Ivor Setterfield began his musical education playing the violin at the age of 3, before joining St Alban’s Cathedral choir as a boy treble. He graduated in music from York University and was subsequently awarded scholarships to study singing and conducting at both the Royal Academy and the Royal College of Music under the tutelage of Colin Metters and Sir Colin Davies. He assisted Gennadi Rozhdestvensky, conducting performances of Mussorgsky Sorochintsy Fair and Janáçek Cunning Little Vixen. He represented Great Britain in broadcast masterclasses with Eric Ericson at the World Symposium of Choral Music in Stockholm and completed his studies in Siena with the great Russian pedagogues Ilya Musin and Valery Gergiev.


Ivor has conducted a number of leading orchestras including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Hanover Band, the City of London Sinfonia, and the London Mozart Players, performing both orchestral and choral repertoire. He regularly conducts at major London venues including the Royal Albert Hall and the South Bank. Recent highlights have included performances of Elgar Dream of Gerontius, Verdi Requiem, Mahler Symphony No.2 and Symphony No.8, Prokofiev Alexander Nevsky and Beethoven Symphony No.9, all at the Royal Albert Hall with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra; Beethoven Eroica Symphony and Tippett A Child of our Time at the Royal Festival Hall and Beethoven Symphony No.5 at the Barbican Hall. Ivor has conducted at venues across Europe including Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Sweden, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Spain and extensively throughout Italy and France.

As well as being conductor of New London Singers, Ivor is Founder and Music Director of New London Soloists Orchestra, and conductor of Barts choir, one of the City of London’s largest cultural organisations. Ivor has also recorded with New London Singers, details of these recordings can be found on this website.

In 2006, Ivor appeared in his own TV documentary series on Channel 5, The Singing Estate.