Meet The Team
Tori Longdon
Co-founder, Director
Tori Longdon studied choral conducting at the Royal Academy of Music, where she was awarded a distinction and the Thomas Armstrong prize. She is now the Principal Conductor of the Covent Garden Chorus, Assistant Conductor of the National Youth Training Choir and coached the choirs for the Coronation Concert of King Charles III at Windsor Castle in May 2023.
She is the co-founder of the WorldChoir, an international community of more than 29,000 choral singers which she leads together with Swingles baritone Jamie Wright.
Tori is currently a conductor for Songs Of Praise on BBC1, as well as an adjudicator for ‘Young Choir Of The Year’ and ‘Young Chorister Of The Year’. She appeared on BBC2 as a judge on two series’ of the ‘The Choir’. As a broadcaster, she has interviewed some of classical music’s most famous names, including Marin Alsop, John Rutter, Sir Karl Jenkins, Sofi Jeannin and Christopher Tin.
She travels the world leading workshops, adjudicating competitions and working with young conductors, most recently in Australia (June ’23) Finland (September ’23) and Austria (upcoming – Nov ’23). She has written several articles for ClassicFM’s online magazine, lectured for the Artist Development postgraduate course at the Royal Academy of Music, and for the musicianship course at the Junior Guildhall Conservatoire.
Professional choirs under her direction have sung in venues such as Wembley Arena, St. John’s Smith Square and Southwark Cahedral and performed for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and President Xi Jinping of China.
Jamie Wright
Co-founder, Director
Jamie is a singer, conductor and music educator based in London, and is Baritone and Vocal percussionist for the Grammy award winning vocal group The Swingles.
He has worked in television, performed at the BBC proms, and was the bass soloist in All the Angel’s at Shakespeare’s Globe.
Jamie also works closely with the National and London Youth Choirs, and Welsh National Opera as a conductor and workshop leader, as well as being a chorister of the Chapel Royal, Tower of London.
Kristyna Rasova
General Manager
Kristyna joined the WorldChoir team in January 2023 and her first project was Baba Yetu with Christopher Tin. Kristyna spent her childhood and teenage years in the choral world which later led to receiving private singing tuition.
After receiving her degree in Economics and Management she spent years working for smaller and medium sized businesses and later moved to working with artistic organisations mainly focusing on general management, operations and business development.
In 2018, Kristyna’s love for the English language, literature, and the arts brought her to London. After her year-long studies in theatre and performance, she realised she found her second home and decided to stay and find her way back to her beloved music world.
In addition to her role at WorldChoir, Kristyna is a freelance arts manager. She works with The Royal School of Church Music, The Romano Viazzani Ensemble, and manages various temporary projects. Since starting her arts management career in the UK, she has worked with organizations such as London Concertante, Recordare Chamber Choir, Thames Philharmonic Choir, and others, leveraging her business expertise to enhance her contributions to the music industry.
Kristyna is organising and planning WorldChoir projects, making marketing decisions together with Tori and Jamie, organising the workflow and building new strategies for the WorldChoir to make sure we can keep offering all our exciting projects and sessions.
Katie Coventry
Administrative Assistant
Katie joined the WorldChoir team in December 2022. She grew up in the world of choral singing alongside Jamie and Tori before training at the Royal College of Music and undertaking a career as a professional opera singer. A previous Harewood Artist at English National Opera, Katie works full time in opera and concert houses across the UK and Europe, including Glyndebourne Festival, Teatro Real Madrid, Royal Danish Opera, Nederlandse Reisopera, Salzburg Festival and the Salzburg State Theatre where she is now based. Katie is delighted to be keeping her toes in the choral world that taught her so much and to be a part of the wonderful WorldChoir community. She is on hand to answer all of your questions in the inbox alongside managing the choir’s social media.
Rachel Holt
Operations Consultant
Rachel was a founding member of the WorldChoir and was persuaded to become part of the team shortly afterwards. Alongside a day job in entertainment technology, she has helped to manage choirs for many years, which is where she and Tori first met. Having initially been part of the regular core team, Rachel has now taken a step back from day-to-day WorldChoir activities but is still on hand to deputise for the operations team and help out where needed! Rachel’s informal job title is General Ball Catcher, so if you spot a typo or mistake it’s likely that her proof-reading is to blame! Rachel sings as part of the Covent Garden Chorus, led by Tori.
Will Partridge
IT Assistant
Will kicked off his journey with The Armed Man project. Aside from his day job as a Radio Planning Engineer with a background in Electronic Engineering from Southampton, Will is the behind-the-scenes IT maestro for the choir. Responsible for assembling and uploading the learning & submission videos, he also plays a role in managing the choir’s website and shop.
Graham Bier
Tutor
Graham Bier is based in Philadelphia (PA, USA) where he serves as Director of Music at Bryn Athyn Cathedral, Music Director of the Reading Choral Society, and lectures at Bryn Athyn College. He stays active as an ensemble singer, and has sung with groups including I Fagiolini, Stile Antico, The Crossing, Les Canards Chantants, most recently appearing with members of the Philadelphia Symphonic Choir in the film Maestro. He studied as an undergrad at Oberlin College, and later earned an MA in Vocal Studies and a PhD in Musicology from the University of York (UK), where he met Jamie. As the “night watchman” for the WorldChoir, you can find Graham offering live Zoom sessions when the rest of the team is asleep.
