Musical Director - Patrick Lee GRSM, LRAM
Patrick's musical education was at The Royal Academy of Music (1968-71), followed by a post-graduate year at London University Institute of Education. Having been Head of Music in three different schools, he retired as Deputy Head at Crawshaw School, Pudsey in 2006 and now writes and performs music full time. He directed a school big band, “Connexion”, from 1978 until 2005, writing and/or arranging most of the repertoire. Between 2004 & 2012 he also worked with a jazz quintet as composer, arranger and pianist, performing at a variety of public and private events.
Patrick is an accomplished composer & arranger having won the biennial Cornwall International Male Voice Choral Festival Composition Competition in both 2010 & 2012. One of his winning entries, a male voice choir setting of John McCrae’s poem “In Flanders Fields”, comes from the larger work “Sacrifices”, which was premiered in Ripon Cathedral, on November 15th 2014. Patrick wrote this oratorio-type piece specifically to commemorate the centenary of the outbreak of World War 1 and“In Flanders Field” is now included in the choir’s repertoire.
From May 2012 to December 2013 Patrick was Musical Director of Micklefield Male Voice Choir and took over the baton as the Musical Director of Harrogate Male Voice Choir in April 2014
Accompanist – David Mawson PhD, LRSM, LTCL, LMusA
Born in New Zealand, David holds a MusB Hons and MMus degree from the University of Otago, a PGDipMus in piano performance from the RSAMD and a PhD in practice-led performance research from the University of Leeds. He has been awarded numerous music prizes and scholarships and as a pianist has broadcast on New Zealand radio and television. He has taught piano and music history at the University of Otago and the University of Leeds, and has served as Administrator and Trustee of the Leeds International Pianoforte Competition and as Coordinator of the AHRC Research Centre for Musical Performance as Creative Practice (CMPCP) based at the Faculty of Music, University of Cambridge. David has been an accompanist with Harrogate Male Voice Choir since October 2015.
Accompanist – David Ward-Campbell
David has lived in Harrogate for most of his life, and has been involved in the local music world since about 1980, when he joined Junior Strings as a young violinist (at Harrogate Music Centre) and St Robert’s Church choir in Pannal. Since then he has been involved in many choral and musical groups, locally, further afield and internationally. He was Organist at St Robert’s Church, Pannal in the 90’s/00’s while also holding organist positions at Beckwithshaw and Killinghall Parish Churches.
David studied Music, Organ and Singing at Liverpool University and then went on to enjoy almost 15 years of expat life – in Bangkok, Prague and southern Spain. He was accompanist for the Bangkok Music Society and has also accompanied various choral groups in Spain, with repertoire as diverse as Handel’s Messiah, Mozart’s Requiem, Karl Jenkins’ ‘Armed Man’. He has taught piano and singing for many years, mainly for the International School circuit abroad, and he continues to do so after returning to the UK.
David became an accompanist with Harrogate Male Voice Choir in April 2018 and has also recently taken up a new appointment as Organist/Director of Music at Ripley.