Jo Richards works as a piano teacher, freelance organist, and rehearsal accompanist to King’s Lynn Festival Chorus. After singing and playing piano from a young age, Jo went to the musically renowned Trinity School, Croydon and was totally immersed in music making; singing, piano, organ, and even double bass. Jo has sung in two cathedral choirs, first at Southwark and then at Exeter, also gaining a degree in music and an organ diploma while there. Jo then spent two years at the Royal College of Music training as a repetiteur.

Since then Jo has worked as a busy freelance musician in Surrey and more recently in Norfolk. Before moving to Norfolk Jo founded youth choirs in Banstead, Southfields, and Coulsdon; directed the Chandos Choir; and spent twenty years as Director of Music at a number of Surrey churches.

Jo currently plays the organ regularly for four small churches, and occasionally deputises at larger places including Wymondham Abbey and King’s Lynn Minster. Jo also inspires adult pianists of all ages and abilities, teaching at home in Thorpe St Andrew, near Norwich. Jo has been rehearsal accompanist to KLFC since 2022.

www.jorichardsmusic.com

An inherent creative, Ben combines a selective freelance career as an accomplished conductor and keyboardist with his role as Associate Artist Manager at James Brown Management, comprising high level creative, operational, and administrative provision to some of the industry’s leading artists of international renown.

An MA graduate of the University of York, Ben’s studies with Professor Peter Seymour focussed on Baroque performance practice; specifically, the influence on the music of Johann Sebastian Bach by his European counterparts and their country’s cultures and practices.

Church music shaped much of Ben’s initial training and early career, and he has previously held positions at several of this country’s most eminent churches and cathedrals. Ben is currently preparing the release of his debut solo album, presenting the historically informed performance of selected dance-influenced organ works of Johann Sebastian Bach and Dieterich Buxtehude.

Equally at home at the organ, piano, harpsichord, and forte piano, Ben regularly collaborates with both instrumentalists and singers as an accompanist, and as an ensemble and continuo player has worked with several notable groups; The Royal Northern Sinfonia, Yorkshire Baroque Soloists, The Sixteen, and the BBC Philharmonic amongst them.

Ben is Music Director of King’s Lynn Festival Chorus, a one hundred strong choir, collaborating with distinguished soloists and ensembles to perform from a wide-ranging repertoire. Recent highlights include Johann Sebastian Bach’s Mass in B minor and a gala concert of Gilbert and Sullivan including a semi-staged performance of the one-act comic opera Trial by Jury with soloists Sarah Fox and Simon Butteriss. Ben is also a guest conductor of The Fourth Choir, London’s LGBTQ+ chamber choir, and a Trustee of Music in the Burnhams.

www.benhorden.com