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 Music
has always been part of our Musical Director Peter Wilkinson's life.
From his earliest days, he remembers music constantly being played
at home - both classical and light, with lots of hymns thrown in.
His elder sister played the piano and gave Peter lessons. Perhaps
because he was good at sight-reading, not much time was set aside
for practising. One of his first public performances at a young age
was on the piano in an Eisteddfod made memorable when, after playing
the opening of his piece, he realised his music was upside down, so
had to stop, put the music the right way up, and start again!
In his teens, he sang for a time in a pop group and then in an informal
madrigal group set up by his French schoolmaster. The same teacher
gave Peter his first opportunity to conduct when the school performed
Gilbert & Sullivan's "Trial by Jury".
Still in his teens, he began lessons on the organ at a Methodist Church
in Bournemouth. That despite a very early experience of the instrument
as a toddler when he still remembers being terrified by an organ pump
starting up unexpectedly. In Bristol, he became assistant organist
at Horfield Baptist Church, helping to run singing groups there for
children, teenagers and adults. In the 1970s he became the main organist
and ran the choir.
He was invited to direct the Avon & Somerset Police Male Voice
Choir and did so for 10 years before departing to seek a change of
musical horizons. Shortly afterwards, he was invited by some fellow
lawyers to lead a group that was just being formed, and so the Harlequin
Singers were born. Since then he's enjoyed the experience of finding,
arranging or composing music for us. |
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Who
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