Founder conductor of THE Bath Chorus is Grenville Jones - a man with a UK-wide reputation for getting people of all ages to sing! Being brought up in a Methodist home in Swindon, music was always in hearing distance and his life subsequently has never been too far removed from choirs, singing and making music.After 11 years leading the Silver Ring Choir in Bath he decided to start his own new young mixed voice choir in 2009. There are now over 90 members on the books and The Chorus is making a name for itself across the UK.
In September 2008 Grenville travelled to London to be interviewed by Aled Jones on his Sunday Radio 3 Programme 'The Choir' Aled quizzed Grenville about his numerous choirs and in particular, the success of Bath Male Choir on the BBC Last Choir Standing BBC TV series - where the Boys from Bath sang in front of a 5 million TV audience - prompting Grenville still be to be recognised even to this day as "the Choir man from the Telly!"
Aled was also keen to hear about the Charity Golden-Oldies
Grenville enjoys the reputation in and around Bath of being 'Bath's Mr Music!' He also has an auditioned fabulous, girls close-harmony and swing group called Stockingtops, and is the Musical Director of the Good Afternoon choir in Bath and Devizes. You can check out all of his projects on www.grenvillejones.biz. Grenville also produces Charity shows in the Bath area, which have raised over £30,000 in the last 2 years.The City of Bath Male Choir and THE Bath Chorus sang at two concerts in Bath Abbey recently - one was with the famous RAF Central Band, raising over £10,000 for Help for Heroes.
He also leads a Wednesday evening non auditioned mixed choir in Bath called the Welcome Choir which has 60 members.
Grenville owns a PR and publishing business, including a group of golf magazines, Regional Golf Ltd. Yes, he’s a busy man! He is the proud Granddad or Artur, Isaac and Maisey and lives with his partner Ruth. He has run the last 2 Bath Half Marathons and says he will be running again in 2012.
For a number of years in the 80s he sang in the barbershop group Five-in-a-Bar, making records and appearing on many national radio and TV shows including Jim’ll fix It, The Cliff Richard Show and Blue Peter, but he’s lost the badge! Many of the arrangements sung by the quintet were his. During the Last Choir Standing series the BBC showed a clip of a very young GJ singing with Five-in-a-Bar on Blue Peter. One of the interviews with Grenville on the show was in the Blue Peter garden!
Grenville is a council member of the Association of British Choral Directors. Grenville’s natural musical ability and enthusiasm will take THE Bath Chorus on an exciting journey - working with the talented Francis Faux as deputy and accompanist.
He spends time each month in Germany and Austria as part of a EU project looking at how IT can bring music and exercise into the homes of the elderly. He is the only UK member of the consortium. He is a judge of the 2011 Song for Bath competition and the Komedia 2011 Bath’s Got Talent competition.
His next project is a choir for 8-16 year olds ! Watch this space for details ....
Grenville's background includes a number of years managing newspapers as well as a period working as a freelance for the BBC in Bristol. He built up his own successful PR and Marketing company in the 80s and 90s and also a magazine company publishing golf titles - Grenville still likes to dust off his clubs and occasionally enjoy a round with his 3 sons, Dan Kieron and Laurie.
Singing was always part of a Methodist home upbringing in Purton near Swindon. He used to have a tenor voice but G says that many years of choir conducting his voice have strained his voice now to a poor bass.
Francis Faux - Deputy Conductor and AccompanistFrancis Faux started his musical career when, at the age of 7, he was awarded a scholarship to Westminster Cathedral Choir School. Coached by James O'Donnell, Francis recorded several albums as a chorister, often as a soloist, and made appearances on Songs of Praise and Radio 4's Midweek Choice.
As a top music scholar at Eton College, he learned to conduct under the guidance of Ralph Allwood, which culminated in his co-direction of Christmas Music from Eton College. He also recorded with the King's Consort and worked alongside Susan Digby, a judge on BBC1's Last Choir Standing, for Yehudi Menuhin's 80th birthday celebration at the Royal Albert Hall.
During his time at Bath Spa University, he assumed the role of Musical Director on several occasions in productions of Into the Woods, Dido and Aeneas, A Threepenny Opera, and The Medium.
He has also accompanied for the International Guitar Festival and acted as repetiteur for Bath Opera and both the Devizes and Chippenham Light Opera Groups in productions of The Pajama Game, The Jewels of the Madonna and Cendrillon. In 2009, he finished working with the Bath Light Operatic Group in the Theatre Royal in their acclaimed production of Sweeney Todd. Francis also conducts Organum and the Corsham Choral Society and acts as Grenville's deputy conductor of the Bath Chorus. He currently teaches piano at Downside School in Somerset, as well as being a lecturer in musical theatre at Bath Spa University.
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