Patrick Larley - Music Director
Patrick Larley, composer, singer and keyboard player, has been BFCS Music Director since September 2005. He holds a similar post with Ludlow Choral Society, is Musical Director of the Montgomeryshire Music Festival Chorus, and is founder and director of the professional vocal ensemble, Chudleigh's Company and an early music group, The Gallery Players.

After study at the RNCM in Manchester, Patrick, a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists, embarked on a career in cathedral music as an organist and singer and, as a member of two professional choirs - Wells Cathedral Choir and the BBC Northern Singers - he has featured in numerous Radio 3 broadcasts and in many of the UK's most prestigious music festivals, including Aldeburgh, Chester, York and the Proms. He has worked with a number of leading orchestras in both choral and orchestral works, including the Halle, Britten Sinfonia, Camerata and English String Orchestra, and has directed period instrument performances of Bach and Handel from the keyboard with the English Haydn Orchestra, Orchestra of the Golden Age and His Majesty's Sagbutts and Cornetts.

Through extensive experience as a voice coach, singing tutor and workshop leader, especially working with young voices, he has encouraged singers to be confident with their voices and simply to enjoy the art of singing and making music together.

Patrick's compositions encompass a number of styles including choral, orchestral, instrumental, theatre and advertising.and a number of his choral and vocal works have been recorded on CD, broadcast on radio and performed widely throughout the UK, in Europe and in America. BFCS performed A Girl for the Blue in their summer concert in Malvern Priory in 2006 and on their tour of Slovenia, and gave the first performance of Canticles of Light in Coventry Cathedral in July 2007. The larger scale A Mass of a Thousand Ages is part of this season's concert programme. Patrick is presently working on In Praise of Music - a new choral work celebrating the 150th anniversary of Ludlow Choral Society which will receive its first performance in June 2009.

Patrick has his own personal website - Patrick Larley