Our Conductor

Gwyn Arch loves choirs. He has conducted the SCCS for over 40 years and also conducts the Reading Male Voice Choir which he formed in 1971.  Gwyn conducted at the Royal Albert Hall four years ago.  In 2006 he was awarded an MBE for his services to music in Berkshire.

Surprisingly, Gwyn's first career choice was not music. After studying English at Cambridge and education at Oxford, he started work as an English teacher. His talent for music was revealed through school drama and musicals - and when he could not find suitable music to perform with his pupils, he wrote his own. At the same time he studied composition in a part-time way, leading to a Fellowship of Trinity College and an LRAM. His ability to draw music out of people led to his appointment, with virtually no previous experience in the teaching of music, as the Director of Music at Bulmershe College of Higher Education, Reading in 1964. Here, he formed the Bulmershe Girls Choir. The choir achieved success at international level and toured extensively in many parts of the world. They represented the UK seven times in the international rounds of the BBC choral competition Let the People Sing.

Since retiring from his post at Bulmershe, Gwyn has continued to be actively involved with choirs in Berkshire. Four years ago he conducted 850 primary school children in an ‘environmental’ Musical at the Royal Albert Hall. A lately-developed interest in choral arranging has led  to 150 of his arrangements being published by Faber Music in the last ten years – music for youth choirs and upper voice groups, and including 17 of the 40 arrangements in the highly-successful Faber Carol Book.  He also contributes substantially to the catalogue of a leading Austrian publisher. Unsurprisingly, many SCCS concerts feature his work.

In addition to all this, Gwyn keeps busy adjudicating at music festivals and playing piano in a Dixieland jazz band.

His Male Voice choir pieces are featured on their own web site at Grove Music.