Ben Sawyer
Ben is a conductor, countertenor and educator based inGloucestershire, and is much in demand for his affable, engaging and meticulous approach to get the best out of singers.
He has been conductor of Tyndale Choral Society since February 2014, having previously been guest conductor in November 2013.
Ben has a busy schedule directing a number of choirs. Alongside his work with Tyndale, he is director of award-winning chamber choir, The Oriel Singers since February 2015. In January 2019 he founded Gloucestershire Boys’ Choir, working to bring confidence to boys through a love of singing. He was also co-director of Gloucestershire Youth Choir between September 2012 and 2022. Ben enjoys ambitious projects, his most recent being the foundation of Cheltenham Chamber Choir in October 2022, in a concert celebrating Vaughan Williams’s 150th Birthday, also featuring tenor, James Gilchrist and the Carducci String Quartet. He runs popular choral and vocal workshops throughout the year.
He is an experienced consort and cathedral singer, currently a lay clerk in Gloucester Cathedral Choir having sung in Tewkesbury Abbey Schola Cantorum for around fourteen years. He is in demand as a countertenor soloist, most recently singing for Schola Cantorum’s annual Christmas performance of Handel’s ‘Messiah’ in Tewkesbury Abbey. He is a founder member of the award-winning a cappella group, The Songmen.
As an educator, Ben was until December 2022, vocal tutor to the choristers of Tewkesbury Abbey Schola Cantorum at Dean Close Preparatory School, including Cassian Pichler-Roca, BBC Young Chorister of the Year 2019. He taught singing at Dean Close School, Cheltenham for over 10 years, also directing a cappella ensemble 'Close Harmony' in his time at Dean Close School. After a hiatus from teaching, Ben returned to teach at various schools from September 2024.
"I really enjoy every minute of our rehearsals. They are always fun but purposeful and well organised from the warm ups and vocal training to the set pieces. I especially like the way Ben explains the way the composer uses rhythms, key changes and dynamics to convey a mood. He is always patient and encourages beginners and more advanced choristers to achieve their best." Graham Hann, Tenor
CHRISTOPHER GUILD, PRINCIPAL ACCOMPANIST
Scottish pianist Christopher Guild is in demand as a recital artist, concerto soloist and collaborative pianist, with concert engagements taking him across the UK. Performances have included those given at St James’s Piccadilly, the Wigmore Hall and St John’s, Smith Square, as well as numerous recitals for music societies under the auspices of the Countess of Munster Musical Trust. Christopher’s concerto appearances have seen him work with conductors such as Sian Edwards, as well as with numerous non-professional orchestras. He has recorded CDs for Champs Hill Records, Toccata Classics, Piano Classics and Divine Art Recordings. His pioneering recorded work of Scottish composers - notably Ronald Stevenson, Ronald Center and David Johnson - has been lauded by the international music press; and his double-disc of the complete works of Bernard van Dieren was a Gramophone Editor’s Top 50 recordings of 2022 in December that year.As a chamber and ensemble musician, Christopher appeared as a Park Lane Group Young Artist at London’s QEH Purcell Room, and the Wigmore Hall, and was also a Parkhouse Award finalist in 2013. He has worked with the composer Judith Weir towards performances of her solo piano work The Art of Touching the Keyboard and the British premiere of her piece for mixed ensemble, Blue Green Hill. Christopher has appeared live as a collaborative pianist on BBC Radio 3's 'In Tune' and his performance of Haydn's B minor Sonata at the Purcell Room for the Park Lane Group in 2015 has also been broadcast by Radio 3. Christopher has also appeared as part of the Royal Greenwich International String Quartet Festival (2013). He freelanced as an orchestral keyboardist with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and City of London Sinfonia in works by Schnittke, Philip Glass (the European Premiere of Icarus at the Edge of Time) and Franz Schreker. Christopher’s repertoire is far-ranging, from the sonatas of Beethoven, through Stockhausen and Elliot Carter to the present day.
In recent years, Christopher has turned towards writing and teaching. His articles on Scottish classical music have appeared in editions of iScot magazine, and he was invited to present on classical music inspired by the Scottish literary renaissance in Musica Scotica's annual conference 2019. For several years he was on the full time staff of the Godolphin School, Wiltshire as Accompanist and Head of Instrumental Music, and since 2018 has taught peripatetically at Salisbury Cathedral School, Millfield School, Reigate Grammar School and at Junior Trinity (London). He is now on the visiting music staff of Dean Close School (Cheltenham), Solihull School (W. Midlands), and the Gloucestershire Academy of Music.
Born in Scotland in 1986, Christopher Guild studied piano and violin locally before entering St Mary’s Music School, Edinburgh aged 13. Christopher entered the Royal College of Music in 2005 as a Foundation Scholar and studied for six years with Andrew Ball, gaining a First Class BMus (Hons), and the MMus and Artist Diploma with Distinction. He went on to be the Richard Carne Junior Fellowship in Performance at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance 2012-13.
JULIAN ELLOWAY, RESERVE CONDUCTOR & ACCOMPANIST
Julian studied piano in Oxford with Lucy Van-Jung Page (a pupil of Emil Sauer, himself a pupil of Franz Liszt), at the Guildhall School of Music with Cimbro Martin, and subsequently specialized in piano accompaniment with Paul Hamburger.
At the age of just 14 he played a Beethoven piano concerto in the Royal Festival Hall. The Sussex University Organist, John Birch, awarded Julian an organ scholarship there, where he continued his organ studies with John Birch and conducting with Laszlo Heltay.
After university he worked in Brighton as keyboard player, choir conductor and répétiteur, and later moved to Oxfordshire to be Music Editor and Manager of the Music Department at Oxford University Press. He frequently appeared as organist, harpsichordist and pianist with the City of Oxford Orchestra and the Academy of Oxford, and became chorus master of the choirs associated with both orchestras.
Julian and his wife, Linda, now live in Minchinhampton from where he works as a freelance musician and music editor.
