east bridge chorale
east bridge chorale
Our Music Director
BENEDICT PREECE is an award-winning conductor who trained at the Royal Academy of Music in London. He is currently Music Director of Caritas Chamber Choir, East Bridge Chorale and Graduati Singers in London. Passionate about working with both singers and instrumentalists, he is also in demand as an orchestral conductor. He was Genesis Sixteen Conducting Scholar 2017-2018.
He developed his orchestral conducting with Stephen Portman (a former student of Monteux and Szell) and with Peter Stark. He has recently had conducting engagements with both of Kent’s professional orchestras, Festival Chamber Orchestra and Kent Sinfonia. As the Genesis Sixteen Conducting Scholar, he studied with, amongst others, Eamonn Dougan and Harry Christophers and with Nicholas Chalmers at the Royal Academy of Music.
On graduating from the Royal Academy of Music, he was awarded an MA with Distinction, the DipRAM, the Regency Award for high achievement and the Exam Board Prize for the highest final recital mark.
He began his career as a Chorister of Canterbury Cathedral and sang for many years after as a tenor. At Trinity College of Music, London, he specialised in horn and natural horn under tutelage of Roger Montgomery and subsequently with Anthony Halstead. As an organist, Benedict studied with Dr. David Ponsford, David Flood and both organ and composition with Neil Wright.
For ten years he was Music Director of Sandwich Concert Band and has held numerous church music positions. For over five years, he was Head of Chapel Music, Head of Keyboard and Organist at The Duke of York’s Royal Military School.
He has released many recordings to critical acclaim with Caritas Chamber Choir. Ritmo magazine described his conducting: “Preece is very convincing…he always knows which voice to bring out, how to accentuate the beauty of the phrase.”
Benedict is a signed artist with Ulysses Arts, a London-based record label, as both a conductor and organist.
His choral compositions are regularly performed on both sides of the Atlantic and often featured on Caritas Chamber Choir recordings.
He is passionate about contemporary music having commissioned composers including Sarah Cattley and conducted premiere recordings of leading composers such as Sir James MacMillan, Cecilia McDowall, Gabriel Jackson, Phillip Cooke, David Conte amongst many others. Benedict is looking forward to bringing more brand new works to audiences around the world with future recording projects.
To find out more about Benedict click here.
Ben has recently been appointed Musical Director of the Graduati Singers, a new audition-only start-up choir offering students and recent graduates the opportunity
to perform with like-minded singers.
“Challenging secular and sacred music and new arrangements will be at the core
of we do.”
Benedict was the 2017 - 2018 Genesis Sixteen Conducting Scholar with Harry Christopher’s distinguished ensemble, the Sixteen. As the Genesis Sixteen Conducting Scholar, he studied with, amongst others, Eamonn Dougan and Harry Christophers.
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