Mark Ford

Mark Ford was born in Bromley and educated at St Dunstan’s College, Catford, where he studied the organ with the international recitalist David Sanger. He continued his academic and musical studies at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he held an Organ Scholarship and read law. Whilst at Cambridge, Mark directed the Chapel Choir (whom he accompanied on tours to Bavaria and Ireland), as well as the college Choir and Orchestra, and sang in the University Chamber Choir under Timothy Brown. More recently, he studied piano with Elena Kiseleva, whose insights and coaching were invaluable in the preparations for recording this CD.
In 1994, Mark founded The Purcell Singers, a choir which he has directed in concerts of wide-ranging music from the fifteenth century to the present day. His passion for Georg Schumann’s music began with a chance discovery of Schumann’s Opus 52 motets for double choir and eventually led to him recording the composer’s complete choral works with The Purcell Singers. The first of these discs was Gramophone Magazine’s Critics’ Choice in January 2002, and the second also described as a “hugely impressive disc” (Gramophone). He has also made numerous commercial recordings with the choir and has conducted sessions at all the major London recording studios.
By profession, Mark is a solicitor. He is a leading authority on legal process outsourcing and previously built a team of 60 lawyers in a pioneering business unit in his firm’s Delhi office. Mark is currently Chief Knowledge Officer at a major US law firm and leads a team of more than 300 knowledge management professionals across the world.