Meet The GHO Team
Composer
Christopher Wood
Christopher Wood was born in Stoke-on-Trent. While still at school he co-founded The Blythe Spirits, a group that played on the working men’s clubs circuit in The Potteries in the “Beat Boom” years of the mid 60s. This developed an interest in songwriting and later, instrumental composition and led to private lessons with Neil Wade in Manchester. He then studied composition as a Gasthörer (guest student) at the Musikhochschule, in Graz, Austria, where he studied in the Jazz Abteilung with Dieter Glawischnig and with classical composer Waldemar Bloch. After returning to the UK in 1976 he moved to Sutton, south London where he continued private lessons with jazz composer Herman Wilson. He wrote and arranged for Guest House, his own ten-piece, jazz-influenced ensemble, from 1978-81; his first published pieces were his Quartet for Brass (1977); the jazz ballad Sad Old Sunday (1982) and Fragments from a Shattered Dream for brass…
Soloists
Tonia Szkurhan
Canadian singer Tonia Szkurhan has sung a second song penned by Chris Wood on camera at the Il…
Akiko Enomoto
Award-winning mezzo-soprano, Akiko Enomoto studied under Prof Ryosuke Hatanaka. After graduation from the Kunitachi College of Music in…
Margaret Cooper
Margaret Cooper (soprano) is a graduate of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where she studied as…
Lynn Marie Boudreau
British-born Canadian soprano Lynn Marie Boudreau studied in Toronto at York University, The Royal Conservatory of Music and…
Timothy Tomkins
Timothy Tomkins (bass/baritone) hails from Shropshire and is a graduate in Theology & Religious Studies at Leeds University.It…
Randolph Grant Nichol
Canadian tenor Randolph Grant Nichol graduated from Ryerson University, Toronto, before going on to study at the Manhattan…
Frances Denney
Soprano Frances Denney comes from Oakham in Rutland. She has been part of the Stamford Shakespeare Company -…
Paddy Cockshutt
Paddy Cockshutt (tenor/high baritone) is a graduate of Surrey University, where he studied conducting with Richard Stangroom. His…
Spiro Fernando
After completing his Masters in Philosophy at the LSE, bass/baritone Spiro Fernando decided to pursue his love of…
Rhys Bowden
Born in London, tenor Rhys Bowden studied for a degree in music at Girton College, Cambridge. Subsequently, he…
Carolyn Burnley
Carolyn Burnley (mezzo soprano) started her musical life as an instrumentalist winning a scholarship to Trinity College of…
Jean Picton-Bentley
Jean has been a part of the GHO team from the beginning. She was in the cast when…
Musicians
John Collis
John studied music at the University of Reading. In London, he has been an accompanist…
Christina Ward
Carshalton Beeches-based pianist Christina Ward began her career as accompanist to the London Philharmonic Choir…