Charles Béquignon-MacDougall is an award-winning tenor, choral director, vocal coach, and music education specialist, known equally for his singing and his transformative work with choirs and singers. 

Formerly a member of internationally-acclaimed vocal ensemble VOCES8 (2005-12), he now sings for a number of other ensembles, such as Gabrieli Consort, London Voices (appearing on numerous film sound tracks) and London Early Opera (including as a soloist on their releases Handel at Vauxhall, Vol.1 & 2, Signum Classics), has been involved in innovative collaborations with artists such as Jacob Collier, Facesoul and the James Taylor Quartet, as well as undertaking solo engagements internationally, including: 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. 

A fierce advocate of music education, he is Creative Director of Gabrieli Roar (taking a lead in the strategic development of that programme nationally), 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, where he devised and delivered ground-breaking programmes for children and teachers and led a team of highly skilled practitioners. In 2018 he was part of the team that received the Music Teacher Award for Excellence in Primary/Early Years (for creation and delivery of the Voices Foundation/DRET Singing Schools pilot programme), while in 2020 he helped devise and deliver the daily Virtual Sing for children and teachers at home during lockdown. In 2021 he wrote the first volume of Inside Singing, a choral resource for primary school choir leaders, which was nominated for a Music and Drama Education Award in 2023, while the Primary Singing Toolkit – an online resource created by him and Jenny Trattles for ISM Trust and Voices Foundation – was also nominated for a Music and Drama Education Award in 2024.

An accomplished choral conductor and vocal coach, he is a Chorus Director for Gabrieli Roar, 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 (Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance), as well as coaching roles at Portsmouth Cathedral, Radley College, Whitgift School and Keble College, Oxford.

He is extremely active as a workshop leader, presenting sessions for the BBC Singers, UK Choir Festival, Association of British Choral Directors, LSO, Stay at Home Choir, and Military Wives Choirs. He is also the vocal coach for Pontinova Experience (Zürich), one of a team of coaches offering self-leadership coaching to corporate partners internationally. Directing highlights include conducting the world premieres of both Errollyn Wallen’s MAP: Songs For Children Everywhere for Britten-Pears Arts in Hull and Snape Maltings, and David Bruce’s Songs of Home for the 25th anniversary of The Voices Foundation at St. John’s, Smith Square. 

He holds both a BA(Hons) and MA (with Distinction) from Durham University and a PhD from the University of London. 

www.charlesmacdougall.co.uk