About us
Tideswell Male Voice Choir
Based in a beautiful village in the Peak District, Tideswell Male Voice Choir has a well-deserved reputation for its excellence in choral singing. Originally founded in the early 1950s, the choir members at that time were mainly drawn from the village of Tideswell itself. Today men travel from all around to be a part of this exciting group, enjoying rehearsals which continue to be held in Tideswell itself. Here the choir is fortunate to have its own rehearsal premises, which houses a library and wardrobe facility. Over the years the choir has enjoyed much success in competition, both in the UK and abroad, and expectations have always been high. This aspect has not changed over the years but many other things have. Now numbering more than forty members, the choir continues to grow in stature and popularity. In recent years giant strides have been taken with this group succeeding in making its voice heard far and wide to increasingly diverse audiences, both geographically and demographically. The reason behind the success of this male chorus is its willingness to embrace change, be bold in making those changes and to listen to its audience. Herein lies the future!
Event
Rehearsals are held on Tuesday evenings from 7.30pm upstairs in the Old Grammar School, Tideswell, behind the Cathedral of the Peak St John’s Church. Newcomers welcome!
Meet The Team
Nick Montague
Musical Director
Nick Montague has been involved in music for over 40 years. He trained classically on the piano whilst at school and then spent many years working in musical theatre and choirs, both on and off the stage. He is trained as a conductor and now focuses on working with choirs of all types, bringing both musicality and enjoyment to rehearsals and performances. His choirs have appeared on television and radio. He lives in Cheshire with his wife and they have two sons in their twenties.
Alison Wheeldon
Assistant Musical Director and Principal Accompanist
Alison Wheeldon is well-known in Buxton as an accompanist. She began her love affair with the piano aged 7, training locally in Buxton, Manchester and also as part of her degree in Brighton. Her role as an accompanist began in 1979 when she was ‘talent-spotted’ at a school concert, which led to a very happy and long-lived relationship as accompanist with Chapel-en-le-Frith Ladies’ Choir. Many enjoyable and memorable trips were made nationally and onto the continent during a successful twinning with a Choir in Bad Nauheim. In addition she assisted with accompanying Baslow Choir during her time there as a contralto from 1986-2015. Here she worked independently with Michael Coe most significantly, collaborating on concerts with The South Yorkshire Symphonia and their star guests, including Lizzie Ball. Alison spent many rewarding years as a primary school teacher and Music Coordinator at Harpur Hill Primary School, before retiring in 2017 to devote her time to establishing a flourishing piano tuition business. The timing of this coincided beautifully with being offered the role of accompanist for the men at Tideswell. The most amazing factor of being involved with music is the ability to work and share enjoyment of it with other people. In her spare time, Alison enjoys performing locally with The Plague o’Bells, a 10-strong handbell group based in Eyam, being a doting grandma’ gardening and travelling.
Edwina Currie
President
Well-known as a writer, broadcaster, politician and guest speaker, Edwina Currie has a lifelong interest in music. Born in Liverpool, Edwina went to the same school as the Beatles’ George Harrison and Sir Paul McCartney. She admits that much of her education time was spent in the Cavern Club listening to their music; this stimulated her love of music. As a youngster, she took real delight in singing uplifting psalms in Hebrew as part of the Orthodox Jewish congregation in Childwall, Liverpool, to which her family belonged. Music has played a big part in her life and she likes nothing more than listening to music on the radio while driving in the Peak District. Her eclectic musical tastes range from Simon and Garfunkel to Beethoven. Continuing the musical theme, Edwina describes her marriage to her husband, John, as being: “Married to the most handsome baritone in the High Peak.” Edwina has had three successful careers – so far! In politics, she became one of the nation’s best-known MPs and served in Margaret Thatcher’s government 1986–88, in the Department of Health. Writing proved a lot easier than politics. In all, she has had ten books published. She started with non-fiction then turned to novels which were instant best-sellers in the UK. As a broadcaster, she is a frequent contributor to news and current affairs programmes. For many years she has been a well-known radio and TV presenter and performer.
