Desmond Bazley was the Musical Director of Kingston upon Thames Madrigal Society from 2003 to 2015.
Desmond was born in Luton, Bedfordshire, but moved to London to study mathematics at Imperial College London, followed by a Masters in Statistics. He worked for the Central Electricity Board (later National Grid) initially as a computer programmer in the days of mainframes. He accepted redundancy and took early retirement when the industry was privatised in his mid-fifties and was able to start a second career in the transport industry. He was a monitor of bus movements for Transport For London and later a part-time ticket clerk for Southwest Trains, becoming a popular and familiar face at Norbiton ticket office, where he worked until June 2015.
He was a superb amateur musician at the highest level, often in the company of professionals. As a pianist, he accompanied the Imperial College Choir for many years and also the City-based Saltarello Choir, working with Andrew Davis, Charles Mackerras and Colin Davis in the 1970s. He sang with the London Philharmonic Choir for twenty years, on one memorable occasion he stepped out of the ranks of basses when the professional accompanist failed to turn up and played the accompaniment at sight.
He was an active member of the Kingston and District Chamber Music Society, and sang with the Academy of St. Mary's choir (now The Academy choir), Wimbledon, taking great pride in the very low 'oktavist' bass line required by Russian church music.
He and his wife Joanna started an orchestra at their local Dundonald Primary School and Desmond regularly wrote arrangements for varied standards of players in years 1-6. He started a U3A 'Singing for Fun' group in Merton and played tenor recorder with a U3A ensemble.
He died of cancer on 18th August 2015, having taken great care to ensure that most of his work would continue after his death, without letting most people know how ill he was. Nearly 200 people attended the funeral at St. Andrew's church on 28th August when his musical friends sang the Fauré Requiem in his honour.
Desmond Bazley was the Musical Director of Kingston upon Thames Madrigal Society from 2003 to 2015.
Desmond was born in Luton, Bedfordshire, but moved to London to study mathematics at Imperial College London, followed by a Masters in Statistics. He worked for the Central Electricity Board (later National Grid) initially as a computer programmer in the days of mainframes. He accepted redundancy and took early retirement when the industry was privatised in his mid-fifties and was able to start a second career in the transport industry. He was a monitor of bus movements for Transport For London and later a part-time ticket clerk for Southwest Trains, becoming a popular and familiar face at Norbiton ticket office, where he worked until June 2015.
He was a superb amateur musician at the highest level, often in the company of professionals. As a pianist, he accompanied the Imperial College Choir for many years and also the City-based Saltarello Choir, working with Andrew Davis, Charles Mackerras and Colin Davis in the 1970s. He sang with the London Philharmonic Choir for twenty years, on one memorable occasion he stepped out of the ranks of basses when the professional accompanist failed to turn up and played the accompaniment at sight.
He was an active member of the Kingston and District Chamber Music Society, and sang with the Academy of St. Mary's choir (now The Academy choir), Wimbledon, taking great pride in the very low 'oktavist' bass line required by Russian church music.
He and his wife Joanna started an orchestra at their local Dundonald Primary School and Desmond regularly wrote arrangements for varied standards of players in years 1-6. He started a U3A 'Singing for Fun' group in Merton and played tenor recorder with a U3A ensemble.
He died of cancer on 18th August 2015, having taken great care to ensure that most of his work would continue after his death, without letting most people know how ill he was. Nearly 200 people attended the funeral at St. Andrew's church on 28th August when his musical friends sang the Fauré Requiem in his honour.
Desmond Bazley was the Musical Director of Kingston upon Thames Madrigal Society from 2003 to 2015.
Desmond was born in Luton, Bedfordshire, but moved to London to study mathematics at Imperial College London, followed by a Masters in Statistics. He worked for the Central Electricity Board (later National Grid) initially as a computer programmer in the days of mainframes. He accepted redundancy and took early retirement when the industry was privatised in his mid-fifties and was able to start a second career in the transport industry. He was a monitor of bus movements for Transport For London and later a part-time ticket clerk for Southwest Trains, becoming a popular and familiar face at Norbiton ticket office, where he worked until June 2015.
He was a superb amateur musician at the highest level, often in the company of professionals. As a pianist, he accompanied the Imperial College Choir for many years and also the City-based Saltarello Choir, working with Andrew Davis, Charles Mackerras and Colin Davis in the 1970s. He sang with the London Philharmonic Choir for twenty years, on one memorable occasion he stepped out of the ranks of basses when the professional accompanist failed to turn up and played the accompaniment at sight.
He was an active member of the Kingston and District Chamber Music Society, and sang with the Academy of St. Mary's choir (now The Academy choir), Wimbledon, taking great pride in the very low 'oktavist' bass line required by Russian church music.
He and his wife Joanna started an orchestra at their local Dundonald Primary School and Desmond regularly wrote arrangements for varied standards of players in years 1-6. He started a U3A 'Singing for Fun' group in Merton and played tenor recorder with a U3A ensemble.
He died of cancer on 18th August 2015, having taken great care to ensure that most of his work would continue after his death, without letting most people know how ill he was. Nearly 200 people attended the funeral at St. Andrew's church on 28th August when his musical friends sang the Fauré Requiem in his honour.
