Quintin Beer
Quintin Beer is a choral director, prize-winning conductor, and versatile musician whose work spans professional, educational, and community settings. He has been Musical Director of Saffron Walden Choral Society since 2022, during which time he has led the choir in an ambitious programme of major choral-orchestral repertoire, collaborations with leading professional ensembles, and community-facing projects at Saffron Hall and beyond.
Alongside his work in Saffron Walden, Quintin is Director of Music at St Peter’s College, Oxford, where he oversees a wide-ranging choral and instrumental programme including regular services, concerts, tours, and recordings. With the Choir of St Peter’s College, he released his debut recording Fresh stone: Music by Piers Connor Kennedy in 2025, celebrating the richness and vitality of contemporary British choral writing.
Quintin read music at St John’s College, Cambridge, where he was a Choral Scholar, before completing an MA in Choral Conducting at the Royal Academy of Music, studying with Patrick Russill and graduating with Distinction. He was awarded the DipRAM for an outstanding final recital and the Foundation Award for excellence and contribution to Academy life, and in 2024 was made an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music in recognition of his contribution to the profession.
Recent highlights include preparing the adult chorus for Jonathan Dove’s community opera Uprising at Saffron Hall, which won the 2025 Ivors Novello Award for Best Community Project; directing the Oxford Bach Soloists; and chorus-mastering the BBC Singers for Huang Ruo’s M. Butterfly at the Barbican. He has also served as Chorus Master for Verdi’s Falstaff at the St Endellion Festival and for Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman with Saffron Walden Opera, and was Assistant Conductor for Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress at the Grange Festival with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.
Internationally, Quintin has won prizes at competitions in Greece, France, and Romania, and held a conducting fellowship at the Yale Summer School under Simon Carrington. Alongside his conducting, he remains active as a baritone, regularly singing with leading cathedral and church choirs across London.
You can read more about Quintin on his personal website: www.quintinbeer.com
