I grew up in a in a be nondescript town outside of London called Watford quite a
quite a big town and so my parents were great we we moved around a bit but I
sang in a church choir the church choir was a big thing I started at five
because I was musical then at I think age seven that the The Vicar of the
church said you should you should try your son as a chorister ship at King's
College Cambridge I did that and I got in so I went away to boarding school
aged eight and I sang every day and I learned this this kind of English way of
teaching which is do what that guy did you know you you kind of its kind of
osmotic the process of learning music the great thing about that I think
people who've gone through that British boy choir Cathedral Choir College Choir
experience is that you you learn to very much to becoming instinctive musician we
had a director of a very charismatic director Sir David Wilcox
and he was tough but very very a very demanding but very wonderful musician we
are we adored him you know often think about this now but when I was
and I think it was we sang in the war Requiem and the spring symphony with
Benjamin Britten and he came to our school
of course we we rehearsed with him and he he was a massive figure in British
music at the time we were all completely in awe of him because he had a moment
like a huge energy of course singing in those pieces with him was experience
I'll never forget even though it was a very long time ago down but I um I think
that was a many of us who did that would say that was a big influence on us he
was a man who thought a lot about about text and about that the way that music
was shaped and of course there's a technical comparison he was as good as
anyone so we thought this was great you know what I did know I wanted to do was
go back and sing in case College Choir again which I did as a student so I got
a scholarship at 18 and I went back and sang in King's College Cambridge as a
tenor in the choir for three years I was there when Sir David Wilcock ended his
his tenure there he'd been there a long time and then Sir Philip Leger came
along after that and I ended up marrying his daughter actually years later how
clever was that I he died a few years ago but a magnificent musician and
someone of course he was he was a director of Benjamin Britten's Festival
at the time I then became a professional singer in London I was a jobbing singer
so I did all sorts of things and because I was a tenor I got work I also worked
as an arranger of an Orchestrator for the BBC radio so I was writing charts
for the the Jazz Orchestra and I was a good Orchestrator so I learned my trade
with people who were you know at that time it was you hand-wrote the scores
you took it to the copyist you heard it the next day and then as I mentioned to
someone a bit earlier you know you go into the studio Hilary
think I won't do that again ah you you kind of learned I learned very very
quickly but then I and I started arranging for the King's Singers so I
remember Simon Carrington a name that you'll be very familiar with in this
country but he asked me to do a couple of arrangements for a children's album
that the King sings were making it was called kids stuff and I did that and of
course I mean it was a massive deal thought you know hey king singers you
know we grew up with them as young people and they were they were just what
we wanted to be not so long afterwards my bill ives he was a fantastic singer
in the group he was sick and i sucked for him completely out of the blue and
then I was asked eventually build Santa to leave so I I was asked if I would
take Bill's place so I think to this day I'm the only guy who joined the king
singers who didn't audition I did a three month audition basically but if I
if I don't listen I'd have never got I was completely the wrong type of saying
but I kind of I kind of made my way in that group for me that was I was 30
years old and we sang at the time kind of
878 is the kind of literature that was being sung in London was very very
sophisticated contemporary music and we loved him but it wasn't music that come
that that communicated with choral singers at large and of course the man
who was doing that was John Rutter who was for all of us he was the benchmark
he kind of showed everyone that it was okay to write him turn on me as a
beginner and of course the things have changed now but at the time if that was
a big thing for a lot of people who liked to be communicative musicians and
you know the King's Singers the one thing I learned from them one of
the many things I knew was their ability to communicate with their audience and
to really educate and communicate at the same time and I had a huge opportunity
with them with King sing as I as I did a lot of arranging what I particularly
loved doing with King singers was I did a lot of arrangements with Orchestra
because we did a lot of concerts with Orchestra at the time so you know it was
great to have you the King's Singers and the Detroit Symphony doing you you new
here'll arrangement I thought that was you know fantastic and and then my my
arranging work developed quite significantly with them and we did we it
was the time of the CD it was kind of 90s and so we were making a lot of CDs I
did a lot of arranging we've had a publishing agreement at that time with
Hinshaw music and that was all through really the connection with John Rutter
this whole world of music publishing came into my life and I thought gosh
this is great you know Here I am I was the time us was 3040 years old and
I was they I was starting to have music published this guy from oh you pay
Oxford press said to me what are you writing at the moment I said while I'm
writing some pieces for the or to children scores he said um have
you got anything to show me was the Friday have you got anything show me so
I said well I could bring you something on Monday so he said ok bring something
your Monday and I hadn't written a note over the weekend I read this piece and I
took it on on Monday it was a Carol called midwinter he said well purposes
that was how that all started and we got on very well there was a big energy
around and a little later then they offered me her a contract and I live
quite near to Oxford so I've always had a wonderful close relationship I love
collaborating with people I'm I'm I'm a social person and I like collaborating
with people and my connection with oxygen as a press has been a vital one
in my life and one that's given me a huge amount of energy and I've always
loved the people in it and eventually I left the King's Singers and I became
full time composer and then I started conducting - and by mistake because I I
conducted the quiet the Royal College of Music in London for seven years actually
I was asked to take someone's place who who can do it anymore in a hurry so I
thought I don't know how to conduct having the clue but I'll give it a try
but I knew I was a good musician I could fix things on you so I worked very very
hard at a lot of help from people might shy be a wonderful teacher he and I went
to Australia together to do some course on equal footing and I said to my
anything you could do to help you might I'll be grateful so I went to all this
classes and I you know I I had a lot of help conducting tonight that's so that's
what I