CHARLES COLE

Charles Cole began his musical training as a chorister at Westminster Cathedral. He went on to win a major music scholarship to Ampleforth and organ scholarships at Exeter College, Oxford, and Westminster Cathedral.
He is Assistant Director of Music at the London Oratory where he directs the London Oratory Junior Choir. He is Director of the Schola Cantorum of The London Oratory School, a renowned boys’ choir with an international reputation. With the Schola he has toured widely abroad, including concerts in Italy, Germany, Spain and the USA. Under his direction the Schola has performed a number of J.S. Bach’s major choral works, including the St John and St Matthew Passions, the B minor Mass and the Christmas Oratorio, as well as the Monteverdi Vespers. He has also recorded three CDs with the Schola, Sacred Treasures of England with AimHigher Recordings/De Montfort and Sacred Treasures of Spain and Sacred Treasures of Christmas with Hyperion Records. The Schola sang at the Canonisation of St John Henry Newman in 2019 and at a number of associated liturgies in Rome, as well as at a reception in the presence of HRH Prince Charles and a private audience with Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI.

In 2010 he directed the children’s chorus in a 400th anniversary performance of the Monteverdi Vespers with the Monteverdi Choir conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner at the Royal Albert Hall as part of the BBC Proms. He was involved in two of the Papal Liturgies on the occasion of Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to London, conducting London Brass in Sir James MacMillan’s Tu es Petrus, at Mass in Westminster Cathedral, and playing the organ for the Prayer Vigil at Hyde Park for a congregation of 80,000.

In 2013 he was invited by composer Sir James MacMillan to speak about Gregorian Chant at Musica Sacra Scotland’s inaugural conference. He has led a number of choral workshops for children’s and adult choirs in Bethlehem, Nazareth and Jerusalem. He is a regular member of the faculty for the Church Music Association of America specializing in Gregorian Chant and Choral Direction and has taken part in recent Colloquiums in Chicago, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Salt Lake City and Indianapolis.

As an organist he has played at many prestigious venues in London including Westminster Abbey, St Paul’s Cathedral, Westminster Cathedral and the Royal Albert Hall for a Prom with Jeremy Summerly and the Oxford Camerata. He has also given a number of concerts internationally, including St Catherine’s Church, St Petersburg, Notre Dame, Paris (as part of the 850th anniversary year celebrations), the Cathedral of the Madeleine in Salt Lake City and St Saviour’s Church, Jerusalem.