Richard Cooke has been Conductor of Canterbury Choral Society since 1984, and Music Director of the Royal Choral Society since 1995. He was a boy chorister of St. Paul’s Cathedral, and later sang as a Choral Scholar in the choir of King’s College, Cambridge. He was Conductor of the London Philharmonic Choir for ten years from 1982, working with the world’s leading conductors, and enjoying a particularly fruitful artistic relationship with the late Klaus Tennstedt, notably in the award-winning recording of Mahler’s Eighth Symphony. Born in Cornwall, he returns there each summer for his favourite outdoor activity, body surfing off the North Cornish coast.

He conducts a wide repertoire with Canterbury Choral Society, and in recent years directed music by Bach, Handel and Monteverdi with the London Handel Orchestra. He has appeared many times in the concert halls of London with the Royal Choral Society, notably their annual Good Friday performances of Handel’s Messiah, and their magnificent Christmas Carol Concerts in the Royal Albert Hall. He has recorded Orff’s Carmina Burana with the RPO, and the Ultimate Last Night of the Proms with the RPO and Canterbury Choral Society. He has recently conducted in the cathedrals of Peterborough, Winchester and Salisbury.

He has appeared with the Gothenburg and Helsingborg Symphony Orchestras, and on many other occasions in Sweden and Denmark. He is Artistic Director of “Music Weeks in Sweden”, a summer and winter choral course which performed Orff’s Carmina Burana as the closing concert of the Helsingborg Festival.

Richard Cooke had an Honorary Doctorate conferred on him by the University of Essex in 1996 in recognition of his work for the musical life of the University over 15 years, primarily as conductor of the University Choir.