Ian de Massini began life under a different name (Ian Moore) and spent much of his mis-spent youth as a chorister and keen campanologist at the village church of Cuckfield, Sussex.

During his teens, Ian attended the local grammar school in Haywards Heath as well as studying the piano, albeit half-heartedly, with the redoubtable Joan Last and under whom he won no prizes or any engagements. Yet, to everybody's amazement, Ian was then awarded a scholarship to sing in the choir of King's College Chapel, Cambridge and to read music at Cambridge University, now and then.

Following graduation, Ian held a number of organist positions in Cambridge (Little Saint Mary's Church), London (Saint Alban's Church, Holborn) and Ely (the cathedral), though none of them for very long before, curiously, he turned his hand at accordion-playing.

Having taught himself the instrument from scratch in just eight days in early 1990, Ian was then appointed accordionist and musical-arranger for The Classic Buskers (formerly known as The Cambridge Buskers) with whom he has been touring the world ever since.

Part of his work with this iconoclastic classical-music comedy duo also involves playing the Eunuch-flute: indeed, Ian is thought to the world's highest-paid Eunuch-flautist. Combining his love of singing with his little accordion, Ian's rendition of Mozart's Queen of the night aria sung in Japanese whilst accompanying himself on the Hohner 48 Bass accordion has brought tears to the audience in Tokyo on a number of occasions.

Fortunately, Ian's inherent love of choral music has not left him. In 1987, he founded his own choir that later became known as Cambridge Voices and, with this ensemble, has commissioned well over 200 new compositions from composers across Europe. Ian has directed the choir in all fourteen CDs that they have recorded to date.

As an organist and choirmaster, Ian has recently been appointed Director of Music at St Columba's United Reformed Church, Cambridge.

Lately, Ian has returned his attention to the piano and, as Senior Member of Hughes Hall, Cambridge University, Ian is currently presenting a series of concerts, spread over five years, comprising the complete solo-keyboard works of J.S.Bach played from memory, alongside the works of Shostakovich, Messiaen and Duruflé.

And to mark his impending 50^th birthday, Ian is to record two albums; his own adaptation of Bach's Goldberg Variations for piano, and the world premiere recording of Duruflé's Three Orchestral Dances which Ian has recently arranged for solo piano.

For many years Ian has lived in a tiny hamlet out of reach, deep in the gloomy Anglian Fens, and where he shares his simple life with three cats, two pianos and an espresso-maker.