Canticum is now established as one of the most musically versatile chamber choirs in the country. About to embark upon its 21st season, it is praised for accomplished performances of major works and for exploring contemporary repertoire. The choir has also commissioned new writing – English composer Simon Speare has recently completed the latest composition - and gives regular first performances.

In the past few months, Canticum has taken part in Britten's War Requiem in the Barbican and Salisbury Cathedral, an acclaimed concert of choral music from Eastern Europe with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Kokoro featuring the UK premiere of Concertino by Russian composer Rodion Shchedrin, and a sell-out evening of Advent music in the atmospheric setting of St Bartholomew The Great in central London. July saw a special invitation to perform in the American Music Festival at St Martin in The Fields on Trafalgar Square.

Last season, Canticum performed the Monteverdi Vespers at St Martins and closed the 2009 Chichester Festival with Haydn’s Creation. Other recent highlights include BBC Radio 4’s Christmas Morning Service, Bach’s Mass in B Minor with the Orchestra of The Age of Enlightenment at St John’s, Smith Square and the première of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’s Step by Circle, dedicated to Mark Forkgen. By way of contrast, the choir opened the 2008 Chelsea Festival, providing choral voices for Pink Floyd’s Atom Heart Mother alongside soloist David Gilmour.

Canticum has its origin in the choir of the London Bach Society. When this was disbanded in 1989, former members formed a group called Canticum Novum, which was directed successively by Chris Brown, Michael Procter, Tim Brown (Chris’s younger brother) and Hilary Davan Wetton, before Mark Forkgen was appointed in 1996. By that time, the choir had shortened its name to Canticum. The works of JS Bach remain a central part of the repertoire. The choir stages regular trips abroad, with Italy a favourite destination. Canticum has toured with workds including Dido and Aeneas, The Messiah and Handel’s Israel in Egypt, a performance which opened the Viterbo Early Music Festival to a packed audience.

Recording, too, has an important place in Canticum's schedule. We have recently completed a CD of music for Advent, which will be released later this year.

The existing catalogue includes 'A Hymn to the Virgin', with works by Victoria, Poulenc and Panufnik, and 'A Christmas Carol', recorded in aid of the Samaritans. Both are on the Meridian label. 'In the Gloom of Whiteness' with Craft Music features work by Colin Riley, Fraser Trainer and Keith Roberts. The live recording of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’s 'Step by Circle' and 'Two Latin Motets' is available on MaxOpus.

Mark Forkgen has been Music Director of Canticum since 1995. He is also Music Director of London Concert Choir and Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor of Kokoro (the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra’s contemporary music group).

He has worked with many leading orchestras, including the Royal Philharmonic, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, the City of London Sinfonia, the English Chamber Orchestra, the English Northern Philharmonia and the Composers' Ensemble, appearing at all the major venues including the Royal Festival Hall, the Barbican and the Royal Albert Hall.

A specialist in the field of choral and contemporary music, he has given a first performance of over one hundred works. These include stage works with the Trestle Theatre Company and Britten Sinfonia, and contemporary opera with the Unicorn Theatre Company and an ensemble from the Philharmonia, at the Linbury Studio Theatre, Covent Garden.

His wide range of conducting also includes performances with Deep Purple leading a project for the Chelsea Festival based on Pink Floyd’s “Atom Heart Mother”. Mark has been Conductor and Artistic Advisor for highly acclaimed festivals including Sir Peter Maxwell Davies's 70th Birthday; Stravinsky, the Composers of the South-West, A Festival of Britten, Music of the Americas, Britain after Britten and most recently East meets West.

His recordings with Canticum and Kokoro have been highly recommended by BBC Radio 3 and in both musical and national press. Outside the UK Mark has given performances of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring in Denmark, Handel’s Messiah in Siena and Handel’s Israel in Egypt at the Viterbo Early Music Festival in Italy. Other recent choral highlights include Mozart’s Requiem in St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin and Britten’s War Requiem in the Barbican and Salisbury Cathedral.

Mark is a champion of Youth Music. He was the Conductor of the Scottish Schools’ Orchestra for ten years and Music Director of the Ealing Youth Orchestra for eight years. He is currently Conductor of Dorset Youth Orchestra and Director of Music at Tonbridge School.