Neil Sands

Founded the Chichester Music Press in 2003. Studied Composition at London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and subsequently at the University of Wales in Bangor.

Neil currently sings with Chichester's St Richard Singers and Chantry Quire, and sang for a year with Chichester Cathedral choir. He has also been Musical Director of Bognor Regis Choir, and of Chichester Amateur Operatic Society, mounting Annie Get Your Gun in Chichester's Minerva Theatre.

Previously, Neil was the conductor of the Portsmouth University Choral Union, the University of Wales' Aberystwyth Elizabethan Madrigal Singers, and Aberystwyth's Showtime Singers. He has also worked as an English and Welsh teacher, and as a newsreader for Radio Manhattan in Łódź in Poland.

Neil now works as a music typesetter.

SibeliusMusic.com page   Home page

Jamie W. Hall

Bass baritone Jamie W. Hall is a professional consort singer and concert soloist based in London and the south east. Currently a member of the world-famous BBC Singers, Jamie has made numerous recordings and radio broadcasts and performs regularly in concert venues around London and the UK.

Born in a small mining village in the Nottinghamshire coalfield, Jamie's singing career began when a rather frank appraisal of his keyboard skills lead him to conclude that his career as a concert pianist was going nowhere. Since then he has studied voice, reading music at Liverpool and then moving on to become a lay clerk with the cathedral choirs of Chester and more recently, Winchester.

Jamie at Wolvesey Music

Wyn Pearson

Wyn Pearson read music at The University of Wales, Bangor, gaining a Bachelor of Music degree in 1993, a Postgraduate Diploma in 1995 and a Master of Music degree, also in 1995. Since then, Wyn has worked as a guitarist and Musical Director extensively throughout the UK, Europe and beyond with numerous artists in a variety of venues. He has been employed as a session musician for radio, television, film and as a studio musician working on many recordings. Wyn continues to appear regularly on S4C (Channel 4 Wales), working on programmes filmed in front of studio audiences, whilst freelancing with other artistes, most notably Katherine Jenkins, Michael Ball and legendary rock producer Alan Parsons.

Wyn is proud to be guitarist with renowned folk singer Siân James, and in 2009, went with her to represent Wales at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington.

Original works have received performances by members of the National Orchestra of Wales and the Society for the Promotion of New Music. He won the Instrumental Ensemble category for Composition at the Welsh National Eisteddfod in 2000 and the coveted Tlws Y Cerddor (composers' medal) at the National Eisteddfod in Flintshire in 2007.

Wyn has recently completed Hybrid Picking, a tuition book and DVD, which is published worldwide by Mel Bay Publications.

Wyn Pearson's website

Edward-Rhys Harry

Edward-Rhys Harry comes from the village of Penclawdd on the Gower coast, South Wales. He studied music from childhood taking organ, piano and singing lessons. At 15, he was appointed to his first church organist position, and, at just 16, received his first professional commission: writing the accompanying music for the premiere tour and performances of No Birds Sing by Denise Deegan (of Daisy Pulls It Off fame). The performances were by the National Youth Theatre of Wales.

This fuelled his desire to pursue his studies in composition. At 18 a set of children's musicals received their first performances and shortly after, Edward read music at University of Wales, Bangor. There he studied under William Matthias, Dilys Elwyn-Edwards and John Harper (RSCM). He also studied voice under Kenneth Reynolds (RAM). During his undergraduate degree Edward won the prestigious department composition prize for his orchestral work Re:Becca. After graduating and completing a post-graduate diploma in Music Technology and Sound Recording, Edward was appointed as Director of Music at a succession of further and higher education colleges. Since then he has completed a Master of Music Degree in Composition at the London College of Music, studying under Laurence Roman (Really Useful Group) and Francis Pott. In 2006 he was admitted to the 'Gorsedd Y Beirdd' at the National Eisteddfod of Wales, in Swansea. Edward is currently engaged as a singer with the BBC National Chorus of Wales, works occasionally with Welsh National Opera and teaches singing and composition. He is also Musical Director of Cor Bro Ogwr (Wales' largest mixed choir) and the Warminster Athenaeum Singers.

He was recently awarded a full scholarship to continue his post-graduate studies at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama under Simon Halsey (CBSO, Berlin Philharmonic and Netherlands Radio Choirs) and Adrian Partington (BBC NCW, Gloucester Cathedral). He takes up a part time lecturing position at the RWCMD in September 2009 and the college will premiere his first opera, Requiem In A Lift, in January 2010.

Edward-Rhys Harry's website

William Morris

William's musical career began at the age of eleven when he joined the Temple Church Choir, singing with them on television, radio and later on the concert platform as a soloist with the Royal Choral Society. He began to study composition from the age of thirteen with Dr Henry Zayazckowsky and went on to read music at Bristol university. It was during this time that he developed an interest in musical theatre while performing in a very early production of Chicago (before its more recent West End success).

