Musical Directors
Greg Beardsell
Associate Musical Director
Greg Beardsell is a leading light in music education and performance. He is Musical Director of the Irish Youth Choir, Associate Musical Director of the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain and Artistic Director of the Ulster Youth Choir. He has been Musical Director of the Wooburn Singers, a choir established by Richard Hickox, since 2005. He works extensively as an adjudicator, composer, arranger, workshop leader, conducting tutor and presenter.
Between 2004 and 2009 Greg was Music Director of the Bournemouth Symphony Chorus and collaborated on many successful recording projects, including Finzi’s Intimations of Immortality, Elgar’s The Music Makers (Grammy Award nominated), Orff’s Carmina Burana and the final choral creation of the late David Fanshawe, Pacific Song.
In recent years Greg has worked with the St. Endellion Festival Chorus, the BBC Symphony Chorus, the London Bach Choir and the London Symphony Chorus and prepared choruses for conductors such as Marin Alsop, Edward Gardner and Sir Colin Davis. He has directed the Sagittarian Consort of Cambridge, the Classical Soloists Orchestra, period specialists La Nuova Musica, the National Youth Orchestras of Ireland and Ulster, the City of London Sinfonia, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and the Ulster Orchestra.
He was, together with renowned director Alastair Middleton, a Founder Director of Opera Works, a company established to give opera training to music graduates, and has been Musical Director for 2x2 Opera, a community opera company based in London.
Since 2009 he has acted as workshop leader, composer and performer for Faber Music's Sing Up! programme and since January 2012 has become a Music Mentor for Music for Youth's Regional and National Festivals. Greg is the Official Host for Choir of the Year 2012 and will be adjudicating at the Grand Final in London on 28th October.
Ever keen to collaborate, Greg has worked with beat-boxers, electro-acoustic musicians, Irish folk bands, Indian musicians, dance companies and jazz bands. Last year he collaborated with the Gabrieli Consort and Players, bringing the Ulster Youth Choir to the Royal Albert Hall for the first time in its history. In October 2011, Greg directed the largest ever performance of Carmina Burana in Northern Ireland with 250 singers from schools and choirs around the nation together with a combined orchestra of 120.
Greg continues to work closely with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain as their Vocal Projects Director and earlier this year he collaborated with composer Anna Meredith to produce a work entirely produced using beatboxing and body percussion entitled Handsfree. In April of this year he travelled to The Hague to perform in Anna's Concerto for Beatboxer and Orchestra with superstar beat-boxer Shlomo.
In August 2012, Greg taught Craig Revel Horwood, Josie Lawrence and Marcus de Sautoy for BBC 2's series Maestro at the Opera.
