Biography

Throughout his career, DAVID PONSFORD has combined the skills of a performer with those of a scholar. As an Exhibitioner at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, he served as organ scholar and became a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists. Among his teachers he was fortunate enough to study organ with Peter Hurford and Lionel Rogg, and with Piet Kee at the Haarlem Summer Organ Academy. Later, he studied harpsichord with Kenneth Gilbert in France and with Gustav Leonhardt in Amsterdam. More recently he gained his PhD from Cardiff University for his research into French Classical organ music, studying with Professor Peter Williams. In 2005 he was awarded a Leverhulme Research Fellowship to continue his research. Currently, he holds the posts of Associate Lecturer in Performance Practice at Cardiff University, Conductor of Cardiff University Chamber Orchestra, organ and harpsichord tutor at Bristol University and the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, and harpsichord tutor to Specialist Musicians at Wells Cathedral School. In addition, he has taught on the Oundle organ courses, and is frequently invited to lecture at Cambridge University Institute of Continuing Education where he runs courses in Baroque music focused on J. S. Bach.  

David has held the posts of Assistant Organist of Wells Cathedral, where he recorded his first disc of organ music and formed the Wells Cathedral Chamber Choir and Orchestra. This was followed by conductorships of Northampton Bach Choir and Cheltenham Bach Choir, with whom he directed performances of major works by Monteverdi, JS Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Bruckner and Stravinsky, as well as performances of specially commissioned works by Christopher Steel, John Joubert and Trevor Hold. He also toured with the choir in France, Germany and Switzerland, and won a Performing Rights Society award. He established the English String Orchestra Choir and conducted regular concerts in Gloucester Cathedral and Tewkesbury Abbey. At this time he was also a musical adviser to Yehudi Menuhin. 

As a soloist, David has made solo organ and harpsichord recordings for Riverrun, Guild and NPC, including the complete JS Bach Well-tempered Clavier and all four parts of his Clavierübung - the six Partitas, Italian Concerto and French Overture, the Lutheran organ cycle and the Goldberg Variations. He has given organ recitals throughout the UK as well as in France, Denmark and Germany, including concerts on the historic Silbermann organs in Freiberg and Dresden Cathedrals. During 2007 he played at the Bornholm International Organ Festival, Denmark, and during the current year will give organ recitals at The Queen’s College and Magdalen Colleges, Oxford, and King’s College, Cambridge.

As a chamber musician he has worked extensively with Jacqueline Ross with whom he has recorded the complete cycle of J. S. Bach violin sonatas for ASV Gaudeamus, and with Alan Davis with whom he has recorded the complete Handel recorder sonatas for Guild Records. As a continuo player, David has played with many of the major UK chamber orchestras and choral societies, and especially with Ex Cathedra with whom he has appeared in festivals in Belgium, France, Finland, the BBC Proms, and made recordings on the ASV and Hyperion labels.