Robert Hollingworth is founder and director of I Fagiolini, the British solo-voice ensemble he founded in 1986 while a student at New College, Oxford. His passion for all sorts of unaccompanied vocal music has taken him and the group all over the world, recording 14 CDs, 2 DVDs and focussing recently on unusual theatrical productions of Renaissance and contemporary music.

He was a boy chorister at Hereford Cathedral, which gave him a marvellous musical education. At the same time, he thought the King’s Singers seemed to be having a lot more fun than cathedral choirs and set up his first group in imitation of this. Early on he realised that you could sing rude words in foreign languages and get away with it. This led to an exploration of the nooks and crannies of secular Renaissance music while most of his contemporaries were working on the glorious sacred music of the time.

Apart from I Fagiolini, he directs other European ensembles, writes and presents programmes for BBC Radio, and is a director of Polyphonic Films, which made The Full Monteverdi. He was a musical advisor on the film Quills where he utterly failed to make Joaquim Phoenix look like a real conductor. He wishes he’d been a better cricketer and knew more about wine.

He directs I Fagiolini in their performance, Monteverdi – Flaming Heart at Teatru Manoel on 3 April at 8pm.

How old are you? Star sign and date of birth?

41. Don’t know. 19 May 1966.

What would you like to be doing in 10 years’ time?

More of what I’m doing now but more performances and less time in administration and searching for money to make projects happen. I’m envious of other musicians who spend so much more time than me performing but this is perhaps the price of doing it the way I want to.

What is your idea of perfect happiness?

Playing cricket or giving a concert with a massive tea in the middle and my friends and family there. Or a quiet beach holiday with my family.

What is your favourite occupation?

I think singing in a vocal ensemble is hard to beat.

Significant other?

Catherine Pierron, my wife, who plays harpsichord in this concert.

What is your greatest fear?

The effects of global warming. Quite apart from who will suffer, I think that the skein of civilisation is very thin and I don’t like to think how people will behave if it tears.

What is it that you most value in your friends?

Their lack of honesty about me.

How would you like to die?

Asleep in a garden chair on a sunny winter’s day.

What is your greatest extravagance?

A second cup of coffee (with cake).

What is your greatest regret?

Wasting so much of my 20s doing admin instead of performing.

What is your most treasured possession?

My family and my coffee percolator.

Which talent would you most like to have apart from the ones you already have?

Invisibility.

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?

An internationally binding embargo (including in the home) on cake production.

Where would you like to live?

Princes Risborough (45 minutes from London and on the Chiltern Hills) does me just fine.

What is your most marked characteristic?

I’ve got this mole near my thigh…

Who are your heroes/heroines in real life?

The entire Monty Python team, Spike Milligan and Nelson Mandela.

What is it that you most dislike?

Rudeness, self-importance. I guess also genocide… What level are we talking here? J

What is your motto?

Disce ferenda pati – Learn to suffer done things. It actually is my family motto but I think it would have been a good way to run your life in any case.