BRISTOL MALE VOICE CH IR
Who's Who @ BMVC
Patron
The Right Honourable
Lord Mayor of Bristol
Councillor Paul Goggin.
President
Andy Brassington
Chairman
Steve Lewis
Deputy
Chairman
Malcolm Cheatham
Concert
Secretary
Martin Roach
Treasurer
Stuart
Williamson
Secretary
Carl
McDermott
The Music Team
Jo Scullin
BA(Hons) Cert PTC MISM Musical Director (left)
Jo graduated, with first class honours from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama where she studied piano with Julian Jacobson, piano accompaniment with Antony Saunders and singing with Eiddwen Harrhy.
While at RWCMD she received several of the college's awards for outstanding musical and academic achievements. Jo was privileged to be invited to accompany the college's principal 'cellist in a private performance for King Charles IIl (then HRH the Prince of Wales) at the opening of the college's Anthony Hopkins Centre.
She is musical director of Bristol Male Voice Choir, Bromley Heath Community Choir and Redmaids' High Community Voices. Previously, she worked as accompanist and assistant conductor to the Cardiff Arms Park
Male Choir for 13 years. She is an honorary member of the internationally renowned Morriston Orpheus Choir having served as their accompanist for 6 years.
A highly driven and experienced music educator, Jo teaches piano at Redmaids' High School, Bristol, and previously taught for many years at the Cathedral School, Llandaff. She holds the EPTA piano teacher's certificate with distinction.
Her passion, commitment and versatility as a musician have led her to perform in several countries including The United Arab Emirates, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, Italy, Switzerland, and France; in venues including
Symphony Hall, St David's Hall, The Millennium Stadium, Murrayfield Stadium and The Ballroom at Buckinghan Palace; and she has accompanied a diverse range of artists including Bryn Terfel, Rebecca Evans, Shan Cothi Hayley Westenra, Howard Jones, Rhydian Roberts and Goldie Lookin' Chain.
Clair Hiles
Dip. Music Therapy, Dip. TCM, MA Cantab. ALCM
Accompanist (Right)
Clair has loved playing the piano since she was 5. She accompanied her first choir at 12 and has relished playing for soloists, ensembles and choral groups ever since. Clair’s passion for history, art and music led her to Cambridge University, where she performed Beethoven’s 1st Piano Concerto and at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama London, where she studied with notable accompanists such as Roger Vignoles and Graham Johnson. To date, the highlight of Clair’s musical career has been her recent studies in Manhattan, NYC, with Seymour Bernstein - this adventure gave her the change to perform some of the masterpieces of the solo piano repertoire, including Beethoven’s last 3 piano sonatas, in USA, Australia and Europe. Currently, Clair lives in Bristol, with her precious tortoiseshell kitten and enjoys teaching and playing regularly with the Pump Room Trio in Bath. Clair is a qualified Music Therapist and Sound Healer and is also deeply committed to her own path of yoga and personal development.
CHORISTER'S STORIES
Alan Parry 1st Tenor
I grew up in mid-Wales surrounded by mountains, rivers and male voice choirs!
Eisteddfodds (singing contests) were a regular occurrence in every village hall and many times I enjoyed listening to Talgarth battling it out with the likes of Rhayader and Treorchy choirs late into the night.I was thought to have a half-decent voice at school, encouraged by talented parents, aunts and uncles but started a 'singing-sabbatical' of about 40 years when my voice broke around 14. Accompanying myself in the privacy of my own home whilst learning guitar was the extent of my singing, until my wife encouraged me to ‘get out of the house’ and start singing with a choir, rather than endlessly talking about it. I joined the Bristol Male Voice Choir in 2018 after attending an exploratory ‘taster session’.
I was made to feel very welcome, even though I brought the average age of the choir down a few years. I very much look forward to choir practice sessions and the many concerts and special events where we perform for an audience. I still work full-time in Finance but music has again become a big part of my social life – it is my 'feel-good' therapy!
Bob Reid 2nd Tenor
In an employment context, each step of interest or promotion saw me moving further south from Scotland’s central belt, to finally spend just over 30 years in Stafford. I retired from there when I was 70, (having spent most of my working life IT-oriented) and some 4 years later my good lady was diagnosed with Vascular Dementia - three years later she had a stroke, which in time appeared to fully recover from - but it was a warning that we should downsize, looking to the next likely steps.
So I sold up and moved to a retirement village in Bristol (2011), which included access to Care as required, and that one of our sons lived 5 minutes away in Bristol (for any emergency support). Until then, I had been fiercely independent in looking after Ena, and planned for it to stay that way. A year later she was further diagnosed as also having Alzheimer’s, so it became a case of Mixed Dementia, and a progression of varied loss of faculty.
In 2015 I had heard 8 West of England Male Voice Choirs plus Welsh tenor Wynne Evans in concert – just a brilliant evening. That encouraged me to ring BMVC’s secretary and the conversation was pretty brief: “I was recently impressed by the massed choir concert: I’m in my eighties, can’t read music, but would like a crack at singing – is there any point?” ……”Just get along to rehearsal every Thursday”, and I did. From the day and hour I arrived there, I’ve had only encouragement and friendship – suddenly… fifty-plus new mates, and after a few months hard work, so many experiences, new places to visit and such a feeling of well-being as I felt myself being drawn back into some semblance of social awareness and a sense of belonging to something bigger than myself.