David Hall (MA (Cantab) FRCO, LRSM) is a pianist and organist – in fact, multi-instrumentalist – writer and composer. He is known for his series of books There’s More to Playing the Piano and, of course, his lovely piano piece Song of the Weald that was written especially for us here at Finchcocks.
David studied the piano with Laura Cole and Freni Cha, and the organ with Anne Marsden Thomas at the Royal Academy of Music. In 1996, he was appointed organ scholar of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. He then joined the music staff of Chelmsford Cathedral and Felsted School in Essex.
For nearly twenty years, David was Director of Music at Twyford School in Hampshire during an extraordinary period of the school’s history when music truly thrived. More than a hundred Twyford children sang in professional opera productions at the Grange Festival, including Tosca, La Bohème and Albert Herring. The school choir recorded two CDs and performed in cathedrals across the UK, France and Italy. David commissioned repertoire for the choirs and orchestras from leading composers, including Lin Marsh, Alexander L’Estrange and Howard Goodall. Alongside classics such as Oliver!, Joseph and Annie, the children put on eight of David’s original musicals.
David is now Director of the Choristers at the Hospital of St Cross in Winchester. He also directs the Twyford Singers, accompanies the University of Winchester Chamber Choir, plays jazz piano and saxophone, and maintains a busy roster of piano pupils.
David has received rave reviews for the piano courses he has directed at Finchcocks, Giles Smith of the Sunday Times describing him as a “musical powerhouse” and students of the courses regularly describing them as “life changing”.