Scottish conductor Cole Bendall is recognised for bold programming, clear musical direction, and a strong narrative presence on the podium. Equally at home in concert halls, churches, and unconventional spaces, his work spans choral, choral-orchestral, and interdisciplinary projects, with a particular strength in youth and education-led performance.

Now based in London, Cole is Music Director of Southampton Philharmonic Choir, Reigate & Redhill Choral Society and Imperial College Choir, London. Previous leadership roles include with choral societies in Brockham, Woking and Holmbury, as well as with the Surrey County Youth Choir. Recent and forthcoming orchestral collaborations include conducting the Academy of Ancient Music, Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra, Oxford Bach Soloists, Orpheus Sinfonia, London Mozart Players, and the Amadeus Orchestra, alongside international projects and masterclasses with the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Rundfunkchor Berlin, Chamber Choir Ireland, and the Turkish State Choir.

From 2016 to 2022, Cole was founder and Artistic Director of The Reid Consort, earning national attention in Scotland for ambitious projects including Arvo Pärt’s Passio, his own semi-staged devised Patchwork Requiem, and recordings for the National Library of Scotland. An advocate of contemporary music, he has commissioned and conducted first performances of works by Shruthi Rajasekar, Sarah Rimkus, Joanna Gill, Chris Hutchings, Olivia Sparkhall, Thomas LaVoy and others.

Highlights of the 26-27 season include his Royal Albert Hall debut as a conductor with Imperial College Choir, Saint-Saens Organ Symphony in Winchester Cathedral, Poulenc Gloria, Strauss Four Last Songs, Elgar/Fraser Sea Pictures, Roth A Time to Dance, guest work in the UK and Europe, and a major collaboration between Surrey choral societies performing Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius in G Live with London Mozart Players. Recent repertoire includes Verdi Requiem, Britten Serenade, Smyth Mass in D, McDowall Da Vinci Requiem, and Handel Messiah.

Alongside his conducting career, Cole is an active educator and animateur, delivering workshops, large-scale singing projects, and training programmes for organisations including National Youth Choir, Pimlico Musical Foundation, English National Opera, Grange Park Opera and Surrey Arts. With extensive knowledge of training young voices, Cole is Visiting Singing Teacher at Winchester College, King’s College School Wimbledon and Cranleigh School. Cole is increasingly in demand as a composer and arranger; his orchestral reduction of Elgar’s The Music Makers has been performed in the UK, USA and Europe. He has developed training resources for the ABRSM and is in demand as a writer of programme notes and commentary. A prize-winning graduate of the Universities of Aberdeen and Edinburgh, he contributes writing to The Choral Journal, Oxford University Press, and his Substack, You Set the Tone

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A detailed CV is available on Cole Bendall’s Muvac profile.