Gareth Edmund Malone (born 9 November 1975[) is an English people choirmaster and broadcaster, self-described as an "animateur, presenter and populariser of choral singing". He is best known for his television appearances in programmes such as The Choir, which focus on singing and introducing choral music to new participants.]
Biography
Gareth Malone was born into a family of Irish people descent as the only child of James and Sian Malone, who had met at their local Gilbert and Sullivan society.[Gibb, Bill (13 April 2014) Scots singsongs were the making of Gareth Malone The Sunday Post, Retrieved 1 June 2014] and was a bank manager. His English mother of Irish descent, Sian,[Performance and Identity in Irish Stand-Up Comedy: The Comic 'i' By Susanne Colleary, January 2015, Palgrave Macmillan, Page 24.] worked in the civil service.[Black, Claire (1 June 2014) Gareth Malone on The Choir, and his new album The Scotsman, Retrieved 1 June 2014] Gareth was educated at Bournemouth School.[ He sang with the Symphony Chorus of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra (BSO)][Bournemouth Echo] and he studied drama at the University of East Anglia, Norwich, where he was in the university choir and composed music for theatre productions. After graduating he gave private tuition and then applied for a postgraduate vocal studies course at the Royal Academy of Music; he passed with distinction in 2005.
Until December 2009, Malone worked for the London Symphony Orchestra at LSO St Luke's where he ran their youth choir and community choir. Whilst working at the L.S.O., Malone was awarded the position of Edward Heath Assistant Animateur in 2001. He entered television work when approached by 20/20, a production company which wanted to make a series about singing in schools. Without knowing who could front the programme they had researched the term "community choirmasters" and discovered Malone's name. The Choir was the result and won two
On 31 December 2009, Malone conducted the first New Year's Eve Twitter Community Choir performance of Auld Lang Syne. He asked his followers on Twitter, and friends on Facebook, to join in with the event.
A later project was The Knight Crew, a youth opera based on a book written by Nicky Singer and performed at Glyndebourne. After choosing approximately 50 cast out of over 400 applicants between the ages of 14 and 20 through workshops and auditions, and months of rehearsals, The Knight Crew was performed at Glyndebourne between 3 and 6 March 2010. The project was filmed for a television series, Gareth Malone Goes to Glyndebourne and aired on the BBC on 1 July 2010.
In May 2010, Malone was awarded the Freedom of the City of London by Nick Anstee, Lord Mayor of the City of London (not to be confused with the Mayor of London) in recognition of his music education work in that city.
In 2013, Malone recruited 16 singers aged from 18 to 27 for his Gareth Malone Voices choir. They recorded a CD album and gave concerts at 14 locations throughout Britain in 2014.[Dammann, Guy (22 May 2014) Gareth Malone's Voices review – before you know it, you're singing too The Guardian, Retrieved 1 June 2014][Laws, Roz (7 March 2014) Touring is a dream for TV choirmaster Gareth Malone Birmingham Post, Retrieved 1 June 2014]
In October 2023, Malone became the patron of the Canterbury Choral Society.
Television work
Gareth Malone's television appearances began in 2007 with his reality television series The Choir, broadcast on BBC Two. The series focused on teaching choral singing to teenagers with no such experience, the first programme being set in Northolt High School, a comprehensive school in the west London suburbs. Subsequent programmes continued the theme by taking choral music to challenging situations: Boys Don't Sing (2008) featured pupils at Lancaster School, Leicester, an all-boys school where there was reluctance to sing; the third series, entitled Unsung Town, featured the formation of a community choir in South Oxhey, a suburban town where singing was not a common activity.
In 2010 Malone presented a children's programme for CBBC, The Big Performance in which ten keen, but extremely shy, young singers took the opportunity to overcome their fears. They sang for a larger audience each week, taking it in turns to be the soloist, and in the final week they performed for The Proms. A second series was broadcast in 2011 with the final week taking the form of a performance of a choral arrangement of the song "Keep Holding On" for the BBC charity telethon Children in Need 2011. The ten singers led a live choir in the studio along with children's choirs nationwide, linked by satellite.
