Born in Fareham, Hampshire in 1965, Jerry started piano lessons in 1972 and sang in the local church choir in 1974.

 

He continued to study music at boarding school in Devon and took up the church organ whilst living and studying in Gibraltar in 1982, becoming organist for the Church of Scotland and the Methodist Church on the rock.

 

He graduated with a BA (Hons) in Music and English in 1987, and after initially working in Sheffield for a music retailer he married in 1989 and moved to Cumbria where his wife Joanne had grown up. He worked for Omega Music in Brampton for 14 yrs as the family grew (Ellie was born in 1992 and Will in 1994) and then joined the music staff at William Howard School in 2005.

 

Since 2016 he has been a self-employed peripatetic music teacher.

 

Jerry was organist at Lanercost Priory for 20 years before moving to the post of Director of Music at St Cuthbert’s in Carlisle in 2012.

 

He has sung with the Brampton Chamber Choir since 2000, becoming its Musical Director in 2011, the same year that he became the accompanist for what was then called the Brampton Players Choir but later morphed into the Brampton and District Community Choir.

 

He recently relinquished the conducting post at the Chamber Choir and started the Eden Wild Goose Community Choir in Wetheral which has now been running since 2019.

 

He also runs a small business repairing musical instruments in schools and divides his remaining time between teaching in schools, taking (currently 5) weekly choir practices, private tuition on piano and guitar and playing keyboards & Bass in a touring band - The League of Ukulele Gentlemen.

 

On top of the regular work as organist at weddings and funerals, there’s never a dull moment.