Context’s singing archaeologist
When not working as a heritage consultant, Ian Travers is one of the principals in the Choir of Newman College. He has performed in festival programmes of Italian, German and French music from the late renaissance and baroque, as well as the traditional Advent Carol Service and compline. The first week of December saw the newly conserved buildings of Newman College at their finest as they hosted the 2011 Advent Festival, a three day residential celebration of music and the arts based around the daily cycle of a medieval monastic community.
For Ian, singing in cathedral and chamber choirs in his native England complements his professional interests in ecclesiastical architecture and archaeology. Indeed, he was singing as a lay clerk at York Minster whilst writing his masters dissertation on the interpretation and presentation of the archaeology beneath the Gothic cathedral.