Graham Coatman
Choir leader
Graham enjoys a multi-faceted career as conductor, musical director, piano accompanist, repetiteur and continuo player, and as composer & arranger, in addition to directing choirs.
He gained his BA (Hons) in music at Bristol University, following this with postgrad studies at Guildhall School of Music & Drama, London, Nottingham and Huddersfield Universities. He has worked both as Musical Director and composer with Opera North, WNO, ENO, ETO, Royal Opera and Glyndebourne, especially on community and education projects. His Arts Council commissioned opera, Giovanni’s Women, toured for three years across England.
He led the Making Waves creative project for Youth Music for 5 years across West and South Yorkshire, and subsequently on the award-winning Sound Inventors project, with young composers aged 12-18, with a showcase at London’s Wigmore Hall. In 2014-17 Graham was UK representative on the Erasmus+ project ADDUP, working with choirs, and training choral directors across France, Italy and Poland as well as the UK.
In Yorkshire, Graham was conductor of Leeds Guild of Singers for almost 20 years, raising them to semi-pro standard, and he is now their President. He has also worked with Choral Societies in Atherstone, Bedworth, Yate & Leeds Philharmonic and since relocating to the south west, Salisbury Community Choir.
Professional orchestral engagements have included English Northern Philharmonia (Opera North), Northern Ballet Sinfonia, Sinfonia 21 (London) & Orchestra da Camera (Midlands) & Skipton Camerata. In 2024 Graham worked with the young professional Moris Orkestra and graduates of the Paris Conservatoires on Fauré anniversary concerts in Redon, Rennes and Saint Sulpice, Paris.
He enjoys food and wine, and is an accomplished cook – the Ukrainian refugees he hosted recently call him “The Chef”!
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Neil Sissons
Accompanist
Our accompanist is Neil Sissons, who studied piano, organ and electronic composition at The Royal College of Music in London, subsequently gaining an organ scholarship to Oxford University, where he read Music. Since then he has had a very varied musical career, including:
Repetiteuring Batignano Festival, the BBC Three “Flashmob”
Operas
Accompanying Purcell Room, lieder with Stephen Varcoe, Official
Accompanist of the Oxford Music Festival for more than 40 years
Teaching Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Sylvia Young
School, piano in Dorset schools
Lecturing Popular Music and Music Technology, South Thames
College London
Conducting The Oxford Playhouse, Paisiello’s “Nina” for the
Oxford University Opera Club. Abbey Road Studios
for “Scream 3” and Adidas advert. The Soviet State
Symphony Orchestra of Cinematography in Moscow)
Composing ITV holiday programme “Getaways”, Edinburgh
Festival “Sundance”
Playing at Ronnie Scott’s Club in Soho.
He is currently organist of St. Peter’s; Parish Church of Bournemouth and lives in Kings Stag and is the author of “Read Music from Scratch” published by Boosey&Hawkes.