About

MUSICAL DIRECTION & coaching

I have enjoyed a twenty-five year career as a musical director and singing coach.  A reflective product of this has been my continuing work in musical theatre education at the highest level.  Countless of my former singing students enjoy successful careers in the West End and beyond.  
My broad work portfolio within the colleges includes musical direction, choral direction and arranging, singing teaching (with knowledge and use of Estill and other methods), vocal coaching, dramaturgy, acting through song, external moderating and examining, audition preparation, and lecturing in musical theatre history.
Permanent posts have included Arts Educational (London), Guildford School of Acting, Laine Theatre Arts, and Portsmouth University.  I was the first in-house MD at the London College of Music. 
I have also worked for the Royal Academy of Music, Trinity Laban, Mountview Academy, the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, Drama Studio London, Italia Conti and LSMT.  I have lectured in musical theatre and opera for universities including London, Surrey, and Kingston.

SINGING TUTOR, VOCAL COACH

I have worked as both singing teacher and vocal coach for over twenty-five years, teaching singing in many of the major London performing arts colleges, and am experienced in helping students and professionals prepare for auditions.  I have sat on the audition panels for Arts Ed, GSA and Laine.  I also have experience in safely training and developing younger voices, was the principal singing tutor at Shrewsbury House School from 2005 to 2010.  I have been a singing teacher at Tiffin Girls' School since 2021, and Kingston Grammar School since 2024.   I am also happy to accept advanced piano students.  I am registered as a private teacher with the Independent Society of Musicians and have full DBS clearance on the update service. 

CURRENT RATES 

My studio in South West London contains an extensive library of scores, a Steinway B grand piano and Yamaha U3 upright piano.   I am happy to teach via Zoom etc... when necessary.
Rates: 1 hour: £65 / 45 mins: £55.  Students in full-time training are eligible for a circa 20% discount (1 hour: £50 / 45 mins: £45). 

Call-out rate £120.00 per hour (no discounts apply).  Other call-out arrangements by discussion.

(Missed lessons: I charge a full lesson's fee where a student misses a lesson without prior notice, except in exceptional circumstances.  A missed lesson with fewer than 24 hours’ notice incurs half a lesson's fee.)  

Accompanist / Repetiteur

I have worked with countless singers and instrumentalists in concerts up and down the country for over twenty-five years, and have been accompanist to international soprano soloist Alison Pearce for most of that time, and a tutor on Miss Pearce’s annual summer schools in Italy and France since 2005.   I really enjoy working with singers, and in concert have accompanied performers including Michael Chance CBE, James Bowman CBE, Robin Blaze, Hugh Cutting, Joanne Lunn, Peter Savidge, Janet Shell, Richard Suart, Lotte Betts-Dean, Adrian Clarke, Adam Tunnicliffe, Mark Dobell, Bryan Husband and many others. 

I am pleased to be one of the regular pianists for Cantabile (The London Quartet), and have given concerts with them in Germany, Belgium and the UK.

Ben Costello and Alison Pearce
at a WCM Livery Dinner - June 2009

PERFORMANCES

In 2001 I was selected for the London Symphony Orchestra / Nordell Conducting Masterclass.  This led to work as a répétiteur for the Orchestra, collaborating with conductors including Lorin Maazel and Sir Colin Davis, playing for the latter in rehearsals for the Orchestra's performances and recording of Britten’s Peter Grimes. As an orchestral pianist I have been involved in performances of works with substantial piano parts including Respighi’s Pini di Roma, Britten’s Noye’s Fludde, Canteloube’s Chants d’Auvergne, Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms, Rossini’s Petite messe solennelle, and Orff/Killmayer’s Carmina Burana.  I am an experienced continuo player (with my own two-manual concert harpsichord) and have directed performances from the keyboard of my own performing editions of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and Blow’s Venus and Adonis.   Since 2008 I have been the principal deputy organist at the Actors’ Church, Covent Garden, and also deputise regularly at several London and Surrey churches.

ADJUDICATION

I have been a busy music adjudicator since 2008, working throughout the UK and internationally as a generalist music adjudicator for the British and International Federation of Festivals.  I adjudicate all musical disciplines while specialising in singing, piano, choral music and musical theatre.  Much of my adjudication work also involves delivering masterclasses and workshops, and I am happy to do on-line adjudication when necessary.   I am also a Music Deputy on the Adjudicators' Council, and have presented at three Federation conferences (2014, 2016 and 2018).  I am a member of the recruitment panel assessing potential new adjudicators, and also act as a mentor for adjudicators starting out 'in the field'. 

View from the Hong Kong Club (adjudication trip)

BOOKINGS

As of autumn 2023 I have adjudicated at, or am booked to adjudicate at the following festivals (numbers indicate the number of visits): Overseas festivals: Corcaigh Feis Maitiú (2); Hong Kong (3); Sri Lanka (3); Zimbabwe (2); Gibraltar (1); Newry (1). UK Festivals: Arun (2); Ayrshire (1); Basingstoke (2); Blackheath (1); Bromley (1); Bournemouth (1); Chelmsford (1); Cheltenham (1); Chipping Norton (2); Coulsdon and Purley (1); Croydon (4); Derby (1); Devizes (4); Ealing (2); Eastbourne (1); East Grinstead (1); Fareham (1); Fleetwood (1); Guernsey (1); Hart (3); Hastings (3); Holywood, NI (3); Horsham (4); Hounslow (1); Indian Queens (Cornwall) (1); Inverclyde (3); Isle of Wight (5); Kingston-upon-Thames (1); Leith Hill (3); Lincoln (1); Maidenhead (3); Maidstone (2); Manx (Isle of Man) (1); Marlow (1); Mid-Somerset (5); Mid Sussex (1); Milton Keynes (3); Nailsea (2); Northampton (1); Reigate and Redhill (6); Richmond (4); Rochester and North Kent (3); Saltash (1); Sevenoaks (2); Southampton (2); Southend (1); Stratford (3); Sudbury (1); Suffolk (5); Sutton (3); Taunton (2); Watford (2); Weymouth (1); Woking (4); Worcester (1); Worksop (1); Worthing (4). Schools/other: The Abbey (Reading); Epsom College; King’s College (Wimbledon); Kingston Grammar School; Kingston Primary Schools’ Competition; St John’s (Leatherhead); Surbiton High; St Catherine’s (Bramley); Tiffin Boys’ School (Kingston); St Benedict’s (Ealing); Wimbledon High; The Dragon School (Oxford); Berkshire Young Musician Competition; R C Sherriff Young Musician of the Year. 

MEMBERSHIPS

- Worshipful Company of Musicians (Liveryman since 2014). Chairman and organiser of the Company’s annual Musical Direction Scholarship. Member of the Popular Music Committee.  Steward (2018 to 2021).  Chairman of the Jazz Committee (2022 onwards).  Court Member (2022 onwards).
- Royal Society of Musicians (Life Member since 2008). Member of the Court of Assistants (2011 to 2018).
- British Voice Association (Member)
- British and International Federation of Festivals (Adjudicator Member and Member of Adjudicators' Council)
- Royal Society of Arts (Fellow)
- Performing Right Society (Member)
- Independent Society of Musicians (Fellow)
- Freeman of the City of London

QUALIFICATIONS

M.A. (by research)
P.G.Dip. (conducting)
B.Mus. (piano; singing)