As Conductor of the orchestra and chorus of the Cambridge University Music Society, Stephen has directed the major works for chorus and orchestra as well as symphonic repertoire and has also premièred new works, among them pieces by Alexander Goehr, Robin Holloway and Robert Saxton.  Recent CUMS performances have included Mahler Resurrection Symphony in Boston, Berlioz Requiem in Ely Cathedral, Dvo?ák Stabat Mater in King’s Chapel, Vaughan Williams A Sea Symphony in the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford, and Tippett A Child of Our Time and Verdi Requiem, also in King's Chapel.

He frequently appears throughout Europe North America and Asia as a conductor, leader of conducting workshops and solo organist.  As a conductor he has worked with many ensembles, including the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Concert Orchestra, the Philharmonia, the London Philharmonic, Southbank Sinfonia, the Academy of Ancient Music, the Irish Chamber Orchestra, the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Endymion and His Majesty's Sagbutts and Cornetts.  Of late, performances as an organ recitalist have taken him to venues as diverse as Hong Kong, Haderslev Cathedral in Denmark and Salt Lake's huge LDS Conference Center, where he played to an audience of several thousand people.  Other engagements have seen him directing the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in Salt Lake City, recording with the BBC Singers a CD of Tippett’s choral music to mark the composer’s centenary, and conducting the Israel Camerata in a series of concerts in Tel-Aviv and Jerusalem: giving a series of conducting master-classes in Mexico: conducting the National Chamber Choir of Ireland during their summer series in Dublin: taking the CUMS to Switzerland, and the BBC Singers to Japan, where he also gave a lecture on the music of Benjamin Britten at the International Choral Symposium in Kyoto.

Stephen Cleobury Website: www.stephencleobury.com

The Choir of King’s College, Cambridge, under Stephen Cleobury, is on terrific form at present.  Yet even their immaculate EMI recording of East European repertoire, Ikos, does not prepare one adequately for the breathtakingly inspired, loving performance they serve up here…

Recordings of the coronation anthems are usually winners… and this one certainly hits the mark…. plenty of energy and duly grand in scale…
…  Excellent choral singing, and the Academy of Ancient Music are on their toes for Cleobury.

…a new recording by the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge offers unadulterated pleasure… The… soloists, choir and Academy of Ancient Music come across… in full-bodied sound to match the warmth of their performance under Stephen Cleobury.

Rachmaninov’s choral miracles and Cleobury’s acute ear for tuning, phrasing and dynamics made this a joy.

Stephen Cleobury shaped the pieces stylishly…I would happily sit in King’s College Chapel listening to this choir for the rest of my days.

This recording is, without a shadow of a doubt, a triumph.  There is no comparable rival to this disc. If I had only this recording on my desert island, I’d consider it a foretaste of Paradise.

‘thanks to Stephen Cleobury’s magisterial guidance, and the magnificent recording studio that is King’s College Chapel, you won’t find a more beautiful performance of these haunting, seraphic works’

BBC SINGERS AND ENDYMION ENSEMBLE
Cleobury was ...impressive directing an intelligently phrased performance of Bach’s motet, Komm, Jesus, komm, and better still in Stravinsky’s Mass for voices and wind ensemble.  Austere, astringent and emotionally reserved, the latter benefits from a controlled, precise interpretation, and Cleobury’s ultra-cool reading made the exultant “hosannas” of the Sanctus all the more compelling.