The People of Kidderminster Choral Society

Geoff was appointed Musical Director of KCS in 1987.  In 1997 he established our youth choir, Wyre Forest Young Voices and was their Musical Director for 25 years. He also conducts the St. Michael’s Chamber Choir, based in Wolverhampton.

Geoff was the Director of Outreach for the Royal School of Church Music until 2002, and he continues to work for them and for many other organisations on a freelance basis.

He presently undertakes numerous teaching and conducting engagements at home and abroad including Nigeria, the USA, Hong Kong, Australia, Canada, Kenya, Poland, Cyprus, the Philippines and Estonia.

Naomi’s decision to pursue a profession in music was due to her experiences, training and support she received as a member of WFYV. Now an alumna, she is a recent graduate of Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. During this time, Naomi won the Anna Mansell cup for outstanding achievement, the Leamington music prize, two time winner of the Corton Hyde Early Music prize as well as being a finalist for the Town Hall Symphony Hall prize with her consort, The Brindley Consort.

Naomi has enjoyed being a member of Genesis Sixteen and working with ExCathedra. She has worked with conductors including Harry Christophers CBE, Jeffrey Skidmore OBE and has undertaken masterclasses with Michael Chance, Andrew King and Roderick Williams. Solo performances include the London premiere of Oliver Tarney’s Magnificat and Mozart’s Coronation Mass in Cadogan Hall, Will Todd’s Jazz Mass World Premiere, and ExCathedra’s St Lucia service. Opera roles have included Susannah in the Marriage of Figaro, Galatea in Acis and Galatea and Belinda in Dido and Aeneas.

Carol, who comes from Lincolnshire, took her degree in Modern Language Studies at Leicester University and a PGCEC in Primary and Middle School Music at Bulmershe College, Reading.

Since then she has taught at Windmill Middle School, Stourport, The Knoll School, Kidderminster and  Heathfield Knoll School Wolverley where she taught Primary Music and French.  She now works as a peripatetic teacher, teaching piano in Holy Trinity School and piano and choral singing at Heathfield Knoll School.  She also conducts the local ecumenical choir ‘New Life Together’ and sings with Kidderminster Choral Society.

Mike Elden was brought up in Yorkshire. He was a Junior Exhibitioner at the Royal Northern College of Music, before going on to study at the Royal College of Music in London. Having studied as a post-graduate at Bretton Hall, a part of the University of Leeds, he moved to Shropshire to teach music in one of the Bridgnorth high schools.

It was with colleagues from school that he joined the Kidderminster Choral Society in 1975 and sang in the bass section until becoming the accompanist in 1981. He also accompanied the Wyre Forest Young Voices from its beginning until 2015.

Alongside teaching and accompanying these choirs, Mike has worked with singers and their teachers, and with instrumentalists in both exams and performances. For many years he has been an official accompanist for the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dance, helping take their potential teachers through their senior diplomas. Locally he has worked in theatres and enjoyed playing in the orchestras for many musicals. Throughout all this he has played the organ and piano in many churches for regular services, weddings and funerals, which he continues to do around the area.

Charlotte primarily teaches piano, organ and electronic keyboard through her own extensive practice in South Birmingham.  Along with her teaching role at St. Jon’s Middle School in Bromsgrove, she is also choral and instrumental accompanist at RGS Dodderhill in Droitwich, supporting young people’s musical development and building their confidence as performers.  She has performed in various venues throughout the UK and Europe as both a soloist and accompanist.  Her achievements include winning Bromsgrove Music School Festival as the youngest in her category, placing third in the National Electronic Organ Championships and performing at the ICC, Birmingham and recently Orléans Cathedral. When not playing the piano, Charlotte is kept very busy with her two young children.

Rachel’s musical journey started with learning the recorder at the age of 6. This led to clarinet, then saxophone, alongside a love of keyboard, piano and organ. 

Caroline Lee has been recently appointed as Chair of Kidderminster Choral Society.  Her family has a long tradition with the Society. Her father John Gaston is the current President and both her children have sung with WFYV and are now Alumni members.  Caroline originally trained in law and then moved to teaching and is now a primary teacher in Worcester.  She has been a long-standing member of the Society and is passionate about singing and music.