Short biographies
- Dan Rootham MA (Cantab), FVCM Website Editor
Dan is the grandson of Cyril Rootham, and although he never met CBR he spent happy times in his childhood with his grandmother (CBR's widow Rosamond). Much of the personal detail about CBR which will appear on this website originates from Dan's conversations over many years with his grandmother and with his father Jasper.
An amateur musician, Dan played CBR's Flute Suite in Three Movements at a school concert in 1964 and later sang bass in the chorus at performances of CBR's works "The Lady of Shalott" in 1999 and "For the Fallen" in 2011 and 2014. He also attended the recording of CBR's First Symphony by Vernon Handley and the rehearsals for the BBC broadcast of CBR's "Ode on the Morning of Christ's Nativity".
After a degree in Modern Languages & Economics, Dan initially worked in export sales - travelling to over 40 countries. After a career switch in 1985, Dan earned a living as a software engineer until retirement in 2017.
- Rupert Bond M Mus Musical Adviser
Rupert Bond is a conductor, composer, and educator. He believes passionately in the importance of sharing music with others, particularly the young - both performer and listener alike - and adheres passionately to Gustav Mahler's belief that "In each performance a work must be reborn".
After a B.Mus at London University he pursued his conducting studies at the Royal Academy of Music. He has enjoyed considerable success as a conductor with groups from small chamber ensembles to 100-player symphony orchestras, most notably with the Docklands Sinfonietta which he originally founded in 1989. Rupert was made an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1999 for his services to music.
Rupert has conducted many semi-professional, community and amateur orchestras in the UK and New Zealand, including the Auckland Philharmonia and Christchurch Symphony Orchestras, the Christchurch Youth Orchestra, the Dartford Symphony Orchestra, the European Doctors Orchestra, the James Allen's Community Orchestra, the Esterhazy Singers, the Hatcham String Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Swan, the Junior Trinity College Symphony Orchestra, and recently the Water City Orchestra.
- Alistair Jones MA (Cantab), ARAM Editorial Consultant
Alistair Jones's professional training began at the Royal Academy of Music in 1961 where he studied organ, piano and choral conducting. This was followed by 3 years as Organ Scholar at Trinity Hall, Cambridge where he became an organ student of Sir David Willcocks.
Alistair spent 15 years as a music teacher, followed by more than 20 years in the music industry where he specialised in the dissemination of the advantages of modern computer technology in music education. During all this time Alistair continued to work as a choral conductor, completing 30 years as MD of The Chiswick Choir.
As a composer Alistair has written 4 large scale choral works including A Prodigal Son and Stabat Mater, and 4 song cycles including Fables and The Year's Awakening (settings of Thomas Hardy). His recent interest in music editing resulted in a new edition of Parry's L'Allegro and Cyril Rootham's Septet for winds, harp and viola.
- Clay Price DMA Research Consultant
Clay W. Price has served as Director of Choral Activities at the State University of New York at Oswego, and the University of Rio Grande. In addition to directing various choral ensembles, he has taught courses in aural skills, choral methods, choral conducting, music history, and theory. Dr. Price holds degrees from Belmont University, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and the University of South Carolina.
He began his teaching career as an elementary and middle school music teacher in his hometown of Decatur, Alabama, and has directed middle and high school choral programs in both Charlotte and Lumberton, North Carolina, where his ensembles received regional acclaim.
Dr. Price is an active member of the American Choral Directors Association, and the Royal School of Church Music in America. When not doing things of a musical sort, he enjoys books on church history and theology, light comedy, cooking, opportunities to quote lines from The Princess Bride, and a good peanut butter sandwich.
- Anna Yuferova Typesetting Consultant
Anna is a professional musician who gained two diplomas with honours: in music theory (Zaporizhzhya Music College, 1994) and in composition (the Tchaikovsky National Music Academy, 1999).
She has over 15 years' experience as a teacher of music computer technologies and composition at the R.Glier Kyiv Institute of Music (Ukraine). Since 2002 she has headed the music technology section of the Institute.
Anna collaborates with Canadian, Estonian, German, Belgian and UK composers, performers and publishers, and has more than 10 years' experience in music engraving and typesetting. Her experience in music engraving and notation includes working with orchestral scores, piano and ensemble music, music survey results and tutorials with musical examples, solo pieces, cadenza and technical exercises.
- Sylvain Kuntzmann Typesetting Consultant
Sylvain is a composer, certified teacher of music theory and electroacoustic music, orchestrator, arranger, music engraver and copyist. He works for concert and stage : songs, musicals, electronic or instrumental music (harmony, symphony or chamber orchestras) and collaborates on multimedia projects or soundtracks. He regularly leads workshops on the open-source music notation program MuseScore.
Sylvain is a graduate of French music conservatories (music theory, piano, chamber music, harmony, analysis), obtained a laureate prize from Sacem, and is a master of musicology of the University of Lyon. His works are published by Editions Soldano, Delatour France and Prof-Editions.
Website: gplus.to/skuntzmann
- Mark Pearse Typesetting Consultant
Mark studied Maths at King's College, Cambridge. He worked for Ferranti on programming computers for submarines and took an MSc in Computer System Design at Manchester.
Later in his career Mark was a consultant for a small business writing database systems. Mark once designed and programmed a microcontroller which animated squads of guards for a model of Buckingham Palace.
A life-long amateur pianist and cellist, for several years Mark used Sibelius to typeset music for his partner (who is a professional organist). But he recently switched to Musescore and is now a regular contributor to the OpenScore project.
- Sam Wansborough BMus (Tonmeister) (Hons) Audio Consultant
Sam Wansborough has extensive experience as an audio engineer and dubbing mixer, specialising in broadcast. His wide musical and technical knowledge includes the prestigious Tonmeister degree in Music and Sound Recording and a sound engineering background in professional audio. He is also a keen and experienced musician who plays regularly. He went freelance in May 2015 and is now Director of Samsound Limited.
During his 16 years at ITV as a Dubbing Mixer, Sam worked on many well known television programmes, regularly mixed sport live-to-air and played a key role in the modernisation of the post production department and subsequent training.
Sam was classically trained from an early age, gaining an Advanced Certificate in Piano and Grade 8 in Oboe as well as singing with Tiffin Boys' Choir and St Mark's Choir, Surbiton. His degree in music broadened his tastes and as a musician Sam enjoys playing in a widely diverse range of styles. He regularly plays keyboards and bass guitar in a number of bands whose styles include folk, barn-dance, jazz fusion and rock.
What information is of interest?
We would really welcome any snippets about CBR including the following:
- Personal anecdotes and reminiscences
- Old newspaper cuttings
- Printed programmes of past concerts
- Unpublished off-air recordings
- Recordings of amateur performances
- Copies of out-of-print scores
- News of upcoming performances
- Ideas for this website
Getting in touch
Use our secure email
Please contact Dan Rootham on our secure Feedback page. And if you want to contact one of the other team members, you can also select "Forward to..." in the Subject field and your email will be forwarded.
