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The English counter-tenor, Simon Ponsford, comes from a musical family in Gloucestershire, where he started singing at a young age in Gloucester Cathedral Choir. He went on to study at King's College, Cambridge, reading for a degree in English Literature whilst being a Choral Scholar in King's world famous chapel choir. From Cambridge he moved to Windsor Castle to sing in the choir of St George’s Chapel, whilst undertaking a postgraduate MA at the Royal Academy of Music, where he studied with Michael Chance and took part in master-classes given by Ann Murray and Helmut Deutsch. On graduating with Distinction he was awarded the S & M Eyres Wilson Scholarship and a Diploma of the Royal Academy of Music for outstanding performance. He currently studies with Veronica Veysey-Campbell.
Simon Ponsford is an established soloist and recitalist throughout this country and is a well-respected member of several international ensembles, notably the Monteverdi Choir (Director: John Eliot Gardiner). He has been a soloist with choral societies and chamber choirs from across the UK in venues including St John’s Smith Square, Gloucester Cathedral, King's Place and Westminster Abbey Choir. He lives in south London and is a Lay Vicar in the choir of Westminster Abbey (since November 2013); a role that combines daily service singing with performing at significant national occasions, on tours, on radio and television broadcasts, and in concerts both as a member of the choir and as a soloist.
Performance highlights have included recent appearances on stage at Covent Garden with the Monteverdi Choir in Glück's Orphée et Euridice, singing the alto solos in J.S. Bach's Weihnachts-Oratorium (BWV 248) in his home Cathedral of Gloucester and giving recitals of Schubert’s Winterreise in Gloucester, Windsor and Edinburgh.
Simon has had a CD of Elizabethan and Jacobean songs, recorded with his father David Ponsford playing the organ and virginals, released to great critical acclaim on Nimbus Records. |
