A life in music

Musician James Lloyd Thomas talks to Julia Thorley about what the future might hold for choral music in Northamptonshire

James Lloyd Thomas has devoted his life to music.

James Lloyd Thomas was director of music in a parish church in Weymouth, but when the church closed down he found himself out of a permanent job. The county’s celebrity vicar Reverend Richard Coles heard him playing and approached him to be the organist in his church in Finedon, which led to a move to the county. He’s been here ever since.

He is now musical director of Camerata Singers, a four-part mixed choir based in Kettering. There are several choirs in the town, but Camerata Singers is the only one performing choral music by a range of classical and contemporary composers. However James says recruiting new members is a challenge, not just due to competition from other choirs, but also because the pool of people who are familiar with this style of singing and who are able to read music is getting smaller. The lack of opportunity for choral singers is something of a concern for James.

“Camerata Singers is a music-centred choir. There still seems to be a tradition of ladies singing together, but I think they’ve metamorphosised into things like the Military Wives. Sometimes they get in touch and say, ‘We just use the tapes that Gareth [Malone] has done, but we’d like to rehearse with a real pianist. Can you come along and play?’”

He thinks the shift could in part stem from how music is taught in schools.

“Schools might say they have a choir, but what they really mean is they’re a gospel choir, or there’s a lot of singing in unison of Abba arrangements, but nobody sings mainstream choral repertoire from the last century. It all seems to have happened in a blink. When I was at Kingston Grammar School, I made the whole school sing the Bach B minor mass and in the end we had a professional orchestra and soloists and we went to St Martin’s in Epsom, a huge church, and we did a really good performance of the whole three-hour piece.”

Over the course of his career, West Midlands born James, who as a schoolboy was awarded the junior organ scholarship at Birmingham Conservatoire, has built up much experience as an organist, teacher and choral and orchestral director. He has given recitals in most British cathedrals and major parish churches, been a finalist in international competitions and made numerous recordings. He holds fellowships from Trinity College London and the Royal College of Organists, as well as a Licentiate in Teaching from the Royal Academy of Music.

“Historically, if you’re the organist anywhere you get asked to run choirs and choral societies. The roles traditionally go hand in hand, but that’s changing. More and more people are training as choral conductors and there are MAs in choral conducting now. I’ve always thought that being a conductor was all about musical nous and having a bit of charisma. I see people doing all sorts of fancy things with choirs, but my view is that you can either do it or you can’t – but that’s probably very old school.”

Many churches are turning away from traditional organ music, so it’s perhaps understandable that players are becoming what James calls ‘concert organists’.

“Some give recitals and play in town halls and in big venues such as Birmingham Symphony Hall and don’t necessarily hold a church job. It’s losing its ties with the church a bit. Two out of three churches, even locally, won’t have an organ – or will have one but hardly ever use it. They have pop groups and guitars and singalong karaoke CDs. So the route that people go down is they have a digital organ – known in the business as a toaster – and they wheel it out for funerals and weddings and the occasional traditional hymn, but in general they’ll have a band playing and be very happy-clappy. Yet churches know that if they let their choir go they’ll never regain it.

“When I was a boy in the West Midlands, our quite small parish church had a choir of 30 or 40 people, of whom 15 or so would be boys – no girls in the choir – and we would sing slightly dumbed-down cathedral style. At the highest level it’s still amazing – places like St Paul’s and Westminster Abbey, and their cathedral schools – but at the lower levels it is dying out. Even round here, it’s quite a struggle. I’ve just been appointed at Stony Stratford and it’s quite an unassuming church, but it’s got lovely acoustics and quite high musical aspirations and they maintain a choir of about 25 – and these are people who know how to sing and don’t just want to sing the tune.”

The Camereta Singers (with a previous conductor).

Camerata Singers are currently rehearsing for a concert on December 15, which will be held in the parish church of St Peter and St Paul. They will be singing two versions of the Magnificat, one by Rutter and one by Pergolesi, as well as some Christmas music.

“I have a vast amount of repertoire in my head, I’ve been doing it for 40 years or so, and I listen to new music and send for new compositions, but what some amateur choirs find difficult about more contemporary music is that it can be mildly discordant and not like ‘normal’ choral music. Generally I pick things I’ve come across or done before, things I think will work – for instance, for Camerata’s December concert, I thought we don’t want to do a programme of just Christmas music, because everyone does that, but Magnificat – that’s Christmassy.”

James says he and the choir would be delighted if newcomers wanted to join Camerata Singers.

“My wife Lizzie [a professional harpist] says I can be a bit Tiggerish. Apparently this can make me seem formidable, but actually I’m happy to stand back to encourage and enable people.”

To contact James, email: jlt0031@gmail.com To join Camerata Singers visit the website