President

We are delighted that Alan Bullard has agreed to become the new President of South Chiltern Choral Society, following Stefan Hofkes' move to Spain.

Alan has composed many pieces for the choir including " Mister Lear" and " A Feast for Christmas". Most recently we sang his composition  "O Come Emmanuel"  for Christmas 2022.

He is also very well known within the music community and his works are recorded on CD by such ensembles as Selwyn College Choir, Kings College Choir, The Sixteen, and are regularly broadcast in the UK and the US.

Alan holds an ARCM from the Royal College of Music, a BMus from London University, an MA from Nottingham University and a DU (Honorary Doctorate) from Essex University.
 

Past Presidents

Stefan Hofkes - President 2022-2024

Stefan Hofkes is well known in Reading as he is the conductor of the Reading Symphony Orchestra.

Stefan was born in The Netherlands, where he studied piano and conducting at the Utrecht Conservatoire. He furthered his conducting studies at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, with Christopher Seaman, winning the Ricordi Conducting Prize in 1996.

After his studies Stefan received extensive coaching and support from Bernard Haitink, who invited him for a work-experience period at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden.

At present Stefan combines the Musical Directorship of Reading Symphony Orchestra and Bristol Concert Orchestra with engagements throughout Europe, with orchestras including the Transylvanian State Philharmonic, the Lisbon Metropolitan, the Maastricht Symphony, and the chamber orchestra Musica Ducis.

Even though Stefan is not a choir conductor, he has conducted many of the great choral works and operatic scores. Vocal music has always played a huge part in his life.

Richard Larkin, chairman of the South Chiltern Choral Society, commented that it is a great honour for the choir to have such a prominent international musician as our President, Stefan has now moved to Spain.


Gwyn Arch

SCCS Musical Director 1965 - 2014
SCCS President 2014-2021


Gwyn Arch, who died on 6th June, peacefully at home, brought endless musical pleasure, with his different choirs, to audiences near and far.

Gwyn was born in April 1931 in Southampton.  His father, Tom, was an ordained Missioner to the Deaf and Dumb; his mother, Laura, was a poet.  Gwyn’s earliest years were spent in Birmingham, with a brief period of wartime evacuation to Wales.  In 1939 the family moved to Suffolk, where Gwyn attended Ipswich School, and where he learned to play the piano and began to compose music. This stood him in good stead when he was called up for National Service in 1949. His piano playing was welcomed by his friends and proved to be a passport to as much free beer as he wanted!

In 1951 Gwyn went to Selwyn College Cambridge where he read English. He was pianist for the University Jazz Band, and started a dance band.  He then went to Wadham College Oxford to study to be an English teacher and here too became the pianist for the University Jazz Band.  It was at Oxford that he met Jane, whom he married in 1957. 

Gwyn’s first teaching job was at Rickmansworth Grammar School.  Here he was able to develop many of the skills that stood him well in later life.  He ran choirs, orchestras and bands, he gave piano lessons, and he took many pupils on trips across Europe.  He also wrote plays and musicals and achieved a considerable and national reputation.

Bulmershe, the new teacher training college in Reading, advertised for a Director of Music, and despite being an English teacher Gwyn’s application for the post was successful. So Gwyn and Jane and their two sons arrived in Sonning Common. He formed the internationally successful Bulmershe Girls’ Choir and he developed the major part of his musical output, which has been arrangements (over eight hundred) of music for choirs of different sizes, shapes and abilities.  Gwyn took very early retirement in 1985, which gave him time to continue some musical adventures that had begun at Bulmershe, including Reading Male Voice Choir and South Chiltern Choral Society and start some new ones, including Central Berkshire Girls’ Choir.

In 2006 Gwyn Arch was awarded the MBE for services to music.  Gwyn changed the way singing was taught in schools for everyone.  Singing in schools often consisted of nothing more than practising hymns and learning traditional unison tunes from The National Songbook. Gwyn inspired the student teachers he taught to share their love of music with their charges, as he did with them, and he composed and arranged songs, cantatas and musicals that children loved to sing.    Almost without knowing they learned to listen to one another and to sing in harmony.

Gwyn understood that making music was much more than following notes and words on a page.  He knew that making music collectively is one of life’s great pleasures and that choral singing can help singers, and listeners, through whatever twists and turns their life‘s journey takes. Gwyn’s choirs have raised thousands of pounds for different charities. Local audiences have been introduced to music of all styles and formats, thanks to Gwyn’s excellent arrangements and his ability to spot a new song or a new work that would give pleasure to singers and audiences alike. What other village choirs can ring the changes between Bach’s B Minor Mass and fabulous  arrangements of George Gershwin and Cole Porter, as South Chiltern Choral Society has done?  Reading Male Voice Choir gives concerts locally at least monthly and regularly tours Europe.

Most people will know David Arch, Gwyn and Jane’s older son, who is the band leader on Strictly Come Dancing.  Jonathan, their younger son is a skilled cellist, as is his daughter Lucy.  David’s son, Thomas, plays guitar in bands and his daughter Jessie works on the production side in television.  Jane, until recently, sang with the South Chiltern Choir.  They all survive Gwyn, whose music will live on for many years to come. Gwyn said once that he was so grateful, when talents were being handed out, that what he got was a talent for sharing music with others. And this, above all else, is exactly what he did.

Liz Harrison

Gwyn's final concert with South Chiltern Choral Society on 5 July 2014