He has worked on a number of commissions including the award winning ballet film Facing Mara (Native Voice Films) and the BBC radio play The Glasshouse. He also recorded a CD of piano music for a collaboration project with artist Fran Barrault on her set of images, Bridges of Light (available from www.of-light.com).

William has produced a wide variety of compositions such as Mister Jazz Man for the Queen's School choir and orchestra in Kew, and Sumer Is Icumen In for The British Heart Foundation Concert in Twickenham. He has worked as musical director on many children's workshops producing several sets of children's songs, each with a religious theme.

William has worked in all areas of music from High Church to Vaudeville but he has concentrated more recently on musical theatre. His musicals, all with the writer Simon Warne, include Rasputin - the life and death of the mad monk (Musical Futures, Greenwich Theatre 2003), Stratford Street - a wild romp with a time travelling bard (Academy of New Musical Theatre, LA 2005), and What You Will - a modern re-working of Twelfth Night (coming out January 2008).

William is currently completing an MA in composition for film at Kingston University while juggling teaching at the Royal Ballet School with freelance musical direction, most recently Company at The Questors Theatre, Ealing.

Pentatone

Gareth Leyshon

Gareth was born in Watford in 1972 to Welsh parents. A late-starter in music, he worked on theory, harmony and composition privately with Michael Regan who encouraged him to continue music at university. He subsequently went to study for a BMus at the University of Wales, Bangor, where his lecturers included Peter Flinn.

After graduating, he worked for two years as a church organist and choir director, always having in his mind the idea of doing some postgraduate studies in composition. The opportunity came when he was accepted by the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris and he was persuaded by his French wife to move to France. At the Ecole Normale he studied with Michel Merlet for three years and was awarded the Diplôme Supérieur de Composition, winning the first prize as well as the Prix de la SACEM 2006.

He currently lives in Lyon with his wife, and Betsi, their rather grumpy cat. There he tries to earn a living as a teacher of music and English, and as a translator, composing when he has the time, which can be quite often. His work has been performed in Britain, France and Japan and his Prelude for Harp was the set piece at the Lyon Conservatoire end-of-year harp examinations in June 2007.

Benjamin Costello

Ben is a London-based musical director, choral director, singing coach, accompanist and adjudicator. A highly versatile musician, he performs and teaches in very diverse genres ranging from the Renaissance period to contemporary music, but principally musical theatre, and he has been involved with numerous productions across the U.K. He has worked extensively throughout the Further and Higher Education sectors and all of the major London performing arts colleges as a musical director, vocal coach and lecturer. These have included Arts Ed (London), Mountview, Guildford School of Acting, the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, the London College of Music, the Royal Academy of Music, and the universities of London (Birkbeck), Surrey and Kingston. He also judges at competitive festivals throughout the U.K. as an adjudicator member of both the British and International Federation of Festivals and the Schools Music Association.

In addition to working with many choral groups he is Music Director of Kingston Chamber Singers, and as an accompanist collaborates with a wide variety of singers, including since 1998 the distinguished soprano Alison Pearce. From 2006 to 2010 he was Chairman of Kingston Arts Council, and is currently Artistic Director of the biennial Kingston Festival of the Voice. His performing work frequently takes him overseas, most recently to France, Poland, Crete, Italy and Zimbabwe.

Born in London in 1976, Ben read Music at Kingston University (B.Mus., M.A.), winning the conducting prize, and the London College of Music (P.G.Dip.); joining the staff there as resident musical director for six years. Principal singing tutor at Shrewsbury House Boys' School since 2005, he suspended doctoral research on accepting an invitation to become Director of Music at the School in September 2010.

His website is at www.bencostello.com.

Mark Hartt-Palmer

Mark Hartt-Palmer became Leader of the Chichester Symphony Orchestra in 2000 succeeding Ted Richards. He studied locally with Samuel Coates and subsequently continued under Frances Mason at the Royal College of Music where he studied violin, viola and piano. Since then he has become well-known as a soloist, recitalist, conductor, arranger and musical director.

Solo performances have included the concertos of Mendelssohn, Bruch, Sibelius, Elgar (the concerto at the 2002 Chichester Festivities attracted critical acclaim), Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante and Vaughan Williams' The Lark Ascending.

As a recitalist, Mark has played for many years as a duo with Richard Barnes, notable features of their partnership being a recital series in Portsmouth's Menuhin Room and a concert at Magdalen College Chapel, Oxford.

Mark is Musical Director of Havant Light Opera, a post he has held since 1999, and he has conducted them in several Gilbert and Sullivan operas. He has also directed the Hayling Musical Society, with whom he has conducted performances of Oklahoma!, Half a Sixpence and most recently in their production of Leslie Bricusse's Scrooge in which he arranged the score for wind quintet and two keyboards. He was Musical Director for Blake Lapthorn Solicitors' pantomime, in which he undertook the vocal arrangements and orchestration.

Several of Mark's arrangements have been performed, most notably reduced orchestrations of Iolanthe and The Gondoliers.

