Music Director

Our Music Director is John Naylor.

JOHN NAYLOR conductor, singer and organist, combines extensive performance experience in world-class choirs with a lifelong passionate interest in choral music and its performance. Following a successful business career he now devotes most of his activities to conducting and choir development.

His original training was as a choral scholar at St John’s College, Cambridge with the great Dr George Guest after keyboard studies with Conrad Eden at Durham Cathedral where he was a chorister, a music scholarship at Rossall School and singing studies with Wilfrid Brown and Lyndon van der Pump from The Royal College of Music.

He subsequently became a professional member of the Chapel Royal Choir of St Peter ad Vincula at H.M. Tower of London and worked with John Eliot Gardiner, Louis Halsey, Neville Mariner and Richard Hickox, appearing under their direction at The Proms, The South Bank, The Aldeburgh Festival and in numerous broadcasts and recordings. He has sung in the cathedral choirs of Christ Church Oxford and Carlisle, and he can still be occasionally spotted on the back row of Chester Cathedral Choir.

John was appointed Music Director of Nantwich Choral Society in September 2005 for whom he has now conducted highly acclaimed performances of works in the mainstream choral repertoire including Mendelssohn's 'Elijah', Bach’s ‘St John Passion’ (in Chester Cathedral), and Monteverdi’s ‘Vespers of 1610’, Bernstein’s ‘Chichester Psalms’ Fauré’s ‘Requiem’, Karl Jenkins’ The Armed Man with Ensemble Vocal Arpège de Mâcon, Mozart’s Requiem and Bach’s B minor Mass with the 18th Century Concert Orchestra and in 2009 Haydn’s ‘The Seasons’ and The Dream of Gerontius in Chester cathedral with the Northern Concordia Orchestra.

John has been Director of The Lydian Singers since 1980 with whom he has performed extensively in the North West and in most of the cathedrals in Great Britain, often returning several times by invitation – most recent visits being Durham and Salisbury cathedrals. He gave his final performance as conductor of the renowned Newport & District Male Voice Choir in September 2009.

In September 2009 John was also appointed conductor of The Phoenix Singers and Orchestra of Shrewsbury and conducted them in their very warmly reviewed recent Christmas Concerts in St Mary’s Shrewsbury which included Poulenc’s Christmas Motets and contemporary choral jazz items. Most recently, performances of J S Bach’s ‘St Matthew Passion’ given in Shrewsbury Abbey with Arts Council support, Hindemith’s Six Rilke Chansons and Brahms Ein Deutches Requiem were especially well received.

Future plans with the Lydian Singers include Blackburn and Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedrals and the Lymm Festival, and with The Phoenix Singers, performances of the winning entries in a new Choral Composition Competition in March, Poulenc, Messaien and Britten in the summer and a performance with period instruments of Monteverdi’s 1610 Vespers in November.

Plans with NCS include performances of Rossini Petite Messe Solonelle, Haydn’s Creation and Vaughan Williams Sea Symphony with the Northern Concordia Orchestra.