I get in my own way
Ed 37. From Cambridge. Married. Music teacher. Singer and musician.
How are you?
I'm happy. I feel I've got myself to a stage where I've managed to shave off the things I don't want to be doing but, I'm at a crunch point. I feel the young part of my life is over and now I have to be more responsible for what's coming next next in, terms of work and family life.
Both me and my wife are musicians; we don’t like being tied down. Whether it's buying a house, having kids or getting married, everything take us a little bit longer than most to get round to it. We can be a bit flakey. Saying that, we’ve just got a lockdown puppy. We made the commitment! I feel there’s more decisions like that coming. Everything feels a bit terrifying. I don't know where I'm going to be in 10 years time and that makes me nervous. I want to have a longer term structure to my life.
How do you see yourself?
I am privileged and with that comes confidence. I was always brought up knowing if I wanted to go to ‘that school’, I could go to ‘that school’. “You want to go to Cambridge - go to Cambridge”. I’ve always had the attitude of knowing I can do what I want. I see myself as very lucky and very privileged. I am willing to embrace my life and be happy with my circumstances. The other option of course is to resent myself for it!
I used to be a bit embarrassed about the level of education I’ve had and the stuff I've done, now, I’m proud of it. I see myself as someone who is good at things. I'm a good singer, a good teacher. I'm confident. I'm very secure in what I do and who I am. I think I could have pushed myself a bit harder with my singing career. Maybe there are a few regrets that I didn’t ‘go fo it’. Tell me a bit more about your singing career….
I've always been surrounded by classical music. I grew up with no pop music in the house. As soon as we were of an age to learn an instrument we did. My first instrument was the violin. I worked out roughly how to operate the instrument before my second lesson.
One day a guy came into our school assembly to recruit choir boys. I had no particular interest in singing but I took the flyer home. I don't know whether my parents thought it was a good idea for me to audition or that I pressed them into it. I have no memory of that but I ended up singing in his choir. It was just a bit of fun. Then my dad saw an advert for chorister vacancies with Kings College Choir of Cambridge which was obviously a much bigger deal. He thought I might enjoy the experience of the audition, not necessarily thinking I’d get in - but I did.
Then came the big debate my parents had - now he’s got in, he has to board. Not only does he have to board, he has to live at school throughout the Christmas holidays. I boarded from the age of 9 - 13 even though my family lived in Cambridge.
Every morning we were up early doing half an hour of piano, half an hour of violin and an hour of singing. Every evening after school we'd do two more hours of singing. All Saturday afternoon and all day Sunday. There were the tours, the recording work and the TV work. The experience and the training was extraordinary. We did concerts at the Albert Hall; cheesy carol concerts, radio and TV broadcasts.We’d sing services; Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. It was pretty brutal. It was a big decision for my parents to make, mum in particular.
I was favoured by the choir master and tended to get all the solo work. I had a fairly easy ride. When I look back I think I was one of the happier ones even though the first few nights of a new term I was always very homesick. It was awful and upsetting but I'd always settled by day two. Did you enjoy it? I did enjoy it and I'll stand by that. I loved my time there and I found it quite easy. I'm proud of what I achieved and took a lot from it. It’s an experience that’s totally unique. Everything which is good about me as a musician has come from that training. It was an incredible opportunity but the argument is - isn’t it more fantastic to give your children the sort of love and attention they actually need at that age? I don’t know the answer to that as there is no doubt, I had an incredible experience.
If you have children would you send them to boarding school? I don't know. No. Probably not! Did all your siblings go to boarding school? No, I'm the only one. My sister always accused me of ruining Christmas Day because they had to wait for me until I’d finished at choir. I’m also mums favourite. I think it comes from a position of guilt. She probably feels guilty for sending me off to boarding school.