and as a member of the award-winning Edinburgh based vocal ensemble, Octavoce.

Jennifer has a wealth of experience working as a musical director and is in demand for engagements across the UK.  She has worked with prestigious organisations including Opera North and the National Youth Choir of Scotland, and conducts a variety of choirs from amateur through to professional levels.

Polina Sosnina is Associate Organist and Director of the Junior Choir at St Martin-in-the-Fields. She recently graduated with a distinction from the Royal College of Music, where she studied organ performance with David Graham, Andy Dewar and improvisation with Sophie-Véronique Cauchefer-Choplin. Her studies were supported by the RCM Kenneth and Violet Scott Scholarship, the Organists Charitable Trust, Eric Thompson Trust and the Leonard Freestone Scholarship from the Royal College of Organists. 

After graduating from Magdalene College, Cambridge, Polina held organ scholarships at Temple Church and the London Oratory, and the Director of Music post at St Thomas of Canterbury Church, Brentwood. As a soloist, recent performances include recitals at Temple Church, Westminster Abbey and St John’s Smith Square. During the pandemic, Polina was fortunate to give three virtual recitals: one on the theme ‘Bach, Family and Friends’ as an Emerging Artist for the London Bach Society; a Bach Bites recital at the Royal College of Music; and a performance of Percy Whitlock’s music at St Michael’s Cornhill. 

Phoebe Tak Man Chow is a former cathedral organist and is currently the Director of Music at All Saints’ Church Orpington, London. Phoebe is a graduate of the Royal College of Music, London, and has recently become an Associate of the Royal College of Organists. She has held Organist posts at Emanuel School, London, and at many other London churches. Between 2017 and 2019, she held the post of Assistant Director of Music at Saint Fin Barre’s Cathedral, in Ireland, where she accompanied the Cathedral Choir, trained local school choirs, and made appearances on Irish National Television.