Benedict Collins Rice became Music Director of Bury Bach Choir in April 2023.

Benedict is the founder and artistic director of The Facade Ensemble, currently Ensemble in Residence at The Courtauld Institute.  He is Music Director of Bath Bach Choir and Ipswich Chamber Choir (among others) and follows in the footsteps of Holst and Tippett as Lecturer and Choir Tutor at Morley College.

‘I'm thrilled to be joining the Bury Bach Choir as their new Music Director’ says Benedict. ‘It is a beautiful town with a real cultural identity of which the Choir is an integral part. I am really looking forward to developing the choir's musical horizons and reputation further.’

Often in demand as a guest conductor, Benedict has worked with the Berlin Sinfonietta, assisted with the BBC Concert Orchestra and conducted the Southbank Sinfonia and British Youth Opera. He has performed through Europe and the US (from The Royal Albert Hall to Carnegie Hall), recorded for several labels, worked for BBC and NBC Television and the BFI, and broadcast live on Radio 3.

He held two conducting scholarships at Cambridge University before continuing his studies with the heads of conducting at the Royal College of Music, Royal Northern College of Music, Vienna University of Music and Birmingham University where, for his MA in Choral Conducting under Simon Halsey CBE, he gained the course’s highest-ever conducting mark.