Neil as choirboy, c1967
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I started piano lessons at the age of six, passed ABRSM exams
up to grade 8 and studied piano with
George Nicholson
at York University.
I started singing in a church choir at the age of 10 (see picture!) and attended two residential
RSCM courses, from where
I was selected to attend cathedral courses at Westminster Abbey and Norwich Cathedral.
I was appointed organist and choirmaster of Holy Trinity Church, Rugby, at the age of 17
before I left school. I then sang with the University of York choir.
I joined the choir of St. Mary's Osterley in 1978 and was deputy organist for 20 years from around 1980.
I joined Whitton Choral Society in 1997, and sometimes
accompanied or
conducted rehearsals for them. Following the death of the Director of Music in April 2009, I was appointed to that position.
I conducted weekly rehearsals and directed three concerts a year, which sometimes involves professional soloists.
In 2014 and 2018, I conducted joint concerts of Whitton Choral Society and Richmond Choral Society.
I retired in summer 2022.
From 2007 to 2009, I sung with The Hythe Singers,
a chamber choir based in Egham Hythe near Staines, Surrey and set up their first web site for them.
A composition of mine, "The first snow of the year" was performed by them at Christmas 2008,
and I was sometimes asked to help them out by singing at their concerts.
In August 2012, I conducted this choir at short notice at the Egham Royal Show.
Between 2007 and 2013, I sometimes sang with the University of London Church Choir
and sang with them in Southwark
Cathedral a number of times, at Lambeth Palace three times for the
Archbishop's award ceremony, and at
St. Alban's Cathedral.
During the late 1970s and early 1980s, I conducted a very small madrigal choir that met in the front room of a house. Since 2019 I have been singing with, and often leading, a small madrigal group that started as a house group, but now meets in Garrick's Temple in Hampton. I also sing with Kingston upon Thames Madrigal Society, and conducted half of a rehearsal for them at short notice in December 2015 and was quest conductor for December meetings in 2019, 2021 and 2022.
Once a year, from 2000 to 2004, I conducted an ad-hoc choir of 50-70 singers in St. Paul's Cathedral for the
Mothers' Union London Diocese.
In June 2015, I was asked to conduct the same service again, at quite short notice, and I also did it in 2016 and 2017.
In 2004, I conducted a Hounslow Deanery combined choir for a service in
Bath Abbey.
In December 2006, I was asked to write a piece of music for a
Hounslow Symphony Orchestra concert
to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the church -
I called it Sesquicentennial Fantasia.
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