Choral Scholar 2025/2026

HCS will support two choral scholars during the 2025/2026 season. The choral scholar’s role is to support their relevant voice part and the MD during rehearsals and occasionally take step-out solos during performances. 

Hazel Ford | Soprano

Hazel first started singing in choirs at an early age through youth choir courses with the Nottinghamshire Choral Trust (now Music for Everyone). When she moved to Hertfordshire, she was awarded a choral scholarship at All Saints’ Church in Hertford in 2011, and started singing lessons, achieving Grade 8 in 2013.

In 2018, Hazel graduated with a BA in Linguistics from Robinson College, Cambridge, where she was Senior Choral Scholar in the chapel choir, singing solos in Handel’s Messiah, Vivaldi’s Gloria, and Bach’s Cantata Jesu ist mein Sonn und Schild. The chapel choir performed at Norwich Cathedral and St Edmundsbury Cathedral, and toured to Derbyshire, Devon, Paris, Provence and Porto. She also sang with Vox Cantab on a tour to Pembrokeshire, including Matins and Evensong at St David’s Cathedral.

Hazel has also sung solos for Broxbourne Chorus, including Rutter and Fauré’s Requiems. She still sings regularly at All Saints’ in Hertford and joined Hertford Chamber Choir in 2025.

Hazel works as a data analyst in the media industry. She lives in Welwyn Garden City but is moving to Hertford in the near future.

HCS Choral Scholar 2025 2026

Joey Pugh | Tenor

Born in Wiltshire, Joey Pugh has sung extensively with The National Youth Choir from the ages of 10 to 18. He also sang in his school’s chamber choir and later in the Wiltshire Youth Choir and Wessex Male Choir. During Sixth Form, Joey attended the Junior Academy (Royal Academy of Music) in which the vocal department awarded him the Song Class Award upon completion of its two-year programme. He also received “Highly Commended” in the Gwyn Arch Young Singers’ Competition.

Joey has performed Die Zauberflöte with Kings College London’s Opera Society as Monostatos and, with Greenwich Opera in the chorus. Additionally, Joey has been in choruses for La Boheme (Swindon Opera Collective) and Trial by Jury (Junior Academy). He also played the title role in the Junior Academy’s opera scene of Eugene Onegin.

Now a tenor, Joey is studying his BMus (Hons) in Vocal Studies at Trinity Laban and is a Choral Scholar in the Old Royal Naval College Trinity Laban Chapel Choir, under the baton of Ralph Allwood MBE. Joey has embraced Trinity Laban and its wider community, taking part in choruses such as The Merry Widow and also its chamber choir in which he was a soloist for a newly composed piece.