Biography  |  Conductor

Benedict is an experienced choral conductor who has worked with groups of all ages and abilities. He delights in inspiring singers to reach the heights of their potential and, thereby, enabling musically expressive, exciting and engaging performances.

In his current post as Organist and Assistant Director of Music at Great St Mary’s, the University Church, Cambridge, he shares responsibility with the Director of Music for overseeing the musical development and education of singers in the church’s various choirs (boys, girls and adults), and for accompanying and directing them in rehearsals, services and concerts. Recent services sung by the Great St Mary’s choir are available to view on the church’s YouTube channel.

For the academic year 2022-23, Benedict was the Interim Director of Music at Great St Mary’s, during which he was responsible for all musical provision in the church, for running the music department, training the singers in the church’s choir(s) in rehearasals and and directing them in services and concerts. This also included running a highly succesful tour to Shrewsbury and Chester Cathedral in February 2023.

Benedict has also recently acted as assistant conductor for Collegium Laureatum, a large concert choir in Cambridge (for whom he is the rehearsal accompanist and continuo player), during a period of absence for their conductor.

Before moving to Cambridge, Benedict’s position as Assistant Director of Music at St James-the-Great, Dursley meant that he was jointly responsible (alongside the Director of Music) for both conducting/training and accompanying the church’s large and enthusiastic mixed-age parish choir. Other occasional engagements during his time in the South West included working with Clevedon Choral Society (Somerset) and the Netherwent Singers (Monmouthshire).

During his studies at the University of Bristol, which included conducting tuition from John Pickard, he ran the University of Bristol Church Choir, directing the group both at their home church of St Paul's Clifton as well as during various cathedral tours and visits. A year spent working as Organ Scholar at Blackburn Cathedral saw Benedict, on various occasions, conducting the Boys’, Girls’ and full Cathedral Choirs, as well as the Cathedral’s Young People’s Choir, Schola Cantorum and Cathedral Consort.

Benedict is one of the conductors (and founder members) of Brigstowe Chora, a choir formed from alumni of the University of Bristol Church Choir, who regularly sing in cathedrals and churches across the country.