Baritone
Baritone Sam Poppleton sings with several of the country’s leading choirs, VOCES8, London Voices, echo, Apollo 5, Corvus Consort, the choir of the Chapel of the Tower of London, and is a lay clerk at St George’s Metropolitan Cathedral Southwark. Highlights as a soloist include performing the world premieres of Howard Moody’s Stone Songs, Messiah with Eboracum Baroque, and Brahms' Ein Deutsches Requiem with Beccles Choral Society. On the song platform he was proud to take part in the Southern Cathedrals Festival’s 150th anniversary of Ralph Vaughan Williams, singing the composer’s House of Life accompanied by Salisbury Cathedral's Director of Music David Halls. Sam's recent performances of a staging of Schubert's Winterreise with BBC Rising Star Harry Sever were described as 'compelling from first to last' by Seen and Heard International. Sam studies with Gary Coward.

Facilitator + Teacher
Sam’s facilitating skill and education work has led him to collaborate with London Sinfonietta, Royal Ballet and Opera, English National Opera, Cambridge Phil, VOCES8 Foundation, Royal Academy of Music, Thinking Music, Anthem, and Streetwise Opera. This work often includes songwriting, arranging, and collaborative composition. Sam teaches singing at Trinity School Croydon, also assisting with the Chamber Choir, and Thomas's Battersea where he conducts the Songbirds chamber choir. He is also the director of the Junior Choir at All Saints Fulham and leads the City Lit Inclusive Choir for adults with special educational needs. 

Other work
Sam's traditional composition practice has included a Missa Brevis and setting of I Saw the Lord for St George's Cathedral, Southwark, two pieces performed by Lontano Midsummer and Duets, a recomposition and rearrangement of songs songs by Jeff Buckley, Britten and John Dowland for mixed ensemble for the Classical Transmission series, and a new score for the film Daphne, performed live as part of the London Cinema Museum's Live Screening's 2020. Sam contributed vocal arrangements for Ann Dudley for the 2013 Oscar-winning score for Les Misérables.

Sam has co-wrote and co-hosted The Classical Music Pod. The podcast built a significant following  (25,000+ monthly downloads) and included regular analysis sections - including of Ruth Crawford’s string quartets using the Magic Roundabout characters -  silly jingles based on Star Trek references and interviews with key figures from the musical world. These have included – Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Jess Gillam, David Lammy MP, Nicola Benedetti, Harry Christophers, Eric Whitacre, Ella Taylor, and Nicky Spence. Sam now produces the National Opera Studio podcast - The Opera Training Companion.  Sam has also contributed articles for Gramaphone Magazine website and produced playlists for French classical music streaming service Vialma.

After graduating Sam founded the Zeitgeist Chamber Orchestra. They are a group of talented young musicians capable of moving seamlessly between styles, genres and musical eras. They have been praised by countertenor Michael Chance CBE for the ‘virtuosity and thoughtfulness’ of their Baroque performing and recent performances have included a programme of Jeff Buckley, John Dowland and Britten for Antenna Studios’ series Classical Transmission - described by series host and tenor Nick Mulroy as ‘Absolutely first class…it stayed with me’ – and Birth of the Cool which garnered 5* reviews at King’s Place for bringing together works by Miles Davis, Claudio Monteverdi and contemporary composer Effy Efthymiou