ben england music
Bradley Stoke
Ben England BA (Hons), PGCE, BEM is a music graduate of Bristol University,
where he specialised in musical analysis, composing and musical direction. He
trained as a conductor with Dr Alan Rump and Dr Adrian Beaumont, before going on
to study conducting with Denise Ham of the London Conducting Academy. After
graduation, Ben sang with groups as diverse as the New English Orchestra, the
Bristol Chamber Choir, Bristol Opera, the Exultate Singers and the Choir of
Clifton Cathedral. A bass baritone, he has performed widely as an oratorio and
operatic singer, including lead roles in The Cunning Little Vixen and Der Mond
(for Bristol Opera), The Magic Flute and the Pirates of Penzance. Ben currently
teaches singing to adults and young people across the Bristol area. Ben is a
former Musical Director of Bristol Opera, where he led the company in successful
performances of Handel’s Samson and Lakmé by Delibes and he has led numerous
choirs in and around Bristol for the past 20 years, including the large Bristol
Cabot Choir and the Bristol Gilbert and Sullivan Operatic Society and a number
of smaller choirs. Having qualified as an Advanced Skills Teacher (AST) of Music
through the DfE Fast-Track Teaching programme, Ben worked for South
Gloucestershire as a Head of Music and county Music and Music Technology
specialist for eight years. In 2011 Ben took up the role of Director of Music at
Colston’s Girls’ School, where he ran music across five schools (including four
primary schools) from 2011-2016. His work as an educator brought him to the
national stage on numerous occasions, as he lectured on music and leadership at
conferences for the DfES and the National Association of Head Teachers. Ben has
worked extensively with professional composers to champion their music, often
commissioning and performing new works. These composers include local musicians
Richard Barnard and Eric Wetherell, as well as more recently the eminent John
Rutter and conducting a premiere by the renowned composer Patrick Hawes. Since
leaving teaching, Ben has worked on a freelance basis for Bristol Plays Music,
the music education hub for the City of Bristol, based at the Bristol Beacon
(formerly Colston Hall). In this role he has organised and coordinated major
performances at the Colston Hall, Bristol Cathedral and further afield. He
managed the Bristol Youth Choir from 2016-2017 and coordinated the live BBC
Radio/TV music broadcast from Southmead Hospital on BBC Music Day 2017. He has
written award-winning education materials and been nominated for three national
Music Teacher awards for his work on projects such as the Bristol/Monteverdi 450
choral workshops and university seminar and the Bristol Minute of Listening. He
is the author of the curriculum materials for the planned international 2021
Berlioz celebrations. During the Coronavirus outbreak of 2020, Ben established
HOMECHOIR, a free YouTube channel on which he broadcasts a range of free musical
and educational programmes including choir rehearsals, music theory teaching and
a Sacred Sing on Sunday mornings. In October of 2020, Ben (as founder of
homechoir) was awarded the British Empire Medal (BEM) by Her Majesty the Queen
for services to the community during the COVID-19 outbreak. Following the
success of the Quarantine Choir, Ben was appointed Musical Director of the
Self-Isolation Choir (founded by inspirational business leader Mark Strachan)
which in 2020 has grown to one of the largest choirs in the world. Their
inaugural project Messiah at Home was produced with some of the world’s greatest
musicians including Laurence Cummings, Carolyn Sampson and Jennifer Johnstone
and gained international attention. Messiah at Home was featured on the national
BBC Evening News, all the BBC radio stations, NHK (Japan) CBS (USA) and many
more – and has become part of the official Wikipedia entry for Messiah. The
choir has grown to 12,000 strong and has recorded such amazing works as
Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Mahler’s 2nd Symphony, Mozart’s Requiem and Allegri’s
Miserere – working with the world-famous choir Tenebrae and their conductor,
Nigel Short. Ben conducted the Self-Isolation Choir in the World Premiere of
Still, Still the Night by Patrick Hawes in December 2020, and their version of
Hawes’ Quanta Qualia was played on Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs in March 2021.
Ben is much in demand as a choral leader and has taken on the Musical
Directorship of the UWE Singers, a large SATB choir based at the University of
the West of England. Ben lives in the South-West of the UK with his wife Ana and
their children Katie and Bobby.
