Wednesday 18 September 2024
Choir members were extremely saddened by the news that tenor Ben Thapa had died on 8 September aged only 42, after a short but serious illness that led to organ failure.
“Ben sang the Evangelist in our St John Passion concert in March 2023, and in Messiah in December 2013″ said choir Chair Chris Walker. ” He had a huge voice, rich and full. He will be sadly missed.”
Ben rose to fame as a member of G4, a group of four singers which reached the final of ITV’s first series of X Factor. He left the group in 2018 to pursue his own music career.Follow Sky News on WhatsApp
As a boy he sang in the choir of the Church of Our Lady and the English Martyrs in Cambridge, and became a choral scholar at St George’s Cathedral, Southwark. He appeared regularly at Westminster Cathedral and the Brompton Oratory, and was a cantor for the Latin Mass Society. He loved church music and was passionate about helping young singers.
Ben studied at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester before entering the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London; he later attended the Wales International Academy of Voice.
He left G4 in 2018 to concentrate on an operatic career. He enjoyed considerable success and was much in demand for opera and oratorio work in the UK and overseas. His operatic credits included Tito in La Clemenza di Tito for Teatru Manoel, The President in Mittwoch aus Licht for the Birmingham Opera and Siegfried in The Quest For The Ring at the Royal Festival Hall in association with Opera North.
In 2020, he made his main stage debut at the English National Opera as part of their Carmen education project.
Sheffield Bach Society 