A dynamic musician and an imaginative creative leader, Cole Bendall is a conductor, educator and vocal coach based in London. He has received critical acclaim for his philosophy of coaching which aims to empower musicians with the technical skills required to perform well and a deep passion for the stories behind the music.

Cole's current roles are Music Director of Brockham Choral, Woking Choral Society & Holmbury St Mary Choral Society; and Director of Music at St Peter's Church, Limpsfield. He is on the Music Staff of the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain, the Rodolfus Foundation, and the Pimlico Musical Foundation. Previous roles include with Haslemere Musical Society, the Athenaeum Singers of Warminster, the University of St Andrews, and Surrey County Youth Choir. In 2016, he founded the Reid Consort as an elite chamber choir of Scotland’s pre-professional choral singers.

Major collaborations and highlights include performances with the Academy of Ancient Music, Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra, Covent Garden Sinfonia, Amadeus Orchestra, Southern Pro Musica, British Sinfonietta; alongside masterclasses with Rundfunkchor Berlin, Hallé Choir, New Dublin Voices and Turkish State Choir. In 2022, he appeared as a Symphonic Conducting Fellow at Miami Beach Classical Music Festival, FL, USA. He maintains a deep interest in interdisciplinary performance including work on virtual choirs and semi-staged productions of choral works, such as the Reid Consort’s critically acclaimed performances of Arvo Pärt’s PASSIO and Cole’s own devised PATCHWORK REQUIEM. He has also assisted on semi-staged projects with Byre Opera and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra Chorus. ​Recent major projects include Verdi Requiem, Haydn The Seasons, Roth A Time to Dance, Smyth Mass in D and Bach St Matthew Passion.

With a strong passion for music education, Cole is highly in demand as an animateur, workshop leader, and tutor for youth groups, university students, and adults. Alongside his conducting work, he is a Visiting Teacher in Singing at Cranleigh School and Cranleigh Prep School. His enthusiasm for educating new generations of musicians and teachers is seen in his work for English National Opera, Ark Music, the Rodolfus Foundation, London Youth Choirs, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Tri-Borough Music Hub, Kingston Music Service, and Surrey Arts where he has directed the Surrey Primary Schools Music Festival concert series for thousands of children annually. He has developed training and educational resources for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, Surrey Arts, and numerous external partners in musicianship, vocal health, music history, and conducting. He has been awarded prizes and scholarships for his work by the Association of British Choral Directors, the Association of Teachers of Singing, and Help Musicians UK.

Cole is a Visiting Teaching Fellow in Music at the Centre for Open Learning at the University of Edinburgh. A prize-winning graduate of the University of Aberdeen and the University of Edinburgh, he writes and teaches regularly on choral music and identity, cultural politics, the rise of virtual choirs and digital media in choral music, and the development of video game music. He has written for The Choral Journal and Oxford University Press, as well as on his Substack, You Set the Tone.