Currently Mark is Musical Director of Petersfield Hi-Lights, whose staging of The Music Man took place in May 2005.

Rex Latter

Rex Latter was taught piano by a Miss Lily Hillier, well known in her time as both pianist and mandolin player, organ by Eileen Belchamber and harmony by Norman Demuth, a professor at the Royal Academy of Music.

Currently organist at Bognor Parish Church (St. Wilfrid), he has a busy life as accompanist to various choirs and musical groups including Sounds Sacred of Arundel and until recently The Bognor Regis Choir, alas now ceased. He sings tenor in Off Centre, a (mostly) a cappella chamber choir, as well as working with a number of individual singers and instrumentalists in the area. He is also an active member of the Bognor Regis Music Club.

He started composing music at the age of 13 and has produced a modest output of largely church music spasmodically throughout his working life. Now in retirement, that has increased considerably and he is now exploring the world of instrumental music.

Peter Flinn

Peter Flinn studied at the University of Wales, Bangor, where he now lectures in Composition, Orchestration and History of Twentieth Century Music. He studied composition with William Mathias in Bangor and later with John Joubert in Birmingham and was awarded the BMus Degree in 1989, the MMus Degree in 1991 and a Doctorate in 1995. He has composed many works for brass band, brass ensembles, choir and orchestra in addition to a growing and impressive body of chamber music.

Significant works include Paean (trumpet and piano), Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence (unaccompanied SATB choir), Fanfare for the Launch of a Ship (brass band), Three Poems for Orchestra, Lullaby and Dances (solo treble/tenor recorder), Three Miniature Portraits (clarinet choir), Down to Earth (double bass and piano) and Lamentationes (written for the Fitzwilliam String Quartet). His music has been performed extensively throughout Britain alongside important performances in the USA and Europe.

Three Contrasting Pieces (solo organ) won Tlws y Prif Gyfansoddwr at the Royal National Eisteddfod in 1994 and was subsequently performed on television and radio, and a commission funded by the Ida Carroll Trust led to a work for chamber orchestra in memory of Professor Peter Crossley Holland.

In addition to his lecturing, Peter is an examiner for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music and plays organ, harpsichord and percussion. He has been invited to give lectures and talks throughout the world, most recently travelling to Malaysia as a visiting professor, giving lectures on Stravinsky and Orchestration.

Tamsin Amelia Jones

Tamsin Jones studied music at Newcastle University and then at Birmingham University, where she gained a Ph.D. on the passion settings of Schütz in 2000.

Tamsin was an alto lay clerk in Chester Cathedral Choir and a music teacher for West Cheshire College and the Open College of the Arts. She has directed numerous small ensembles in historically informed performances of little-known pieces from the Baroque era, including a performance of Schütz's Die sieben Worte with Chester Cathedral Singers and Viol Consort during Chester Cathedral's Holy Week Meditations of 2004. She currently lives near Hiroshima.

As a composer, Tamsin aims to explore and reconcile contrasting historic styles. She is particularly interested in choral music, but has also written keyboard pieces and electronic music.

Tamsin's interests include cats, cooking, wine, shopping and travel.

Victoria Larley

Victoria Larley was born in Chichester and read music at university before pursuing a career as a teacher of singing and piano. She teaches at Kingscourt School in Hampshire, and Prebendal School - Chichester Cathedral's choir school - in West Sussex.

Victoria sings contralto and performs both locally and further afield as well as being an organist of St Wilfrid's Church, Chichester.

James Webb

James Webb studied composition with Richard Hoadley at Charterhouse, George Benjamin at the Royal College of Music, and Robin Holloway at Cambridge University. He began a postgraduate degree at Lampeter University, before working for two years as a producer with BBC Radio 3.

In 1992 he won the first BBC Young Musician of the Year Composers Award, and has had music performed by many diverse groups including London Voices, the Delta Saxophone Quartet, and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

He has sung as a lay clerk at Llandaff Cathedral and St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral, Edinburgh, and is presently the Director of Music at Wimbledon High School in London.

Christopher Larley

Christopher Larley read music at the Welsh College of Music and Drama. After a year spent as Lay Clerk of Llandaff Cathedral, combined with teaching at the Choir School, he moved to Chichester.

From 1996 to 2004 he was a Tenor Lay Vicar of Chichester Cathedral, but from January 2005 he has been Director of Music at St. Paul's Church, Chichester.

Christopher now combines percussion teaching at Prebendal School, Bishop Luffa, Lavant House and St. Margaret's, Midhurst with solo singing, composing and directing various choirs.

He conducts Chantry Quire and has recently undertaken a role conducting one of the West Sussex County Council Choirs for the new Chorus project for young voices, the Central Singers.

Recent and forthcoming solo engagements include Lloyd Webber's The Saviour in Sussex, Mozart's Requiem in London and Britten's St. Nicholas as part of the Chichester Festivities.

Christopher has written many pieces for choral and instrumental ensembles.