Brett became our regular accompanist in September 2015. He had accompanied the choir prior to that date on a few occasions but when he took early retirement from Modern Foreign Languages teaching, our Director at the time Carol Gedye (with whom Brett had worked for a numbers of years through St. Mary’s Church) asked him to join us on a regular basis.
Throughout his teaching career Brett played the piano for school musicals and choirs. He began playing the piano at the age of ten and has continued to play as a hobby, choosing not to take any grade exams. Since moving to North Yorkshire in 1990 he has accompanied a wide variety of local singing groups and soloists.
In addition to playing for the WAGS, Brett is also the regular accompanist for the Richmond Station Singers and plays once a month for the Sunday morning service at St. Mary’s Church.
In December 2017 he received the honour of the Investor in Richmond Award from the Mayor of Richmond, on behalf of Richmond Town Council, in recognition of services to the community through his contribution to musical ensembles and events.
Brett enjoys playing the more popular-style repertoire of the WAGS choir and is still getting used to being the only man in the room!