Our Team

Our Music Team

Michael Waldron

Musical Director

Michael has been the Conductor and Musical Director of Islington Choral Society since 2017. He is also founder and Artistic Director of the London Choral Sinfonia, and has worked with the Philharmonia Orchestra, Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonia Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia, Academy of Ancient Music,  the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Polyphony, London Mozart Players, Holst Singers and City of London Choir. He is Artistic Director of London Lyric Opera and Musical Director of the Epworth Choir. His debut album release with the London Choral Sinfonia, O Holy Night, was selected by the Guardian as one of their top Christmas albums. With the LCS, he has also recorded orchestral and choral music by Richard Pantcheff, and Francis Grier's Sword in the Soul, a modern telling of the Good Friday story with words by Rowan Williams, narrated by Sir Simon Callow and Samantha Bond.

  • The LCS CD Colourise, awarded 5 stars by BBC Music Magazine, features a previously unrecorded cantata by Lennox Berkeley and the first recording of Vaughan Williams' Five Mystical Songs in an original chamber orchestration. It was selected by The Times as one of their Best Albums of 2022.

    Michael spent a term as Acting Director of Music with the Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge. His recent work has included concerts with Polyphony as part of the Swansea Festival; Britten’s St Nicolas at the Dartington International Festival; Elgar’s Cello Concerto, Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem and Rachmaninoff’s 2nd Symphony with Tonbridge Philharmonic; and an all-America programme with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and City of London Choir.

    His operatic work has included Opera Della Luna’s critically-acclaimed production of Monckton’s The Arcadians; Gilbert and Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore at Wilton’s Music Hall; Verdi’s La Traviata for Go Opera; and a Channel 4 film of Handel arias for London Lyric Opera

John Cuthbert

Assistant Musical Director

John has built a diverse musical career as a piano accompanist, répétiteur, musical director, chamber musician, and singer. Piano accompaniment highlights include performing at the Wigmore Hall and at the Elgar Room in the Royal Albert Hall, winning the 2017 AESS Dame Patricia Routledge accompanist prize, and becoming a Samling Artist. He is currently a staff accompanist at the Royal College of Music. As an orchestral pianist, celeste, and harmonium player, John has performed with the City of London Sinfonia, LSO, and LPO, in cities across Europe, including Bucharest and Hamburg. He is the Musical Director of Opera in Oborne, a summer festival, where he also improvises accompaniments to silent film. As well as playing piano, John sings as a tenor at All Saints’ Church, Margaret Street, and deputises for the choirs of Westminster Abbey, St George’s Chapel, Windsor, and St Paul’s Cathedral.

Our Committee

Following our most recent Annual General Meeting, the current members of the choir committee are:

Gill Andrews, Librarian
Tiz Blackwell, Tour
Vanessa Hall-Smith, Treasurer
Luke Henderson
Tim Maby
Roger Miles
Helen Mills
Ruth Pyatt, Secretary and Trustee
Kim Randall, Chair and Trustee
Alison Rice
Frances Sawtell, Membership

​​The choir has three Trustees, one of whom must be a member of the choir not serving on the committee. Tricia George is our current Member Trustee.

The choir’s Constitution is available here ICS Constitution as amended at AGM March 2005 to view or download and print. (PDF file)