CHRISTOPHER BAYSTON
CHRISTOPHER BAYSTON became Musical Director
of the Bishops Stortford Choral Society in September 2004.
Since then the membership has more than doubled and more
than 50 patrons are in sponsorship of what is now a very
lively choir.
In 2000 he and his wife Ashley moved to Hatfield Heath after
35 years on the resident music staff of Eton College, during
which he conducted every musical ensemble except the military
band. In his last years there he became Deputy Director of
Music. This period saw Eton’s music emerge from tentative
obscurity to become one of the school’s most successful and
glittering activities.
Educated as a chorister at Canterbury Cathedral and later
at the King’s School, Canterbury, he went on to read music
at Christ’s College, Cambridge and to study as a bass-baritone
soloist under Audrey Langford in London and Gunter Weissenborn
at the Mozarteum, Salzburg. He also became ARCO and worked
as an examiner for the Associated Board for 20 years.
His approach to choral training is driven by the insistence
that no-one is incapable of learning to read music and he takes
enormous care in the early stages of preparing a performance
to work on accuracy and understanding of musical and textual
detail. From then on he moves from the keyboard to the conducting
rostrum and starts the process of engaging his singers as a
performing team. With a life-long experience of singing ,
Christopher has a fund of useful advice on technique, expression
and ,above all, the fun of communicating with an audience.
He also delights in getting the most out of the choir’s visiting
soloists and orchestra, many of whom are mature students at
the Royal College of Music.