Obituary: Ben Thapa, 1982-2024

The tenor Ben Thapa, who died on 8 September at the early age of 42, found fame as a core member of the pop-opera group G4, which came to prominence during the first season of the popular British talent show The X Factor in 2004. Educated at Hills Road College in Cambridge, where he showed early musical promise, Thapa went on to 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. At the Guildhall he met the other members of G4: Michael Christie, Jonathan Ansell and Matt Stiff.

The group began as life as “The Guildhall Four”, but given its unfortunate assonance with The Guildford Four it quickly adopted the moniker with which it would go on to stardom. Simon Cowell was egregiously rude about the young men – he called them “fat buskers” – but they scored a strong second place in the competition, having been pipped to the final prize by Steve Brookstein. On the back of their TV success they were snapped up by Sony BMG; their first disc entered the UK charts at No. 1 and went on to achieve triple platinum status.

The deal with Sony bagged G4 a small fortune and a slot on Friday Night is Music Night on BBC Radio 2; their albums sold 2 million copies and they undertook five tours, which totally sold out. “One minute we were students,” Thapa reflected, “busking in the streets, struggling to work out where the next month’s rent was coming from, and the next we were on a TV show.” Celebrity, however, came at a cost; G4 disbanded in 2007 in less than friendly circumstances, but its members regrouped for a reunion tour in 2015 and continued to sing together afterwards. 

Thapa finally 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; he developed a reputation as a consummate professional whose easy manner and generosity of spirit quickly put colleagues at their ease. Brimming with mischief and spontaneity – he once darted off a train in Scotland to be photographed with the platform sign at Singer station before it pulled away again – he was a champion of young performers, many of whom found in him a mentor. Away from music he would wax lyrical about football and cricket, to which he was also devoted.

Aside from his pop and opera, Thapa had a rich career as a musician in Catholic churches in London and further afield. As a boy he sang in the choir of the Church of Our Lady and the English Martyrs in Cambridge, where at the age of 13 he converted to Catholicism with such fervour that his mother and sister joined him. Towards the end of the 2000s he was a choral scholar at St George’s Cathedral, Southwark, under the late Nick Gale, and went on to sing for the Jesuits at Farm Street in Mayfair. He also appeared regularly at Westminster Cathedral and the Brompton Oratory, and was a cantor for the Latin Mass Society.

Thapa retained a particular affinity for St George’s, where he returned in 2019 as a lay clerk under the direction of Jonathan Schranz. He regarded his spot in the choir stalls as a privilege; church music was his particular vocation, and an act of service to the local community of believers, the priests at whose Masses he sang and to the musicians around him. In his dealings with the children of the choir he was determined to be a positive role model – it was an aspect of his work that he took very seriously indeed, having spent the first part of his own life in foster care.

As Thapa’s opera singing took off, inevitably the demands on his time increased. Recognising the importance of a consistent and cohesive team of singers in maintaining a house style, particularly in the practice of Gregorian chant, he bowed out of his position with sadness and good grace. “I would hate for my time to dribble out in a vapour of intermittent attendance and a feeling of unrest from my colleagues,” he wrote. “I have only love and positivity to discuss in respect of my time here, and am happy to share that far and wide.” His final years were spent with the Rosminians at St Etheldreda’s, Ely Place.

A physically-imposing character with a particular penchant for loud colours and, eventually, a shaved head and big bushy beard, Thapa rarely spoke about his private life. That included his faith, but the volume of tributes paid in the wake of his sudden death (after a short but serious illness that led to organ failure) amply demonstrated his prodigious talent for friendship and the deep influence he had on those with whom he lived and worked. His deliberate choices – which he made daily – to care for those around him, to see the best in his colleagues, to call out injustice where he saw it, and to strive for the best in all that he did, spoke louder than words.

Photo: St George’s Cathedral, Southwark

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