Christopher started leading and conducting choirs in his early teens as a head-chorister for the
renowned Drakensberg Boys' Choir and later at the Highveldt Youth Choir in South Africa. Despite
a sojourn as a musical theatre “hoofer” in his twenties, music direction has always played a huge
part in his life. In 2006 he started Colliers Wood Chorus – now a 75-strong community choir. In
2010 he ran a staff and patient choir at St George's Hospital for a year and still performs various
musical activities at the hospital including bedside music. Christopher has attended many courses
on conducting, including two courses from the Association of British Choral Directors and other
short courses presented by Peter Fender, Colin Durrant and Tone B Dahl. A strong proponent for
making great choral music accessible to all – Christopher has encouraged and coached his
community choir to perform Mahler 2 & 3, Carmina Burana and Handel's Messiah.
Christopher runs vocal workshops for theatre companies and choirs, some of these include: BBC
Worldwide Staff Choir, Attic Theatre, Avalon Theatre and Shape Arts – sometimes as “one-offs”
and at other times over the course of a term. As well as Colliers Wood Chorus, Christopher also
directs Springfield Singers, Immediate Voices, River House Singers, Going For A Song and recently
Opera Nova and The Games Maker Choir as a guest conductor. Despite a very busy choral schedule
Christopher also manages to teach singing privately and sing professionally as a tenor for various
opera companies in London.
|