Overview of choral and ensemble performance In the 1970s Covey-Crump sang
Anglican church music as a tenor
lay clerk in
St Albans Cathedral Choir, while becoming increasingly well-known for his concert work. the
Taverner Consort,
Deller Consort, Landini Consort, Medieval Ensemble of London,
Consort of Musicke and Baccholian Singers, Following the closure of the Hilliard Ensemble,
John Potter, Christopher O'Gorman and Covey-Crump started the Conductus Project, an academic project which included performance of the
conductus, and workshops on performance. The project toured
Brighton, England,
Radovljica,
Slovenia,
Brussels, Belgium,
Durham and
Beverley, England, and
Bratislava, Slovakia. He has also taken part in ensembles as a
continuo player, and has given
master classes for
choral scholars at
Merton College, Oxford.
Hilliard Ensemble Covey-Crump had a long association with the
Hilliard Ensemble, although he was not a founder member. With the Hilliard Ensemble he sang "ancient and modern, secular and religious" music besides early music and new compositions, although the ensemble's vocal range precluded performance of many of the
Classical and
Romantic works. The ensemble did not prioritise the sartorial aspect of its image; the performers have been "described as looking like four
used-car salesmen, or even four
funeral directors on one occasion". Covey-Crump took part in the ensemble's "annual schedule of up to one hundred concerts", its Festival in Cambridge, and its Summer School which moved to Germany in 2000. Thereafter, he was recording with the Hilliard Ensemble for the German recording
ECM instead of
Hyperion,
Harmonia Mundi and
EMI. He was involved in the ensemble's collaborations with
Jan Garbarek (
Officium, 1994) which spawned many live performances over 20 years. He also collaborated with
Arvo Pärt, and took part in the group's
Hilliard Live recordings of concerts. He has performed the works of Bach at the
Symphony Hall, Birmingham,
King's College, Cambridge, and
Eton College, the
Christmas Oratorio with the Amsterdam Bach Soloists in the Netherlands, and the
St John Passion at the
Three Choirs Festival at
Hereford Cathedral, besides
the cantatas alongside the
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, with whom he also performed in Haydn's
The Creation. He took part in
St Albans International Organ Festival in 1975, and again in 1977 when he assumed 17th-century costume and performed in a cabaret entitled
Pepys Night. On 3 March 1979, Covey-Crump was soloist with the Tilford Bach Choir and Orchestra in a performance of Bach's
St John Passion at the Queen Elizabeth Hall. On 23 March 1996 he was soloist in Bach's
St Matthew Passion with the
Derby Bach Choir and the
Baroque orchestra Musica Donum Dei at
Derby Cathedral. At Christmas 2009 he was a soloist in Bach's
Christmas Oratorio at
St Alban's Abbey. In 2018 he was soloist at Terence Charlston's organ recital at
St Mary-le-Bow. Covey-Crump has performed solo at premieres of some contemporary works, and has recorded compositions by
Geoffrey Burgon. ==Reviews==