Musician...

I play just about anything with a keyboard on it, and am also a singer.
After many years based in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, I now live in Whittlesey, Cambridgeshire, six miles east of Peterborough.

Solo Organist
I was organist of Wesley Methodist Church, Leigh-on-Sea, Essex from 1978 to 2018. I moved to Cambridgeshire in 2019 and played in a variety of churches during that year. In late 2019 I became organist of St Oswald's, Peterborough, and from 2021 play both there and at St Mary's, Whittlesey. I am available to play for church services (Sunday mornings are the exception, but I often have one Sunday a month off) weddings, funerals, baptisms and other special services, and for recitals.

Wedding Services
I have been playing regularly as a wedding organist for over 40 years.
Your special day can be greatly enhanced by the right choice of music and hymns. I will be pleased to help you with this as well as for playing for you on the day.
I will travel within Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Northamptonshire, Rutland, Leicestershire, west Suffolk, east Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, north and east London, west and south Essex, or elsewhere by negotiation.
RSCM (Royal School of Church Music) fees are recommended, but I am usually happy to accept the local church's standard fees, plus travel expenses if it's more than about 10 miles away.
If you'd like a pianist at your reception, I can play classical / baroque pieces or light pieces such as George Gershwin / Cole Porter / Irving Berlin, or even accordion, as requested by one wedding couple, which proved very successful.
For general information about music and organists at weddings, I can't do better than point you at Philip Norman's page on that subject.

Pianist / Accompanist
I am an experienced accompanist (piano, organ and harpsichord) for voice and all solo instruments. I am available for recitals, concerts, lesson and festival accompaniment. I was an official accompanist for Leigh-on-Sea Musical Festival from 2004 to 2018 and Southend Music Festival from 2005 to 2018, and have also accompanied for festivals at Stratford, Basildon and Colchester. I am available for examination work. Up to 2018 I was playing for about 25 ABRSM and Trinity pupils each term in their Southend-on-Sea exam centres. I accompany all grades from 1 to 8 and have also accompanied a couple of diploma singers. I am available for playing at the Peterborough examination centre, or elsewhere by arrangement. I used to be a regular ballet accompanist and can still accompany RAD or ISTD exams if needed. For recitals and concerts, if no piano is available I can bring a portable Kawai ES100 piano and amplifier.
I have also accompanied many choral and operatic groups for concerts, at their weekly rehearsals and have occasionally appeared in the pit. Musicals I've accompanied for include West Side Story, Singin' in the Rain, Beauty and the Beast, My Fair Lady, Mame and many others.

Accordionist
I play accordion (and piano) with the renowned folk group, The Famous Potatoes. We've been going since 1979 and have done a huge number of barn dances - over 1200 of them - and lots of non-dancing gigs too, making about 2000 appearances in total in 44 years.
I do session work as an accordion soloist, including five Garth Hewitt albums: I occasionally play in his live band when he isn't appearing solo. I was also on the Peter Bellamy tribute album 'Oak, Ash and Thorn Project' (track 13, The Owl Service's 'King Henry VII and the Shipwrights') and have contributed to a few TV adverts.
I appeared for about 25 years as 'The Prof' with poet Paul Cookson at the Greenbelt Festival, when we presented 'The Twist' featuring a 'Challenge the Prof' section where three random tunes called out by the audience had to be seamlessly merged together. Also at Greenbelt, in 2014 I appeared with Marcus Hummon as part of the band for the main Sunday communion service.
I specialise in accordion playing of the folk / barn dance / ceilidh / English / Irish / American / Cajun tradition, but with the random tune generation of 'The Twist' this style can extend in any one of a number of directions!

Harpsichordist / Organ Accompaniment
I love playing continuo on harpsichord or organ, and don't get enough opportunity to do it. I have, however, accompanied Bach's St Matthew Passion with the Eastwood Chorale and a couple of Haydn Masses with the Billericay Choral Society and Southend Festival Chorus, and of course Handel's Messiah on many occasions. Other organ accompaniment with orchestras has included Mozart, Faure and Rutter Requiems, Haydn Creation, Schubert Magnificat, and several concerts of various pieces. I've also arranged, and taken part in, concerts of early music with small groups of singers and instrumentalists. I have an easily transportable Roland C-30 digital harpsichord/chamber organ and a portable virginal (small harpsichord).

Singer
I also love to sing, and am bass in the Peterborough chamber choir St Peter's Singers, appearing on their 2019 album A Rose E'er Blooming - Christmas Carols from Fotheringhay, as well as singing in quite a different style with The Famous Potatoes. As a bass I've sung in Tallis's Spem in alium, Bach's Lobet den Herrn and Jesu meine Freude, Handel's Dixit Dominus, innumerable madrigals and partsongs, and most of the standard oratorio and choral repertoire. If you're short of a singer at the last minute I may well be able to help.

Teaching?
One of the most common questions I'm asked is 'so what instruments do you teach?' The answer is that I don't. I am very happy to accompany singers or instrumentalists who are coming up to a concert or audition and to work alongside them for whatever they need for this (see 'Repetiteur' in Wikipedia). But teaching? No. Sorry!

Contact: paul.mcdowell@sky.com or telephone 07790 061381 or 01733 350088
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Page last updated 30 July 2023