Music Team
Neil Ferris – Music Director
Neil Ferris has been Music Director of Wimbledon Choral since 2009 and is Artistic Director and Conductor of the professional chamber choir
Sonoro. He was appointed Chorus Director of the
BBC Symphony Chorus in 2017 and made his BBC Proms conducting debut in 2019
.
Orchestras that Neil has conducted include London Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra, Welsh National Opera, London Mozart Players, City of London Sinfonia and Orchestra of the Swan.
Formerly Director of Choral Studies at the
Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Neil is recognised as one of the country’s leading teachers of choral conducting and has led masterclasses in the UK, USA, Ireland, Denmark, China, Malaysia and Singapore.
Recordings include an album of the choral music of Jonathan Dove (Naxos), Fauré
Requiem (Convivium), and a regular programme of recordings with
Sonoro. Their album
Christmas with Sonoro was Christmas album of choice in the BBC Music Magazine and followed on from their critically acclaimed debut album
Passion and Polyphony featuring works of James MacMillan and Frank Martin. In April 2023, Signum released the world premiere
recording of Cecilia McDowall's
Da Vinci Requiem and
Seventy Degrees below Zero, with Wimbledon Choral and the City of London Sinfonia.
Michael Higgins - Accompanist

Michael Higgins is a pianist, composer and arranger, and co-Artistic Director of
Sonoro.
Michael has written for Chivenor Military Ladies Choir, Farnham Youth Choir, Royal Scottish National Orchestra Youth Chorus, the Stay at Home Choir, the National Children’s Choir of Great Britain, Wimbledon Choral, as well as music for corporate films and television commercials, the Classic BRIT awards, BBC Children in Need and the Royal Variety Performance. Many of his works are published by the Royal School of Church Music, Novello and Oxford University Press.
With a special interest in choral accompaniment, Michael is in demand with some of the leading choirs in the UK and regularly works with the
National Youth Choirs of Great Britain and the
BBC Singers. In 2012 he spent six months travelling across the USA filming a series for American television with popular choir master Gareth Malone and appeared on HM the Queen’s Christmas Message accompanying the Military Wives Choir at Buckingham Palace.
Michael studied piano with Margaret Newman at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, and at the Royal Academy of Music, London, with Iain Ledingham and Julius Drake. He was awarded the Joseph Weingarten Memorial Trust Scholarship and continued his studies with Kálmán Dráfi at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music, Budapest.
He has recently been honoured as an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music.