JamesArcher.
James is currently Director of Music at St. Peter's, Hindley, home of the now unplayable Schultz organ. |
James began to learn to play the piano at the age of ten years having lessons from Mrs Symes, a wonderful teacher in Haydock, St. Helens, for the princely sum of 2/6d per quarter [year]. He began playing the organ and writing music at this time and became Organist and Choirmaster at St. Peter's, Bryn. From here he went on to study music at York, receiving tuition from David Lang, Geoffrey Coffin and Dr. Francis Jackson, Organist and Master of the Choristers at York Minster.
On qualifying as a teacher, James taught in Beverley and Driffield for seventeen years during which time he worked with the Melsa Consort, a largely a-capella choral group in North Humberside, the East Riding Youth Choir, various Amateur Operatic societies and local orchestras.
Also at this point in his career, James worked with the composer Anthony Hedges and the BBC singers under their director, John Poole also attending master classes with John Rutter. He became Assistant Organist at Beverley Minster under Alan Spedding, making several broadcasts for Radio 3 and other local radio stations.
Next followed a hectic period in James' career which saw him as Musical Director of the Operatic Societies in Bridlington, Hornsea and Scarborough before establishing his own group [called Take Two], drawn from the leading singers along the East Coast of Yorkshire.
As Musical Director at the Grand Hotel, Scarborough, James worked with many artists from stage and screen during a busy period which saw him rehearsing artists during the daytime and often doing 2 or 3 gigs in the evening - all the time maintaing his incredibly high standard of performance.
In recent years James has held the position of Director of Music at Northwich Parish Church, St. Peter's Chorley and St. James', Poolstock while at the same time being Musical Director of a fine group of amateur musicians called 'The Occasional Singers'.
James is an accomplished composer as well as performer and conductor having written many pieces of music for choral groups and instrumentalists. He has also composed his first Symphonic Poem and children's musical, 'Travelling Light' based on the life of St. Paul on the road to Damascus.
Consequently however [October 2007], not being able to resist the urge to direct, James has formed a new chamber choir of approximately 20 singers, we are called Cantique and you are currently visiting our website.
In January 2008 James was appointed Director of Music at St. Peter's, Hindley home of the famous but now, sadly, unplayable Schultz organ. It has been replaced with a rather magnificent 3 manual digital organ.
In August 2007 James was awarded his Master of Arts [in Music] achieving a Distinction in recognition of outstanding performance in Baroque Music and an Award of Excellence in Music.
If verification of James' degree is needed, please visit the following link and use the provided ID and Password: http://www.theashwooduniversity.net/verification/ ID: RV9009502 Password: 58736724 |
