David Skinner
David Skinner has achieved equal renown as a choral conductor and a musicologist. He is a co-founder of The Cardinall's Musick and Alamire, both prominent British groups in the early music field.
Skinner was born in 1964 in California and attended California State University, Fresno. He moved to Britain in 1987 to pursue a master's degree in music at Edinburgh University, and he has lived in the U.K. since then. From Edinburgh, he went on to Oxford, where he studied musicology, earning a doctorate in 1995 for a thesis on the music of composer Nicholas Ludford. He also sang in the Choir of Christ Church Cathedral in Oxford and became interested in the performance of choral music. In 1989, he and a fellow Lay Clerk at Oxford, Andrew Carwood, founded the vocal ensemble The Cardinall's Musick. As the name suggested, the group specialized in English Catholic composers of the Renaissance. The pair were a productive team, with Carwood often conducting and Skinner doing research, teaching singers to perform from period notation (he continues to give classes in this subject), and making new editions of music by Ludford and others.
Skinner also served as producer for the more than 25 recordings made by The Cardinall's Musick, mostly on the ASV label. In 2005, Skinner formed a new group, Alamire, whose repertory extends back to the medieval era. That group has also recorded prolifically for Obsidian, Hyperion, Resonus Classics, and other labels. In 2020, Skinner and Alamire released Media vita in morte sumus, an album devoted to the music of John Sheppard; the album was part of a projected 30-release series exploring English music between 1400 and 1700. Skinner and Alamire recorded a pair of albums during the COVID-19 pandemic; Byrd 1588 and Byrd 1589 were devoted to the contents of publications by William Byrd and were released on Inventa Records in 2021 and 2023, respectively. Skinner has continued to teach and to practice musicology, issuing a new edition of the music of Thomas Tallis. He is the director of music at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge University. His son, Robin Daniel Skinner, makes rock and pop music in Britain under the name Cavetown.
© James Manheim /TiVo
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Byrd 1589
Fretwork, David Skinner, Alamire
Classical - Released by Inventa Records on Apr 7, 2023
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Vinders: Missa Myns liefkens bruyn ooghen & Missa Fors seulement
The Choir of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, David Skinner
Classical - Released by Inventa Records on Jun 23, 2023
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Byrd 1588: Psalmes, Sonets & Songs of Sadnes and Pietie
Alamire, Fretwork, David Skinner
Classical - Released by Inventa Records on Apr 2, 2021
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
John Sheppard: Media Vita in Morte Sumus
Classical - Released by Inventa Records on Jul 17, 2020
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Tallis: Queen Katherine Parr & Songs of Reformation
Alamire, David Skinner, Fretwork
Vocal Music (Secular and Sacred) - Released by Obsidian on Nov 10, 2017
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Hieronymus Praetorius: Motets in 8, 10, 12, 16 & 20 Parts
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24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Ribera: Magnificats & Motets
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Cantiones Sacrae 1575 (Thomas Tallis - William Byrd)
Classical - Released by Obsidian on Jan 6, 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
These Distracted Times
Classical - Released by Obsidian on Jan 1, 2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Missa Paschalis (Ludwig Senfl)
Classical - Released by Obsidian on Feb 2, 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Polyphonia in Excelsis: Sacred Music by Claudio Dall'albero
The Choir of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, David Skinner
Classical - Released by Resonus Classics on Jun 2, 2017
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Anne Boleyn's Songbook: Music & Passions of a Tudor Queen
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Missa D’ung aultre amer
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16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Vespertina Hymnodia: Sacred Music by Claudio Dall’Albero
The Choir of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, David Skinner
Classical - Released by Resonus Classics on Mar 18, 2022
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Ambitious Love
Alamire, Fretwork, David Skinner
Classical - Released by Inventa Records on Mar 5, 2021
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Motets from a Royal Choirbook (British Library, MS Roy. 11.e.xi)
Andrew Lawrence-King, Alamire, Quintessential, David Skinner
Classical - Released by Obsidian on Jan 1, 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Byrd: Early Latin Church Music; Propers for the Nativity (Byrd Edition 2)
The Cardinall's Musick, Andrew Carwood, David Skinner
Classical - Released by Decca (UMO) on May 4, 1998
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Madrigaux pour le Roi Tudor
Classical - Released by Obsidian on Jan 1, 2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Cornysh, Turges, Prentes: Latin Church Music
The Cardinall's Musick, Andrew Carwood, David Skinner
Classical - Released by Decca (UMO) on Jun 1, 1997
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Ludford: Missa Lapidaverunt Stephanum; Ave Maria ancilla trinitatis
The Cardinall's Musick, Andrew Carwood, David Skinner
Classical - Released by Decca (UMO) on Jan 1, 1994
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mine Eyes With Fervency of Sprite
Alamire, Fretwork, David Skinner
Classical - Released by Inventa Records on Mar 19, 2021
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo