BARITONE (2023 - 2027), Manager (2024 - 2025)

Alexander Weiss

‘Psalter? I hardly knew her’

Plucked from the abyss of his school tenor section, Alex has swiftly perfected the art of pretending to sing low notes. Unaware of the concept of scales on his arrival, what he lacks in music theory, he makes up for with questionable puns.

Alex joins us from the faraway enclave of Emmanuel College, although Johns holds a special place in his heart, in particular the second bollard in Forecourt (don’t ask).

As an engineer, Alex only recently learned to read words, and so is struggling with the concept of sight-reading; opting instead to learn music via telepathy and “vibes.” When he isn’t in Johns, Alex is either on the Cam at unreasonable hours, tearing his hair out over his all-too-real degree, and fuelling his manic schedule with copious energy drinks.

ALTO (2022 - 2023), Musical director (2024-2025)

Matthew Monaghan

Matthew began his singing career at Emmanuel Church, Wylde Green. When his voice broke, he was advised to sing countertenor owing to the abundance of basses in the choir at the time. This is the narrative that he prefers to pander, rather than the Gents’ suspicion that his voice still remains unbroken.

As a native of Walsall, in the Black Country, Matthew spends most of his time trying to fit in with real singers by masking his inherently incomprehensible accent. He has been told that his vowels will ‘improve with time’.

Matthew studies music at Churchill College, where, upon arrival, he was disdained to discover that not only would he have to analyse the music of Elgar rather than Elton, but also that he’d have to learn how to actually ride a bike.

ALTO (2024 - 2025)

Alexander Thow

It was a sad day for the sporting world when eight-year-old Alex became a chorister at St Thomas on the Bourne, Farnham, having to give up his weekly rugby training. Several years later when his voice finally broke (which he claims it really has), he became so desperate for the attention he received as a treble that he vowed never to sing in his chest voice for the rest of his days.

Upon arriving in Cambridge, Alex made the unfortunate mistake of singing with another college choir for three years before he finally came to his senses and joined the Gents. As punishment for his sins he must now cope with being only the third most valuable 'Alex' in the choir. Outside of the Gents, Alex can occasionally be found doing chemistry, but can more often be found questioning whether or not finishing the fourth-year of his chemistry degree would made him a victim of the sunk-cost fallacy.

tenor (2024 - 2027)

James Gardner

James Gardner hails from London, and sang at the Brompton Oratory as a mediocre treble, alto and tenor from age 7-18, and has already secured the title of ‘The Maypole’s Favourite Gent’. Seen here, sporting his embarrassing Movember attempt, James reads Music at St John’s, a move that has been described as “pointless” and “unemployable”. Nevertheless, James remains optimistic about his future. Somehow. In an attempt to make himself even more boring than he already is, James is an avid enjoyer of ‘early music’ and Gregorian chant.

Legend has it he once corrected Carlos Rodríguez Otero in matters of Spanish Renaissance Music. In his spare time, James can often be found explaining 9th century polyphony on nights out, complaining about singing Compline in English, or crying whilst listening to the Duruflé Requiem. Weaknesses include: essay deadlines, negronis and singing below middle C.

ALTO (2024 - 2027)

Sarah Reid

Sarah originally comes from Peterborough - a city ubiquitously despised by at least 100 per cent of its inhabitants. Her slightly unclassifiable accent is due to a family move to The North at age 12, meaning she was a chorister at both Peterborough and Newcastle Cathedral.

Despite a gap year as a choral scholar at Hereford Cathedral, Sarah lacks a great number of life skills, including (but not limited to) the ability to cook anything that isn’t pasta and the ability to drink a responsible amount of coffee. She is studying Philosophy at Robinson College, which means that she can leave her college for lectures 5 minutes before they begin, a fact of which she would like to remind the Johnians in her year.

