Ben is a current scholarship holder at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where he is studying on the Masters course in Vocal Performance.

Ben’s musical training began in Nottingham, where he sang as a treble and was selected to perform for HM Queen Elizabeth II at the Diamond Jubilee in 2012. Ben continued to study singing until taking up a choral scholarship at Magdalen College Oxford, where he sang as a choral scholar and lay clerk with the College Choir.

While at Oxford, Ben toured regularly, and took part in several commercial recordings and radio broadcasts. In 2021, he was selected as a Choral Scholar with the Oxford Bach Soloists, and performed several step-out solos in Cantatas and larger works by Bach and his contemporaries.

Ben now lives in London, where he maintains a busy career as a freelance soloist and ensemble singer alongside his studies. Recent highlights include Mozart’s Requiem with Southampton Choral Society, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio and St John’s Passion with the Winchester Bach Voices, and Brahms’ Requiem with South Oxfordshire Choir.

Further engagements this year include Bach’s Magnificat with Wokingham Choral Society and Christmas Oratorio and Wachet Auf with the Winchester Bach Voices for Stockbridge Music Festival. For the 2025/26 season, Ben will be a choral scholar with the Thames Philharmonic Choir. Ben has recently been appointed to a permanent position in the Choir of the Brompton Oratory, London, and will take up the post in September 2025.

Ben is increasingly active on the opera stage, having previously performed the roles of Don Bartolo (Marriage of Figaro, Oxford Opera Society), Polkan (Golden Cockerel, Orchestra Vox), and most recently the title role in Marcello Palazzo’s debut Opera, Mount Herzog (Tete a Tete Festival).

Ben has been awarded several prizes for his singing. In 2017, he won the singing prize in the Nottingham Young Musician of the Year, and was awarded second place in the Bingham and District Society’s Bursary competition. In 2024, Ben was awarded Southwell and District Choral Society’s bursary award for young musicians, and in 2025 Ben was awarded first prize in Nottingham Bach Choir’s Liz Chant Bursary competition.

Ben studies with David Pollard, and is very grateful for support from the Countess of Munster Musical Trust, Sir Richard Stapley Educational Trust, the Nottingham Gordon Memorial Trust, the Perry Trust Gift Fund, the Hywel Davies Trust for Young Musicians, the Winship Foundation, the Wavendon Foundation, and the Kathleen Trust.

© 2025 Ben Hendry-Watkins. Not to be reproduced without permission.