Conductor
Mark studied at Trinity College, Cambridge and the Royal College of Music and began his career as a professional singer. He has been Musical Director of the London-based chamber choir Coro since 2003, conducting them to international competitive success, in regular concerts throughout Britain and Europe, and on radio and CD. He also works with large symphonic choruses including the Philharmonia Chorus and the Brighton Festival Chorus.
Mark has a wealth of experience with younger singers, too, as Director of the award-winning Berkshire Youth Choirs and a music mentor for the National Festival of Music for Youth, and is currently Director of Choirs at the Junior Department of Trinity College of Music. He has also directed the Young Conductors’ Course for the Association of British Choral Directors.
Beckenham Chorale is a friendly and welcoming mixed voice choir of about 70 voices. We sing a varied repertoire under our Musical Director Mark Griffiths, who joined us in 2016, and perform three concerts a year at St. George’s Church, Beckenham.
Founded in 1960, we are best known for our spirited performances of the great choral works, and the majority of our concerts are with professional soloists and the St Paul’s Sinfonia. In n recent years, works we have performed include: Britten Rejoice in the Lamb, Rutter Magnificat, Goodall Eternal Light, Bach Magnificat, Vivaldi Gloria, Haydn’s Harmoniemesse, Dvorak Requiem, and Beethoven Mass in C.
The Chorale celebrated its Diamond Jubilee in November 2019 with an outstanding performance of Brahms Ein Deutsches Requiem, together with Coro London Chamber Choir and St Paul’s Sinfonia. In March 2020 our O Radiant Dawn concert featured work by Jonathan Dove, Thomas Tallis, Judith Weir and four of James MacMillan’s Strathclyde Motets; little did we know that within days of the concert Covid would change all our lives…
Our first concerts after lockdown were in November 2021, with Haydn’s Little Organ and St Nicholas masses, followed in March 2022 by Randall Thompson’s Frostiana, Morten Lauridsen’s Sure on this Shining Night and Gabriel Faure’s Cantique de Jean Racine. In June, to a packed house, we gave a triumphant performance of Handel’s glorious Coronation Anthems, with the St Paul’s Sinfonia who also played The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba.