Samuel Teague
Speaker
Samuel Teague is a doctoral candidate in music at The Queen’s College, Oxford. He specialises in the music of Restoration England and the Chapel Royal, focusing on the life and works of Captain Henry Cooke, sometime Master of the Children of the Chapel, responsible for rearing the young composers of the English Restoration School which would culminate with Henry Purcell. Samuel’s research has seen him present papers at St James’s Palace, as well as convening an academic symposium and concert to celebrate the 350th anniversary of the death of Henry Cooke, featuring newly edited works which may well have gone unheard for over three centuries. Samuel also enjoys lecturing at several colleges across the University, where he takes tutorials covering topics on sixteenth- and seventeenth-century music.
Samuel has sung with the Choir of the Queen’s College since arriving in Oxford for postgraduate study, now beginning his fourth year as a lay clerk, with recent performances as part of Laus Polyphoniae (2022) and an official pre-festival concert to Neustadter Herbst - Festival für Alte Musik (2023), and forthcoming performances as part of this year’s Oxford International Song Festival. Alongside this, he also regularly sings as a deputy across several other Oxford colleges, as well as enjoying a scholarship from the University Church of St Mary the Virgin which sees him both sing and conduct.
In recent years, Samuel has transitioned into working as a librarian alongside his doctoral study and music-making, currently at Christ Church, Oxford. Here, he carries out significant work with the world-leading music collections in the library, having recently curated an exhibition for the 400th anniversary of the death of William Byrd - ‘A Byrd in the Library’ (running 9 Oct - 1 Dec 2023) - which accompanies an academic symposium in November. More recently still, Samuel has become editor of Early Music Performance & Research, the journal of the National Early Music Association (UK).
