Richard Walshaw

Born in 1957, Richard was a music scholar at Shrewbury School, and an organ scholar at the University of Durham. He taught music, culminating in 22 years as Director of Music at The Judd School in Tonbridge, followed by 7 in semi-retirement, as accompanist for Kent College in Pembury. Going part-time in the 1980s allowed him to study for the degree of M.Mus at University of Surrey. Soon afterwards he won a major composing competition; his work later being published by Oxford University Press, and part of it was broadcast on Radio 3 by the BBC Singers.

Richard has conducted many choral and orchestral works, both in schools and with choral societies. He has also directed one of Kent’s youth choirs, Sussex-based chamber choir The Ashdown Singers, church choirs and also had a long period as MD of The Royal Tunbridge Wells Orpheus Male Voice Choir. Both the Judd School and the Orpheus choir went on musical tours in Europe. Highlights include choral and orchestral concerts in France, Belgium and Germany, and directing the choir for Last Post ceremonies under the Menin Gate in Ypres. In England, his most ambitious enterprises have led to conducting items in concerts at The Barbican, Fairfield Hall and on the Glyndebourne stage. In Kent he was much in demand as both accompanist and continuo player, and frequently played organ for services by visiting choirs in cathedrals, including Winchester. Since moving to Hampshire just before national lockdown, to support his wife Caroline in her ordained ministry in the Benefice of Northanger, he has found a volunteering role with the charity Christians Against Poverty. During the autumn term of 2021, he filled a vacancy as interim accompanist for Southampton Choral Society, and is actively seeking more work in this field. He joined Cantique as Musical Director in early 2022. In his spare time, Richard enjoys walking and cycling, is interested in architecture, and plays viola recreationally.