Bill Brooks

Bill was born in Hornchurch and made his early conducting debut at the age of 7 when he conducted the Suttons Infant School Percussion Band at the Hornchurch Infant Schools Music Festival. After primary school he attended Hornchurch Grammar School and began studying the ‘cello with Sylvia Mann. At 18 he attended the Royal College of Music where he studied under Joan Dickson and Anna Shuttleworth. He graduated in 1970, and after a post graduate teaching course at Bretton Hall, had a lengthy teaching career in Havering and Essex.

He conducted the Havering Youth Training Orchestra for five years, and from 1981 – 92 conducted the Upminster Bach Society, performing many of the major works of the Choral repertoire including the Verdi ‘Requiem’, and ‘The Dream of Gerontius’. He has conducted the Havering Concert Orchestra since 2005 and is Musical Director of St. Andrew’s, Hornchurch.