THE GENTLEMEN SONGSTERS MALE VOICE CHOIR

OUR MUSICAL TEAM

MUSICAL DIRECTOR               Mike Wells

ACCOMPANIST                       Neil Bolton

ASSISTANT ACCOMPANIST   Phil James

DEPUTY CONDUCTOR             John Walley

OUR ADMIN TEAM                   Contact Details

PRESIDENT

CHAIRMAN

VICE-CHAIRMAN

VICE-PRESIDENTS

CHARITY TRUSTEES

MUSICAL TEAM

MUSICAL DIRECTOR
Mike Wells

Mike's knowledge of music has been gained from many years of experience. His father was an opera lover who also sang with a Birmingham based Gilbert & Sullivan society, teaching Mike many songs at home from an early age. With help from his parents, Mike learned to play the piano whilst still at junior school and then went on to direct and accompany various school concerts at senior school.  For many years he was accompanist for several amateur operatic societies and musical groups, first taking up the baton in 1994 as musical director for a local operatic society. Mike has been conducting mixed voice groups and choirs for a number of years but this is his first time with an all male voice choir.  He was appointed as our Musical Director in March 2008, and has had a significant positive impact on our performances.

ACCOMPANIST
Neil Bolton

Neil began reading music at the age of five, and learnt to play the recorder in a lunch-time group at infant school. He continued to play most members of the recorder family at Causeway Green Music Centre for ten years, and then joined the "Zephyr Consort", playing bass recorder until the group disbanded in 1994.

Neil's piano lessons commenced at the age of seven, and continued for eleven years, by which time he had achieved Grade 8 in piano playing. Throughout his years in school and higher education, he has learnt to play the tuba, violin and clarinet amongst other instruments, and he played clarinet in his school Wind Band, "The Sandwell Training Concert Band", and finally "The Sandwell Youth Concert Band" (as first clarinet), before leaving to concentrate on his academic studies.

Whilst at school, he played the piano in the Jazz Band, and the Bass in "Neither Brass Nor Strings" - a Steel Band, the latter making a recording in a professional studio to raise money for school funds. They also played at many school fetes, concerts, assemblies and even at a wedding and a birthday party.

Neil was appointed Assistant Accompanist to "The Gentlemen Songsters Male Voice Choir" in May 1998, after meeting his mentor, Lynn Andrews, whilst undertaking his first teaching practice at her school. He has served as Accompanist to the "Sandwell Young Singers", a choir for school children within the Sandwell Education Authority area, and has also acted as an official accompanist at the Dudley Festival of Music Drama and Dance

In his professional life, Neil is a primary school teacher working for the Black Country School Improvement Partnership.

Neil was promoted to Accompanist at the end of March 2003.

ASSISTANT ACCOMPANIST
Phil James

Phil, who was born in February 1994, took his first piano lesson at the age of five, and eighteen months later took part in the Dudley Festival of Music Drama and Dance. After a further three months he passed his Piano Grade 1 examination with merit.  Not content with these developing musical talents, he had his first violin lesson before his ninth birthday, and then added the clarinet to his one-man orchestra later in the same calendar year. The church organ was included before his tenth birthday, and this progression has continued to this day, with more instruments being added on a regular basis.

He has been performing solo concerts since 2004 and more recently has become heavily involved with a number of local theatre companies, working in the orchestra pit, playing either keyboard or lead guitar.

Phil raises money for various charities including Cancer Research UK, Chernobyl Childrens' Life Line and Help for Heroes. He plays the Church organ for services, weddings and baptisms and is also a member of the Wolverhampton Youth Orchestra, playing violin and percussion.

He is currently studying at King Edward VI College, Stourbridge, and has been awarded a place, commencing in 2012, at the Birmingham Conservatoire where he will study Percussion as his first subject, and Piano as his second.

We are delighted to have Phil as part of our Music Team, and look forward to working with him in the future – which, without doubt is “rosy”

Further details on Phil are available on his website www.philjamesmusician.co.uk

DEPUTY CONDUCTOR
John Walley

John Walley has been a member of "The Gentlemen Songsters Male Voice Choir" since January 1989. His usual role on the front row of the Second Tenors has nothing to do with his love of rugby! John took early retirement from his position as a Civil Engineer with Sandwell Council, and first served as Choir Chairman during 1998. It was in 1998 that John, who also is a Church Organist and Choirmaster, was appointed as Deputy Conductor to "The Gentlemen Songsters Male Voice Choir". John's musical and artistic talents are often deployed to the full when he leads the choir (some of you will have seen him conducting "This Old Man"!!!!) and the choir supporters in "songs and actions" at our regular concert afterglows and in the bar on choir tours - often ending flat on the floor at the end of leading a group singing "Who Killed Cock Robin?" John has served a number of sentences as Choir Chairman, and has also served as Concert Secretary. Recently, John filled the role of Acting Musical Director until the appointment of Mike Wells as Musical Director.

OUR ADMINISTRATION TEAM

PRESIDENT

Joe Brandrick

CHAIRMAN

Peter Hawthorne C.B.E.

VICE-CHAIRMAN

Ken Crane

VICE-PRESIDENTS

Don Marsh, June Box, Michael Collie & Philippa Tomson

CHARITY TRUSTEES

Peter Hawthorne, Robert Biggs, Tony Fletcher, Robert Ashwood & Keith Moss

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