The Choir
One of London’s leading chamber choirs, The Purcell Singers was formed in 1994 by conductor and organist Mark Ford. We have performed extensively in London venues including St James’s Piccadilly, Southwark and St Paul’s Cathedrals, St John’s Smith Square, and the Royal Festival Hall, as well as outside London at the Brighton, Hurst and Howden Festivals, St Albans Cathedral and at the Langen Festival in Frankfurt. The choir has been awarded ‘Best Classical Performance’ at the Brighton Festival. The choir’s President is Sarah Walker CBE.
Our repertoire is wide, ranging from Gibbons to Tavener, via Bach, Howells, Poulenc, Barber and Britten, and we have developed a particular reputation for championing unusual late romantic works, notably those of the German composer Georg Schumann.
The choir has so far recorded four classical albums, including two première discs of works by Georg Schumann, the first of which was Gramophone Magazine’s Critics’ Choice in January 2002, and the second also described as a “hugely impressive disc” (Gramophone). Our recordings have been frequently broadcast on the radio, and we have appeared on television.
We are also active in session work, and can be heard on the cast album of Mary Poppins (the original West End production). We have recorded several discs for film and television at Angel Studios, as well as numerous film trailers at Abbey Road and Air Studios. You may recognise some of these tracks from the trailers for films such as King Kong, War of the Worlds, The Island, The Da Vinci Code, and Spider-man 3. We recorded Hans Zimmer’s soundtrack for Madagascar 2 and some numbers for the West End production of Flashdance – The Musical.
Find out about audition sessions on our Join The Choir page, and if you are interested in booking The Purcell Singers, go to Book The Choir.
Photo: Adriano Scognomillo
Founder Musical Director
Mark Ford was born in Bromley and educated at St Dunstan’s College, Catford, where he studied the organ with the international recitalist David Sanger. He continued his academic and musical studies at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he held an Organ Scholarship and read law. Whilst at Cambridge, Mark directed the Chapel Choir (whom he accompanied on tours to Bavaria and Ireland), as well as the college Choir and Orchestra, and sang in the University Chamber Choir under Timothy Brown.
He founded The Purcell Singers in 1994 and has directed them in concerts of wide-ranging music from the fifteenth century to the present day. With the choir he has also made four classical CD recordings, as well as ten commercial recordings of music for film and television. He has conducted sessions at all the major London recording studios.
Mark has carried out extensive research into the music of the late romantic composer Georg Schumann, and has recorded all of Schumann’s choral works with The Purcell Singers. He plans to release recordings of some of his other works in the future, including the composer’s piano music and songs.
By profession, Mark is a solicitor. He is a leading authority on legal process outsourcing and previously built a team of 60 lawyers in a pioneering business unit in his firm's Delhi office. Mark is currently Chief Knowledge Officer at a major US law firm and leads a team of more than 250 knowledge management professionals across the world.
Conductor
Benjamin Kirk (b.1992) was born in Beverley, East Yorkshire, to missionary parents. He spent his early years in Portugal, Brazil, and the United States, before falling in love with choral music while a chorister at Ripon Cathedral. After leaving Christ’s Hospital School in 2011, Benjamin moved to Tallinn, Estonia to begin studying Choral Conducting under Tõnu Kaljuste, at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre.
Benjamin won 3rd Prize in the 2019 World Choral Conducting Competition in Hong Kong, and is now Musical Director of the Leeds Guild of Singers, the Lea Singers in Harpenden, the Clerkes of All Saints in York, and the Orlando Singers in Cambridge.
Since 2021 Benjamin has been Guest Conductor with the National Forum of Music (NFM) Choir in Wrocław, Poland, in a budding international career: Benjamin has also worked with the Estonian National Male Choir (2014/2016), the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir (2016/2018), the Swedish Radio Choir (2018), and the French Radio Choir (2019).
Benjamin was appointed to The Purcell Singers in August 2024, conducting the 30th anniversary concert as his first performance with the choir. You can read more about Benjamin on his website - www.benjamintheophilus.com