Paul Ayres is a freelance musician, working in and around London, UK.

As composer & arranger, mainly of vocal, choral and theatre music, Paul has had many works commissioned, performed and published. Use the links above to search the catalogue, view sample scores, listen to sound files and recordings, and check out forthcoming performances of his music.

As choral conductor & musical director, Paul has worked with many groups - new music ensembles, choral societies, schools, church choirs, youth theatres, children's music workshops... Use the links above to read his CV and to find out about his choirs and their concert diaries.

As organist & accompanist, Paul has given concerts and recitals throughout the world. Use the links above to order CDs, view repertoire, book him for a concert or discover where to hear him perform live.

Paul has led many music education projects, in various roles as composer, conductor, workshop leader, facilitator, and so on. Click this link: music education for more details.

Below you will find three "standard biographies", which may be used for concert programmes, publicity material, etc. Updated February 2007. Please use these paragraphs without further editing. If you need a biography of a different length, or one which concentrates on a particular area of work, please contact Paul directly.

[short]

Paul Ayres studied music at Oxford University, and now works freelance as a composer & arranger, choral conductor & musical director, and organist & accompanist. His compositions usually involve words – solo songs, choral pieces, incidental music – and he works with many choirs and theatre groups. Paul is conductor of the London College of Music Chamber Choir, the National Westminster City Chorus, and the Walbrook Singers, and he has given many solo organ recitals throughout the world. Please visit www.paulayres.co.uk to find out more.

[medium]

Paul Ayres was born in London, studied music at Oxford University, and now works freelance as a composer & arranger, choral conductor & musical director, and organist & accompanist. His compositions usually involve words – solo songs, choral pieces, music for theatre productions – and he is particularly interested in working with pre-existing music, from arrangements of folksongs, hymns, jazz standards and nursery rhymes to ‘re-compositions’ of classical works, as in Purcell’s Funeral Sentence, 4A Wreck and Messyah. Recent commissions include When you see millions of the mouthless dead for the BBC Singers, Artemisia for solo voice & strings, Brethren for men’s voices and a setting of Pablo Neruda’s poetry in Spanish and English for Seattle choir The Esoterics. Paul is conductor of the London College of Music Chamber Choir, the National Westminster City Chorus, and the Walbrook Singers; he leads education workshops for children, plays piano for improvised comedy shows and has given many solo organ recitals in the UK, Scandinavia, Europe, North America and Australia.
Please visit www.paulayres.co.uk to find out more.

[long (and more informal)]

Paul Ayres was born in the suburbs of London, where his first teachers included Margrit Kensbock (piano) and John Miley (choirmaster at St Giles’ Church Ickenham, where Paul sang in the choir and later played the organ). He studied music at Oxford University (as organ scholar of Merton College), and ever since graduating with First-Class Honours in 1991 he has worked freelance as a composer & arranger, choral conductor & musical director, and organist & accompanist. He lives in west London with his wife Ruthie, son Arthur and (“for I will consider my”) cat Jeffrey.

His compositions usually involve words – solo songs, choral pieces, music for theatre productions – and he is particularly interested in working with pre-existing music, from arrangements of folksongs, hymns, jazz standards and nursery rhymes to ‘re-compositions’ of classical works, as in Purcell’s Funeral Sentence, 4A Wreck and Messyah. Paul was a finalist in the very first BBC Young Composer of the Year competition, his children’s opera The Stolen Moon was shortlisted for the British Composer Awards in 2005, and he won the international award in the Esoterics (Seattle) Polyphonos Composition Competition in 2006. His music has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3, Classic FM and BBC2, and performed by many groups throughout the world. Recent commissions include When you see millions of the mouthless dead for the BBC Singers, Artemisia for solo voice & strings, Brethren for men’s voices and a setting of Pablo Neruda’s poetry in Spanish and English for Seattle choir The Esoterics.

Paul has worked as director of music at St Peter's Church Ealing, assistant director of music at St George’s Church Hanover Square, conductor of Ealing Youth Choir, Jubilate Women's Choir and Hanwell Children's Choir, and accompanist for Harlow Chorus and for the London Pro Arte Choir. He is currently conductor of the Walbrook Singers, the London College of Music Chamber Choir and the National Westminster City Chorus, and associate accompanist of Crouch End Festival Chorus. Paul has accompanied cabaret singers and played for improvised comedy shows at many venues in London and Edinburgh, and has been musical director for various youth theatre shows and school productions. He has given solo organ recitals at St Paul’s Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, St Thomas’s Fifth Avenue, Washington National Cathedral and throughout the UK, Scandinavia, North America and Australia. Paul has led education workshops for Handel House Museum, Foundling Museum, the Yorke Trust and for many primary and secondary schools.

Some of his more unusual gigs have included accompanying a chorister singing Meatloaf's 'Bat out of Hell' (for BBC2’s Even Further Abroad with Jonathan Meades); arranging ‘That’s Amore’ for string quartet (for Mark and Spencer’s promotional campaign); singing/conducting ‘I predict a riot’ in madrigal style to inebriated revellers in the West End (promotion for Bacardi) and playing ‘Happy Hardcore’ (1990s dance music sub-genre) tracks on pipe organ in Norwich, Valere-Sion (Switzerland), Brighton, Dublin and London in connection with exhibitions by Beck’s Futures Award-winning artist Matt Stokes.

Please visit www.paulayres.co.uk to find out more.