Cole Bendall, James Lobban Conducting Scholar

photograph by Sam Paul

Cole Bendall - First James Lobban Conducting Scholar

Cole Bendall is a fourth year student at the University of Aberdeen studying Music, specialising in Composition with Paul Mealor and Jonathan Stephens. Originally from Edinburgh, Cole studied singing with Rupert Forbes and Gillian Jack and was a tenor member of the National Youth Choir of Scotland. Recent solo performances have included Mozart Requiem with Cantamus Hodie, Purcell The Fairy Queen with the University Baroque Ensemble and the premiere of Joan Cumming’s Five Songs by Thomas Hardy.

Cole is presently the first holder of both the James Lobban Conducting Scholarship (in association with the Aberdeen Bach Choir) and the Carlaw-Ogston Conducting Bursary, and studies with Michael Downes at the University of St Andrews. He conducts the recently founded Elphinstone Chamber Orchestra, Aberdeen Student Sinfonia, Caelestis Choir and assists the University Choral Society. He also frequently accompanies and conducts music for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Bridge of Don, Aberdeen. Recent activity includes the Fauré Requiem raising money for the New Zealand earthquakes (filmed for STV News), premieres in the sound festival and masterclasses with Stephen Cleobury in Cambridge and the conducting staff of the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. Future projects this year include Grieg’s Peer Gynt with the Aberdeen Student Sinfonia, Mahler’s Fourth Symphony in an arrangement by Klaus Simon with the Elphinstone Chamber Orchestra and taking part in the conducting courses of the Sherbourne Summer School of Music this August. Following graduation, Cole aims to pursue conducting and musicological research at a professional level.

Cole is delighted to have been awarded the first James Lobban Conducting Scholarship and is looking forward to the experience of assisting the Aberdeen Bach Choir in their upcoming performance of Bach’s St Matthew Passion.