For the BBC Two programme The Choir: Military Wives, first broadcast in November 2011, Malone went to Chivenor Barracks in Devon, creating a choir from wives and partners of military personnel deployed to Afghanistan. The culmination of the programme was the opening performance for the Royal British Legion's Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall on 12 November 2011. The three-minute piece performed by the Military Wives Choir was the song Wherever You Are, a love poem compiled from letters written between the women and their absent husbands and partners and set to music by composer Paul Mealor.
A successful campaign was launched to promote sales of the CD single, with the aim of it becoming the 2011 Christmas number one in the UK Singles Chart, which was supported by BBC Radio 2 DJ Chris Evans.
In 2011, Malone's show Gareth Malone Goes to Glyndebourne won an International Emmy Award in the Best Arts Programme category.
On 16 November 2014, it was announced that Malone and a group of celebrities he had mentored had reached the UK number 1 with their Children in Need charity single "Wake Me Up", a cover of the song originally recorded by Swedish dance act Avicii.
On 10 September 2015, Malone appeared on the BBC One programme Who Do You Think You Are?
In 2017, Malone presented Pitch Battle on BBC One, which The Guardian described as a "new Saturday teatime singing contest".
In March 2020, Malone announced an initiative titled the Great British Home Chorus, a new home choir for people internationally whilst everyone was stuck at home during the COVID-19 pandemic. He also revealed he had been in talks with the BBC about making another television programme. In the first week over 100,000 people viewed the first session on YouTube.
In August 2022, Malone appeared on Celebrity Masterchef. He was eliminated in the quarterfinals of the competition.
In September 2022, Malone appeared in series 2 of The Masked Dancer as Cactus, and was eliminated in week 4.
Personal life
Malone is married to Becky, an English teacher.
Bibliography
Gareth Malone has written two books on the subject of choral singing. His most recent title, Choir: Gareth Malone, is an account of the production of his television series The Choir.
Television filmography
Malone's television appearances include to date:
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| Broadcast by NHK Educational TV and NHK Ēsē Dai-ichi Terebijon (NHK Broadcasting Satellite Television 1) in Japan in 2010 |
| Single documentary |
| Appeared as a guest on panel game show |
| Appeared as a guest conducting the Olympic Choir |
| Single documentary as part of BBC Sea Fever season |
| Example |
| Example |
| Series aimed at children |
| Guest appearance on BBC Red Nose Day 2011 training a choir of |
| Series aimed at children |
| Guest appearance leading a choir of children |
| Spin-off single "Wherever You Are" released on 18 December 2011 |
| Four workplace choirs are formed and compete over six episodes |
| Appeared as a guest on panel game show |
| US version of The Choir |
| Five workplace choirs are formed and compete over eight episodes |
| Choirs for a "The XX century Mozart, Jeff Lynne" |
| Appeared as a guest on the panel game show |
| A choir of celebrities create a recording of Avicii's Wake Me Up for Children in Need |
New military wives choir for the World War One Prom[ BBC documentary tells story of the Military Wives Choir’s amazing World War One commemoration SSAFA] |
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| A cappella groups compete in a competition |
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| In association with the Invictus Games |
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| Judge |
| Co-presenter (with Karen Gibson) |
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| 2022 | The Great Celebrity Bake Off for SU2C | Channel 4 | Series 5; Episode 2 |
| 2022 | Celebrity Masterchef | BBC One | Series 17; Episodes 4-6 |
| 2022 | The Masked Dancer | ITV |
| 2023 | Sing for the King: The Search for the Coronation Choir | BBC One | With Amanda Holden, Motsi Mabuse & Rose Ayling-Ellis |
| 2024 | Gareth Malone's Easter Passion | BBC One | Three-part series |
| 2025 | Gareth Malone's Messiah | BBC One | Three-part series |
Discography
Albums
Singles
External links
