Charles Cole began his musical training as a chorister at Westminster Cathedral. He went on to win scholarships to Ampleforth and Exeter College, Oxford, before returning to Westminster Cathedral as organ scholar. He was appointed Director of the Schola Cantorum at The London Oratory School in 2012 and is also Assistant Director of Music at the London Oratory where he directs the London Oratory Junior Choir.

In 2010 he directed the children’s chorus in a 400th-anniversary performance of the Monteverdi Vespers with the Monteverdi Choir at the Royal Albert Hall as part of the BBC Proms, and in two further performances at The Sheldonian in Oxford, and Durham Cathedral.

On the occasion of Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to London, he conducted London Brass in Sir James MacMillan’s Tu es Petrus, which was commissioned for Mass at Westminster Cathedral, and played the organ for the Prayer Vigil at Hyde Park, which drew a congregation of 80,000. He has played at many prestigious venues in London, including Westminster Abbey, St Paul’s Cathedral and the Royal Albert Hall for a Prom with the Oxford Camerata.

He was invited by composer Sir James MacMillan to speak about Gregorian chant at Musica Sacra Scotland’s inaugural conference, and in the Holy Land he has led a number of choral workshops for both children’s and adult choirs in Bethlehem, Nazareth and Jerusalem. He is a board member of the Church Music Association of America and has taken part in recent colloquia in Chicago, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Indianapolis, specializing in Gregorian chant and choral direction. He has given organ recitals in St Petersburg, at the Notre-Dame in Paris (as part of the 850th-anniversary-year celebrations), the Cathedral of the Madeleine in Salt Lake City, and St Saviour’s Church in Jerusalem.