ABOUT
Learn more about music at St John the Divine in the video below:
Music has been at the heart of our worship for many years. We have several choirs, including over eighty children and thirty adults, who sing for our Masses and Evensongs.
Our music programme has been building links with St John's College Cambridge - our children's choirs attend a residential summer school there every July, and they help to fund organ scholarships at St John the Divine for our young people.
Please explore the music links to find out more about our different groups.
Our music twitter feed is here.
Follow us on Instagram here and check out our feed below:
Music Staff
Click on images to learn more about our music team
Ben Vonberg-Clark
Precentor
Ben founded the youth choirs at SJDK in 2013. Under his leadership the choirs have sung regularly at church and at many other prestigious venues like the Albert Hall, Cadogan Hall, Hampton Court and the Tower of London.
He works as a tenor, conductor and voice coach around the world. As a tenor he has given recitals in leading venues such as the Aldeburgh Festival, and as a conductor he has conducted many leading orchestras including the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the London Mozart Players. He is the resident conductor of the University of Essex Choir, and recently founded the Wivenhoe Youth Choir in his hometown in Essex. He has sung with many of the major UK choirs such as the Sixteen, Stile Antico, the Eric Whitacre Singers, the BBC Singers, Polyphony and La Nuova Musica.
He is married with a small daughter and two ginger cats.
Edward Picton-Turbervill
Organist and Keyboard Teacher
Edward was organ scholar at St John's College, Cambridge, graduating with a First in Music and obtaining the FRCO in his final year. He has also studied piano accompaniment at Guildhall, graduating with distinction and the concert recital diploma. He has a long-standing interest in teaching, having worked in choral education and outreach on over thirty choral courses, and he was Head of Music at Atlantic College from 2018-2021. He is proud to have been associated with St John the Divine for over ten years, and has written a great deal of music for the choir in that period.
Anna Cooper
Music Department Coordinator
Alongside her work at St John the Divine, Anna is a freelance singer and teacher. She studied Music at the University of Cambridge, where she was a Choral Scholar, Musical Director of an a cappella group, and President of her College’s Music Society. She takes a keen interest in youth music education, and particularly music outreach.
