Charles is an award-winning tenor, choral director, vocal coach, and music education specialist, known equally for his singing and his transformative work with choirs, singers and teachers.
A fierce advocate of music education, he is Creative Director of Gabrieli Roar, ABRSM Choral Consultant (ABRSM Voices), an Ambassador for Britten-Pears Arts, a Director and Trustee of the Choral Foundation, Chapel Royal, Hampton Court Palace, and was formerly the Choral Director of national music education charity Voices Foundation. He was part of the team that won a Music and Drama Education Award for Excellence in Primary/Early Years in 2018 (VF/DRET Singing School), and has been shortlisted in 2019 (for Songs of Home: a Voices Foundation 25th Anniversary Songbook), in 2023 (for his book Inside Singing), and in 2024 (for the Primary Singing Toolkit, created with Jenny Trattles for ISM Trust).
An accomplished choral conductor and vocal coach, he is a Chorus Director for Gabrieli Roar, one of the Musical Directors of Trinity Laban Conservatoire Chamber Choir, and directs three choirs and one a cappella group in London, having previously held the post of Vocal Ensembles Coach and Tutor in Vocal Studies at Junior Trinity.
He is extremely active as a facilitator, leading workshops for the BBC Singers and LSO, promoting diverse contemporary choral repertoire for Oxford University Press here and abroad, and supporting the development of choirs, choir trainers and singing teachers through ISM, ABCD, UK Choir Festival, Military Wives Choirs, and the Music and Drama Education Expo.
A founding member of internationally-acclaimed vocal ensemble VOCES8 (2005-12), he continues to sing for a number of other ensembles, including Gabrieli Consort, London Voices (appearing on numerous film sound tracks) and London Early Opera, and has been involved in innovative collaborations with artists such as Jacob Collier, Facesoul and the James Taylor Quartet.
His solo credits include: Handel’s Messiah (Hitomi Memorial Hall, Tokyo); Bach’s Christmas Oratorio (Izumi Hall, Osaka); Bach’s St. Matthew Passion (The Guards’ Chapel, London); Evangelist in Bach’s St. John Passion (Dalby Kammarkör, Sweden); Bach Early Cantatas (Les Inventions, Dijon Opera House); and creating the role of Richard III in John Webb’s The Last Plantagenet (Philharmonia Orchestra, De Montford Hall). From 2014-2018 he gave recitals across France and Belgium at the Commonwealth War Graves as part of the Centenary commemorations, and in 2018 he made his London Handel Festival solo debut at St. George’s, Hanover Square.
He holds a BA(Hons) and MA (with Distinction) from Durham University, and a PhD from the University of London, as well as a certificates in Coaching and Mentoring (Guildhall School of Music and Drama), and Vocal Health First Aid (Vocal Health Education NCFE Level 2).