Pippa Thynne

Joined 2017
Music Administrator

Pippa grew up in the Cotswolds and read Music at St Hugh’s College. She went on to work as a Production Assistant for BBC Radio 3. This was the pre-digital age of physical tape and razor-blade editing, when visiting foreign artists would receive travel expenses in large wads of cash, leading to her once having her hand kissed by Stockhausen.

Some years working at Oxford University Press followed, before she moved to freelance music administration. She enjoyed a long working relationship with her early music hero Andrew Parrott. (It was a particular pleasure to be able to celebrate Andrew in the 2024 Keble Early Music Festival.) Notable also was the legendary Lina Lalandi, founder and director of the English Bach Festival, whose former assistants included Sir Roger Norrington and Sir Nicholas Kenyon. Ambitious baroque opera productions in venues ranging from the Whitehall Banqueting House to the Gardens of the Alhambra would follow months of high drama and unorthodox budgeting—once lighting a gloomy rehearsal with lamps bought from Peter Jones and returned the following day.

Pippa’s lifelong involvement in choral singing began in Oxford’s Schola Cantorum. This led to over three decades of challenging but exhilarating contemporary music with the New London Chamber Choir. Memorably, she was one of twelve solo voices in a live Proms broadcast of ‘Nuits’ by uncompromising Greek composer Iannis Xenakis (rehearsals for which once caused a concerned passer-by to call the police…).

Pippa joined Keble as Music Administrator in 2017, working closely with the College’s fine Chapel Choir and devoting much time and energy to the annual Keble Early Music Festival. Over a challenging few years that took in the pandemic, she has been able to provide a stable and supportive presence, a sympathetic ear, and occasional cake. She enormously enjoys the privilege of working with these talented and enthusiastic young people, watching each successive cohort form bonds that will last into the future.