About Us
In 2019, Harry Bradford became the choir's Music Director, having already earned an enviable reputation both domestically with Genesis Sixteen and at Cambridge University, and internationally as a finalist in the prestigious Eric Ericson Award for choral conductors. In April 2025, Richard Leach became our regular accompanist. Richard is currently Organist of Ealing Abbey Choir, and has held organ scholarships at Oxford and Canterbury Cathedral.
We have performed a wide range of music including the Monteverdi Vespers of 1610, Bach’s B Minor Mass, Brahms’ German Requiem and Marianne Martines’ Dixit Dominus. We have sung works by modern composers such as Sir James MacMillan, Cecilia McDowell and Jonathan Dove. We performed Karl Jenkins' The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace in both London and Konstanz; and Benjamin Britten's War Requiem at Cadogan Hall to celebrate the anniversary of the 1918 Armistice. Our concert in June 2025 will include works by George Shearing and a commission by jazz pianist Harry Baker. Our concert soloists are typically exciting young professionals either completing – or having recently completed – their studies at the top London conservatoires.
We are committed to developing young singers and musicians and have established a Choral Scholarship Programme to support aspiring young singers with their choral training. The scholars often take step-out solo roles in concerts (including at Cadogan Hall) and give recitals throughout the year. You can find out more about the scheme here and register your interest.
We have a long-standing relationship with the Symphonic Choir of the historic City of Konstanz on the German-Swiss border, with regular exchanges between the two choirs. Our most recent visit to Konstanz was in May 2023. We also have a cathedral residency each Summer; for example in July 2024 it was Chester Cathedral and in 2025 it will be Bristol Cathedral. Click here to see the YouTube recordings of the Choral Evensong and Choral Eucharist Services at Chester.
We work hard at singing and learning the music and rehearsals are rewarding and fun. Rehearsals take place every Tuesday evening at St Margaret's Church Putney from 7:30 - 9:45pm, with occasional Wednesday rehearsals when approaching a concert. St Margaret’s rehearsals are also live streamed via YouTube.
Harry Bradford, Music Director
Harry Bradford is a prize-winning conductor and choral director working in the UK and Europe.
Since winning Second Prize in the prestigious Eric Ericson Award 2021, he has collaborated with a number of the world’s finest vocal ensembles including the MDR Rundfunkchor, the Eric Ericsons Kammarkör, the Sixteen and the Swedish Radio Choir.
Harry is the conductor and co-founder of the professional vocal ensemble, Recordare, with whom he has performed extensively across festivals in the UK, and holds permanent positions as the Musical Director of Thames Philharmonic Choir, the English Baroque Choir and North Herts Guild of Singers.
Equally in demand as workshop leader, Harry has led choral workshops for the Sixteen as part of their Choral Pilgrimage tour, the Cherubim Music Trust and Labrador Events.Harry was also a course director for the Choir of the Earth, an online choir with a global membership, leading them in their Requiems at Home and Festival of Music courses. He combines his love of music and education as a Teacher/Singer for the Pimlico Musical Foundation.
He remains active as a singer and performed as part of the Choir of His Majesty’s Chapel Royal at the funeral of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. In 2024, Harry was awarded an Associateship of the Royal Academy of Music (ARAM) for continuing service to the music profession.
Richard Leach, Accompanist
Since 2012, Richard Leach has been the Organist of Ealing Abbey Choir. He was previously Assistant Director of Music at Worksop College after holding organ scholarships at Pembroke College, Oxford and Canterbury Cathedral. He also teaches the piano and organ at St Benedict’s School and is the regular accompanist for Streatham Choral Society and The Music Makers’ Choir of Harpenden. He has given organ recitals at Canterbury Cathedral, Nottingham Parish Church of St Mary the Virgin, All Saints Marlow, and at The Queen’s and Magdalen Colleges in Oxford.
Richard is also a freelance piano accompanist and conductor and has played at the Wigmore Hall, for the Concordia Foundation, and as a staff accompanist at the Royal Academy of Music. He has performed live on BBC Radio 3’s In Tune as well as on The Choir with Blossom Street. Conducting engagements include Messiah (The Merry Opera Company), Il barbiere di Siviglia (Pop-Up Opera), and Tosca (Grimeborn). He was assistant conductor for the Woodhouse Festival 2014 and for Royal Academy Opera’s productions of Le nozze di Figaro and L’incoronazione di Poppea and was chorus master for Ariodante and May Night.
He has worked as a répétiteur for The English Concert, The Grange Festival, the Philharmonia Chorus and The Monteverdi Choir, and as an operatic coach at the Royal Academy of Music and Trinity Laban Conservatoire. Richard studied at Oxford, Cambridge, and the Royal Academy of Music.
Community engagement
TPC plays an active role in the life of our community, supporting, among others, The Royal Hospital for Neurodisability, Regenerate-Rise, and the Doverhouse Lions Youth and Disability Football Club.
Rehearsals Information
Rehearsals take place every Tuesday from 7.30-9.45 pm at St Margaret's Church, Putney Park Lane, SW15 5HU
For information about joining, click here.
History of the Choir
The Choir’s formation and development is synonymous with John Bate who was founder, in 1964, of both the Putney Bach Choir and the Richmond Choral Society. In 1975, the two choirs merged and subsequently became well-known in South West London as the John Bate Choir. In 1995, it adopted the name Thames Philharmonic Choir.
The Choir has given more than 200 performances in the Boroughs of Kingston, Richmond and Wandsworth. It has also performed at central London venues such as the Royal Albert Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Cadogan Hall. The Choir twice won the National Choral Competition held at the Royal Albert Hall. In 1995, the Choir was one of twelve from all over the UK invited to take part in the VE Day 50th Anniversary celebrations in Hyde Park; this involved a performance with conductor Sir David Willcocks in front of HM The Queen and some 40 Heads of State. Short tours abroad became a regular feature of Choir life, and in the 1980s a performing partnership with the Symphonic Choir of the historic City of Konstanz on the German-Swiss border was established. In the 1990s, regular summer cathedral residencies began, and in recent years Cadogan Hall has become the Choir’s central London venue of choice.