Bass (2024 - 2027)

George Akka

George hails from “the middle of a field”, a nondescript land somewhere up in the north of England. On one fateful day in his early teens, during a sight singing component of a violin exam, he plunged from the heights of a treble singer to the depths of a Low Bass which swept him into attending sixth form at a certain Mancunian music school.

Responding to George and the nickname GAkka equally responsively, he seems to live a double life, juggling his Gent and Choir duties with rowing, orchestra, violin recitals, and his compositions… with his music degree fitting somewhere in between, of course... Often jovially quipping improv’ “dad” jokes, despite being the youngest in the group, our choir football goalie is identifiable by his frequently navy themed attire, his monobrow, his Gents scarf and his ruffled mop of hair, which make our 6’3 BFG hard to miss.

BASS (2024 - 2027)

Rufus Jasko

Rufus grew up in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire and joined his local church choir at age 9. Although he did become Head Chorister, his voice broke after one term in the role (thankfully), so he now tries to sing bass.

Rufus studies Mathematics at Girton College - a proper subject. Rufus also plays the piano, violin and viola, and sometimes likes to pretend that he can also play the organ.

alto (2022 - 2025)

Alice Markham

Alice was born and grew up in a quaint little village on the outskirts of Derby called Sutton, where the common greeting is '“Ey up me duck”, but she has very quickly learnt that people tend not to say that around here. Her first memory of singing dates back to when she was two years old, where she stood up unannounced in a Christmas service and sang her own rendition of ‘Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star’, after she told the congregation the famous story of how Jesus got stuck up the chimney.

Despite her lack of choral training, Alice joins the group as a jazz singer, which can be deduced through her unwarranted scat solos during choir services. Nevertheless, the Gents are all far too frightened of her to correct her singing: for despite being the shortest Gent, Alice is also a kickboxer. Aside from studying English Literature at St. John’s and threatening the rest of us with violence, Alice loves a boogie, writing songs, and a G & T.

tenor (2022 - 2025)

Garbhan McEnoy

One of Cambridge’s leading Tiktokers, the Gents’ Social Media Consultant hails from the far away, endlessly green expanse of Belfast, Ireland. On a completely different note, he now studies music at Girton College, which is a cool 2.6 miles away from St John’s Chapel. Some things never change. Despite Garbhan’s social media fame, one thing keeps him humble: he has to daily fend off deeply incorrect pronunciations of his own name, which unfortunately extends to him having to translate his whole accent for the less worldly of the Gents. When taking a break from doing this, Garbhan can often be found at a Taylor Swift club night, or persuading everybody that he’s actually a student, rather than a chorister that’s gotten lost in the back row. Nevertheless, what he lacks in height, he makes up for in a (sometimes painfully) optimistic outlook on life, although it’s fair to say that he’s probably better suited for cheerleading rather than playing in the choir football tournament.

Bass (2022 - 2024)

John Moore

John was raised in a copse of lime trees about twenty kilometres from the ancient settlement of Brighton-upon-channel, which he frequently claims as his hometown because it sounds more wordly than the small Sussex village where he actually grew up. Having spent the formative years of his life learning to read, write, play the piano, and occasionally speak, John eventually decided to pursue the study of pure mathematics. Despite having graduated from Imperial College London with an actual degree, he has decided to come to Homerton to read music as an undergraduate once more, a move which baffles modern historians to this day. In the face of accompanying ridicule, John takes comfort in frequent comparisons to Eminem, Miley Cyrus, or virtually any other platinum blonde celebrity that you can think of.

Bass, junior organ scholar (2022 - 2025)

Alex Robson

Alex grew up in Kent, where he started piano lessons at the age of 6 because he was a very popular young man. Deciding that this wasn’t cool enough, he took up the organ at secondary school and has been unfortunately stuck ever since. He arrives at the choir after a gap year at St George’s Chapel, Windsor, where he received extensive training in the art of printing out service booklets and watching the Royal Family from high above. Now that he’s at Cambridge, Alex hopes to continue along this vein by royally ruining his music degree and any future job prospects.