Benjamin Nicholas
Benjamin Nicholas has been Director of Tewkesbury Abbey Schola Cantorum since 2006. He is also Director of Choral Music at Dean Close School and Reed Rubin Director of Music of Merton College, Oxford.
A chorister in the Choir of Norwich Cathedral, Benjamin held the organ scholarship at Chichester Cathedral before becoming Organ Scholar at Lincoln College, Oxford, where he read for a degree in music. During this time he directed the first performance of John Caldwell's opera Good Friday, and was Conductor of The Oxford Chamber Choir. In 1998 he moved to St Paul's Cathedral as Organ Scholar and from February 2000 was also Director of Music at St Luke's Church, Chelsea.
In September 2000 Benjamin Nicholas was appointed Director of The Abbey School Choir, Tewkesbury. He led the choir on six foreign tours and undertook recordings for Guild, Priory, Regent and Signum, and broadcasts for the BBC. When the Governors of The Abbey School announced that the school was to close in July 2006, Benjamin Nicholas played a leading role in re-establishing the choir at Dean Close Preparatory School. Reformed as Tewkesbury Abbey Schola Cantorum of Dean Close Preparatory School, the choir has enjoyed a period of prosperity. In addition to six foreign tours since 2006, the choir has embarked on a series of recordings for Delphian. Gramophone wrote of the most recent CD "the trebles splendidly vindicate the tradition that places them at the heart of English cathedral music".
At Merton College, Oxford, Benjamin Nicholas has established the Passiontide at Merton festival, and directed the College Choir on tours to France and the USA. He is currently involved in the commissioning of the Merton Choirbook, in preparations for the College's 750th anniversary celebrations in 2014.
Benjamin Nicholas has worked with numerous other choirs, including the Reading Bach Choir, Rodolfus Choir, Yateley Choral Society and five years as conductor of both Stroud Choral Society and Monmouth Choral Society. Recent performances have included Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius, Bach's St Matthew Passion, Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, Vaughan Williams' Sea Symhony and Verdi's Requiem.