Benjamin Nicholas

Benjamin Nicholas is a conductor who is widely known for his performances of large-scale choral works, and for commissioning and premiering works by many of today’s leading composers. He was born in Norwich and was a chorister at Norwich Cathedral before holding the organ scholarships at Chichester Cathedral; Lincoln College, Oxford; and St Paul’s Cathedral.

Currently Organist and Director of Music at Merton College, Oxford, he has toured extensively with Merton College Choir in the USA, Europe and the Far East. In December 2025, he directs the choir on its first tour of Japan. In September 2016, he founded the College’s Girls’ Choir, enabling some thirty school-age singers to receive their musical training at Merton.

Winner of the BBC Music Magazine Choral Award in 2020, he has made over 30 recordings on the Delphian, Signum and Priory labels, including discs of music by Weelkes, Mozart, Stainer, Stanford, Rubbra, Allain, Chilcott, Rutter and Gabriel Jackson. Of the second Volume of Orchestral Anthems, recorded with the Britten Sinfonia, BBC Music Magazine wrote, “Nicholas evidently has the church music of the Anglican tradition in his DNA”. His highly acclaimed recording of Elgar’s organ music was made on the Dobson organ in Merton College Chapel, which he helped to design, and was an Organists’ Review Editor’s Choice.

Appointed Music Director of the Oxford Bach Choir in 2018, he regularly conducts the UK’s greatest orchestras, with recent concerts including Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius and Vaughan Williams’ Sea Symphony with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Philharmonia and Elgar’s The Apostles with the Philharmonia and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. As a guest conductor, he has worked with the BBC Singers, the Holst Singers, the City of London Sinfonia, Novus NY and the Trondheim Soloists.

He was Director of the Edington Festival of Music within the Liturgy for four years and was the founding Director of Tewkesbury Abbey Schola Cantorum.  As an organist, he has recently given solo recitals in the Frauenkirche, Munich, St Paul’s Cathedral and King’s College, Cambridge. In the 2025-2026 season, he will conduct the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and the Oxford Bach Choir in a performance of Elgar’s The Kingdom, and the Britten Sinfonia in a concert to mark Arvo Pärt’s 90th Birthday.