We are thrilled to announce the newest member of BYC's excellent Musical Director Team.
Raised in Manchester, Sam graduated with a degree in Music from University of York in 2018 with first-class honours and is currently building a career as a freelance singer and conductor. Whilst at university, he regularly sang with chamber choir The 24 (directed by Robert Hollingworth) which has led to various collaborations with professional vocal ensemble I Fagiolini in performance and recording on their 2017 album ‘Monteverdi: The Other Vespers’. He was also a baritone and musical director for the university a cappella ensemble Vox. Sam has taken part in the choral singing training programme Genesis Sixteen and was a member of the 2018/19 National Youth Choir of Great Britain Fellowship Octet. In addition to choral singing, Sam has many theatre, musical theatre and opera performance credits to his name including: Baker (Into the Woods), Cosmo (Singin’ in the Rain), Posner (The History Boys), Mr Gedge (Albert Herring), Boris (Paradise Moscow) and Javert (Les Misérables). He is also the current musical director for Chapel-en-le-Frith Ladies Choir, Manchester Glee and the Change Grow Live Manchester branch service user choir Phoenix Rising and is part of the Hallé’s pool of conductors for their corporate choirs.
Mat Wright, Artistic Director of BYC, said, "Sam is a huge talent and joins an outstanding team of talented and highly committed musical leaders. BYC is dedicated to providing our young people with opportunities to work with the very best musicians and Sam has an outstanding pedigree as a singer. He is also a very talented choral director and arranger and will have a huge impact on the young people he will work with. We are thrilled to welcome Sam to the BYC family."
Sam is the third member of the revered NYCGB Fellowship programme, which carefully selects the 8 most outstanding young singers in GB each year, to join BYC following the appointments of Luke Mather in 2016 and Sarah Lucy Penny in 2018. He will focus primarily on working with the Intermediate and Senior Choirs initially.
