Former Conductors

Walter Deakin:1958-1981

Keith Williams: 1981-1982
Keith was born in London in 1956. He studied with John York and Cimbro Martin at the Guildhall School of Music and privately with John Bigg, before going to York University, where he studied conducting and piano.  He worked as Graham Treacher’s assistant wit the University orchestra and Huddersfield Choral Society.  He made his debut recording for EMI whilst a second year student. He went on to study in Milan with Bruno Canino and, since returning, has worked as a freelance pianist, conductor and lecturer.  Performances as a pianist have included appearances at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, at Universities at Exeter,Birmingham, Keele, Southampton and Norwich; at Arts Centres in Durham, Kings Lynn, York and Cardiff and at music clubs all over the country. As a conductor he directed Monteverdi’s Orfeo with Nigel Rogers in the title role, conducted two performances of the Brahms Requiem with the New Symphony Orchestra and made his TV debut on the BBC with the Epworth Choir.

John Chapman: 1982-1989
John Chapman had extensive experience working with choirs. Whilst Musical Director of the Epworth Choir he was also directing the music at the Westminster Central Hall, as well as working with two student choirs at the London College of Music, where he was the Registrar.
After leaving the Royal Academy of Music, he spent a period of time mostly conducting opera and operetta. For five years he trained all new singers who joined the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company and, as a consequence, had a very specialised knowledge of Gilbert and Sullivan operas. Whilst with the Epworth Choir, his chief interest was religious music.  He had very strong convictions as to the place of the choir in worship and was a great believer in its ability to enhance the atmosphere and meaning of the service.

Grace Wright: 1989-1995
Grace graduated in Music at Durham University and combined a teaching career with choral singing and conducting. She had spent most of her life working with choirs in Yorkshire, Cheshire and, since 1972, in Surrey. Grace had been Musical Director of a number of local operatic productions and was closely involved in the musical activities of schools, youth organisations and churches in the Woking area. Grace was Assistant Conductor of the Epworth Choir for four years before being appointed Musical Director in 1989

Peter Heming MVO 1995- 2004
Conductor, composer and former Musical Director to Her Majesty the Queen and the Royal Family aboard the Royal Yacht Britannia, Peter was born in Nottingham and studied composition, orchestration and conducting at the Royal Academy of Music, London. He appeared in concert with such music ‘tours de force’ as the Huddersfield Choral Society, Portsmouth Philharmonic Orchestra, Guildford Philharmonic, Atherstone Choral Society, London show Orchestra, Treorchy, Risca, Bolsterstone and Ystradgynais Male voice Choirs and Chichester Cathedral Choir at major venues throughout the UK, including the Royal Albert Hall.
Peter recorded for both radio and television – Friday night is music night, BBC radio 2’s festival of light music and songs of praise.  He had also composed over 100 songs, two musical plays and many orchestrations and collaborated with the author Carl Groves to write Trafalgar- the Nelson Story, a musical play based on the life of Admiral lord Nelson.
During Epworth’s Ruby Anniversary season of concerts, Peter conducted a performance of Verdi Requiem at Guildford Cathedral.

Neil Ferris November 2004 to April 2009
Neil graduated from Royal Holloway University of London in 1998 where he specialised in performance and in 2003 gained a Master's degree in Performance Studies at the Royal College of Music, where he specialised in choral conducting.
As a violinist Neil studied with Pearl Mace, Judith Young and ultimately Julian Cummings and was awarded an ARCM in violin performing in 1997. He has been conductor of the Royal Holloway Chamber Orchestra since 1999 and has made guest appearances with Midland Sinfonia and the City of Southampton Orchestra.

Neil is now in demand as a choral animateur and workshop leader; he has taught conducting at the University of Southampton, is a visiting teacher on the 'Choral Music in Education' Masters programme at Roehampton University and has given Masterclasses with the Royal Holloway Chamber Choir since 2004. He has been a choir trainer at the Royal College of Music Junior Dept. since September 2005.

Neil was appointed Musical Director of the Epworth Choir in 2004 and left us in April 2009 to take up the position of Music Director with Wimbledon Choral Society later in 2009. He is also Musical Director of Concordia Voices and Assistant Conductor for the award-winning choir, Joyful Company of Singers. In 2005 Neil was invited to be Guest Conductor of the Chorus of Filarmonica Arad, Romania, a post he returned to in 2006. In April 2006 Neil was appointed Musical Director of Cardiff Polyphonic Choir and in June and July of that year he prepared them for concerts with the BBC National Orchetra of Wales under Richard Hickox and the London Mozart Players under Owain Arwel Hughes.

Neil is fortunate to have benefited from the expertise of Paul Spicer at the RCM and has studied at the Canford Summer School of Music conducting course under George Hurst. As a result of the BBC Singers Conductor Fellowship Auditions in 2004 he was awarded a masterclass with the BBC Singers and it's Chief Conductor, Stephen Cleobury.

The choir will always be greatly indebted to Neil for his professional leadership and dedication which has resulted in many first class performances including Mendelssohn Elijah, Duruflé Requiem, Haydn Creation, Verdi Requiem, Orff Carmina Burana and culminating with Handel Messiah.

Alexander Chaplin - Acting Music Director May 2009 to Dec 2009

Alex first appeared at Epworth as a very talented accompanist. None of us were aware of his enormous talent as a conductor and motivator until he stood in for Neil Ferris who took a Sabbatical for a few months. The choir just loved Alex from that moment on and when the post of MD became vacant we thought so much of him that we offered him the permanent role of MD for Epworth immediately. Unfortunately for us, Alex lives at the diametrically opposite side of London from Woking, and is also extremely busy and we can see why. Anyone who gets Alex as their MD is a very lucky choir indeed. Enough praise! On to his very understated personal profile.. believe us when we say, he is far far better than this profile.

Educated as a chorister at Canterbury Cathedral, he held the organ scholarships at Lincoln Cathedral and Lincoln College, Oxford, where he read Music, before studying conducting and organ at the Royal College of Music under Neil Thomson, Edwin Roxburgh and Nicholas Danby; he participated in masterclasses with George Hurst, Paul Goodwin and Sir Peter Maxwell-Davies. He graduated from the RCM with distinction and as a major prize-winner. In February 2008 Alexander was invited to participate in a competitive masterclass in St Petersburg with Alexander Polishchuk, from which he emerged as one of the prizewinning conductors. Alexander has been appointed Music Director of East London Chorus from April 2009.

Alexander is also Musical Director of Wokingham Choral Society and of Guy's, King's and St Thomas' Hospitals Music Society, a lecturer at Morley College, London and accompanist for Concordia Voices.  In the summer of 2008 Alexander was Musical Director for Figaro Opera's production of Madame Butterfly at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, and he is also in demand as an animateur and workshop leader, recently working with the Can’t Sing choirs at Morley College, and leading a choral workshop in Tynset, Norway.