Suzi Digby

Voices Foundation

1993, Suzi founded and ran The Voices Foundation^[7][8] (1993 to 2006), which trained hundreds of thousands of Primary school teachers U.K.-wide, impacting several million children. She acted as Voices Foundation Advisory Teacher, in Primary schools across the U.K.

Hilary Finch, The Times reported the Voices Foundation as giving the Nation back its voice^[9].

Musical Director

1996, Suzi was apointed Musical Director of director of Rosslyn Hill Chapel Choir in Hampstead, London.

Singing Schools

In 1998 Suzi launched Singing Schools, a five-year program in South Africa involving 70 schools in Soweto and Johannesburg. More than 200 African children’s songs have been collected and integrated into the U.K. program.

Middlesex Bach Choir

In 2000 Suzi was apointed Director of the Middlesex Bach Choir

Winston Churchill Memorial Trust

Suzi Digby was invited to become a council member of the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust, where she served as chairman of the Arts category. That same year, she was shortlisted for a Creative Britain Award^[1].

Later, after moving to Cambridge, she chaired the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust bursary scheme for Churchill College, Cambridge.

Voce

2003 Suzi founded Voce, one of London’s leading amateur chamber choirs^[10].

OBE

Suzi was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for her outstanding services to music education^[11] in the 2007 New Year Honours.

BBC Last Choir Standing

Suzi Digby was a judge on the 2008 BBC primetime show Last Choir Standing^[12], featuring 16 episodes with the live final attracting 5.56 million viewers in the UK.

Vocal Futures

In 2010 Suzi founded Vocal Futures, a Foundation that set out to identify, involve and inspire young people to engage with live classical music, in particular seminal choral-orchestral works, performed in unusual spaces.

Vocal futures aims to identify, involve and inspire young people (aged 16-22) to begin a lifelong and transformative relationship with classical music: preparing young people for great art, and preparing great art for young people. Our model encompasses education, communication and research, in collaboration with Prof John Sloboda^[13]

Suzi's debut with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (Vocal Futures' Bach, St Matthew Passion) was met with outstanding critical acclaim^[14]: "Choral wizard", "The mother of all music", The Telegraph; "Sensitive and accomplished conductor", Musical America; "A serious force for good within Britain's music education system", New Statesman.

Stephen Fry’s response to the St. Matthew Passion:

“The performance of the St Matthew Passion, staged by Patrick Kinmonth and conceived and conducted by Suzi Digby, was one of the most inspirational evenings I can remember.”

Vocal Futures^[15] production of Haydn, The Creation (2013) was reviewed by Ivan Hewett (Daily Telegraph, 12th December 2013) as

“There were two forces of nature at this dramatised version of Haydn’s oratorio The Creation. One was Suzi Digby. She was the prime mover behind this latest stage of her campaign to get young people involved in classical music. The other was the work itself. The story of the Creation over seven days is pictured in Haydn’s oratorio with awe-inspiring power, and delightful naivety.”-Ivan Hewett

Following two very successful productions, Vocal Futures presented The Choice, a rarely performed gem in Handel’s repertoire.

The 7-year project culminated in a seminar in Queens’ College, Cambridge, in which Suzi Digby and Prof John Sloboda presented their findings to representatives from preforming bodies throughout the U.K.

University of Southern California

From 2011 to 2024 Suzi was visiting Professor at University of Southern California (USC) Thornton School of Music, delivering lectures for graduate students on the Choral and Sacred Music program^[16].

London Youth Choirs

Suzi co-founded London Youth Choirs^[17] in 2012, a pyramid of 10 choirs for children and young adults aged 7 to 23 serving all London’s 32 boroughs and multiple communities.

The organisation provides high-calibre musical education and performance opportunities for young singers across London.

Independent Society of Musicians

Suzi was President of the Independent Society of Musicians (ISM)^[18] in 2012-13.

Rolling Stones 50th Anniversary

Suzi was the official choral conductor for The Rolling Stones 50th Anniversary 2012 ^[19]. She fixed and coached 70 local choirs for multiple cities for their 50th Anniversary Tour.

Suzi performed on stage with Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones in five concerts at O2, Hyde Park and Glastonbury.

Queens' College, Cambridge

2013 Acting Music Director of Queens' College, Cambridge, Suzi founded and ran the Queens' Choral Conducting Programme, an annual conducting course for talented Cambridge University undergraduates.

Singing4Success

Suzi founded Singing4Success^[20] in 2014, providing leadership and 'Accelerated Learning' and leadership corporate workshops.

The Golden Bridge, Los Angeles

2014 Suzi launched one of the finest professional consorts in California, The Golden Bridge^[21][22], which commissioned and premièred 40 works by Californian composers to reflect masterpieces of the English 'Golden' Tudor Age and of the European Renaissance.

Scratch Youth Messiah

Suzi conducted 2,000 voices in the Royal Albert Hall in a Scratch Youth Messiah^[23] (2015 - 2016) which was awarded first prize for Best Classical Music Education Initiative Nationwide, Classic FM^[24].

DMus, University of Aberdeen

Suzi received an honorary Doctorate of Music (DMus) from University of Aberdeen^[25] in 2016.

ORA singers

In 2016 Suzi founded and directs ORA singers^[26][27]

"ORA Singers' achievement in commissioning and performing 100 new compositions from an impressively wide range of composers must be unprecedented in the entire history of music. It has been an extraordinarily imaginative and generous gift to the composers, and indeed to choirs and audiences everywhere. The repertoire of new choral music has been hugely enriched, and we are all in ORA's debt." - Sir John Rutter

ORA Singers performances and 11 albums (Harmonia Mundi) have received outstanding critical acclaim and have been awarded Germany’s Opus Klassik for Best Ensemble of the Year, 2018^[28][29][30], and, more recently, the prestigious Jahre Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik for the 2023 album, Sanctissima^[31].