Richard Bannan is Musical Director of Petros Singers, a Lay-Clerk of St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, and Head of Singing at King’s College School, Wimbledon, alongside pursuing a career as a soloist and consort singer. He began singing at an early age as a chorister of St Paul’s Cathedral before reading music at Clare College, Cambridge, where he was a choral scholar.
During his time at Cambridge, Richard formed his own chamber choir to perform a variety of works such as Parry’s Songs of Farewell and Richard Strauss’ Der Abend. Since then, he has been Choral Director at the Yehudi Menuhin School, where he notably conducted a programme of works by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies in front of the composer, as well as working with the Eton Choral Courses, BBC Symphony Chorus, Wimbledon Choral Society, Polish National Youth Choir and the Baroque Week Summer School.
As Musical Director of the Yateley Choral Society from 2012 to 2016, he conducted performances of the Bach and Chilcott St John Passions, the Brahms, Fauré, Duruflé and Rutter Requiems, Mass settings by Haydn and Jenkins, as well as the world premiere of Graham Ross’ An Imperial Elegy, written especially for the society. As Musical Director of Woking Choral Society from 2019 to 2022, he directed Handel’s Messiah, Vivaldi’s Gloria, Mozart’s C Minor Mass and Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle.
Richard has been Musical Director of Petros Singers since January 2016 and has conducted Bach’s Mass in B Minor, Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem, Britten’s Ceremony of Carols, Handel’s Belshazzar, John Rutter’s Birthday Madrigals, Fauré’s Requiem and Rachmaninoff’s All-Night Vigil, as well as a number of smaller-scale works. He has also directed projects with the Gabrieli Consort, including performances of Handel’s Coronation Anthems at Hampton Court Palace, and a madrigal recital at the Dartington International Summer School, where he regularly works as a section leader on their youth project, Gabrieli Roar.
Recent singing performances include Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on Christmas Carols, Stanford’s Songs of the Sea, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Bach’s St John Passion, Fauré’s Requiem and Vaughan Williams’ Five Mystical Songs.
Alongside leading Petros Singers through their 40th-anniversary season, other performances this year have included projects with Arcangelo, the Cardinall’s Musick and Gabrieli Roar, as well as solo engagements singing d’Astorga’s Stabat Mater and Handel’s Dixit Dominus at the Windsor Festival, Handel’s Messiah, and a return to Woking Choral Society as soloist for Captain Noah and His Floating Zoo.