PIERS MAXIM

Piers Maxim was a chorister at St Paul’s Cathedral, London. Having read Music at Clare College, Cambridge University, he continued his studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London.

As conductor, assistant conductor and chorus master, Piers worked extensively in the opera houses and theatres of Europe, including Staatsoper Berlin, La Monnaie Brussels, Le Théâtre des Champs Elysées Paris, and the Netherlands Nationale Reisopera. During two years as Chorus Master of Scottish Opera, he conducted performances of La Bohème and Aida, also assisting conductors such as Raymond Leppard and Sir Richard Armstrong. He was then invited to become Chef des Choeurs at La Monnaie, Brussels, the National Opera Company of Belgium, where he worked on over 40 operas for stage, concert, tours and recordings. As Assistant Conductor to René Jacobs, from 1996 to 2012, he worked on many operas and concerts, ranging from Scarlatti, Hasse and Haydn to the three Mozart/Da Ponte operas, which were recorded by Harmonia Mundi/France. Piers conducted performances of Handel’s Agrippina and Giulio Cesare at La Monnaie, as well as the two Iphigénie operas by Gluck, the latter as Assistant to Christophe Rousset. Choirs and ensembles he worked with include RIAS Kammerchor (Berlin), Collegium Vocale (Gent), Freiburger Barockorchester and Concerto Köln.

Piers made his USA debut conducting Die Zauberflöte at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York in April 2007, taking the same production to Cape Town and Johannesburg later that year. In October 2010 he led the first performance of a staged baroque opera in China, conducting Handel’s Semele in the Beijing Music Festival, with the China Philharmonic and English Voices. In 2013, he conducted a new production of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and Blow’s Venus and Adonis in the Innsbruck Festival of Early Music.

Piers is now Director of Music and Organist at Great Malvern Priory, Conductor of Elgar Chorale, and Interim Musical Director of Midlands Hospitals’ Choir. Over the years, he has conducted much of the Choral-Symphonic repertoire, including Carmina Burana, Elijah, Sea Symphony, The Dream of Gerontius, J.S.Bach’s Passion according to St John, Messiah, Saul, “Nelson” Mass, Petite Messe Solennelle as well as Come & Sing Workshop days on repertoire such as Elgar’s The Kingdom, Monteverdi’s Vespers and Puccini’s Messa di Gloria.

Recent organ recitals have included Gloucester Cathedral, Hereford Cathedral, Christchurch Priory, Exeter College, Oxford and a recital including the complete 5th Symphony by Widor in Great Malvern Priory. Recent concerts include playing for the Premiere of Neil Cox’s Requiem Canticles in Gloucester Cathedral, and an appearance in The Three Choirs Festival 2026, accompanying a concert by the cathedral’s St Cecilia Singers on the new Nicholson organ, playing Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms.

Piers’ compositions are published by the RSCM, with publications including the RSCM anthem for Music Sunday 2018, How joyful ’tis to sing, an anthem in the RSCM SA/Men Anthem Book, Long ago on Patmos Island, Adam lay ybounden and Malvern Suite No.1 for Organ. Christmas 2020 saw the RSCM publish a collection of SA/Men Christmas Carols, including two by Piers - See, to us a child is born and Dans cette étable. In the Spring of 2023, RSCM published a Come & Sing Evensong compilation, which includes Piers’ setting of The Chorister’s Prayer.