University College School

John Bradbury was born and educated in Cheshire. His early musical training took place in Chester and Birmingham. He was awarded an ICI Scholarship to study at the Birmingham Conservatoire and later at the University of Birmingham. Whilst there, he gained the Graduate Diploma in teaching and Associate Diploma in piano teaching.

In 1981 he took up his first teaching post at Culford School, near Bury St. Edmunds, where he was in charge of the chapel choir and he was responsible for several tours to France, Belgium and Germany. He often deputised at St Edmundsbury Cathedral and later took up the post as Assistant Organist at the prestigious church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square. As Assistant Organist, he was heavily involved in broadcasting, giving recitals and toured extensively with the choir. In 1990, John was appointed Director of Music at the Junior Branch of University College School.

Subsequently, he was appointed Assistant Director of Music at the Senior School. He has set up a music exchange with a school in Lower Saxony and in June 2000 made his conducting début at the Barbican with the joint choirs and orchestras of both schools conducting Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana. He has produced 3 CDs with the school choirs and chamber orchestra, and is the soloist in Poulenc’s Organ Concerto on one of them. More recently he has supervised choir tours to Prague, New York and St. Petersburg and this year will be taking the choir and chamber orchestra to Poland.

He has maintained his academic pursuits and gained a Master of Arts degree from the University of London. In 2002 he was appointed Director of Music at University College School and has until recently spent ten years as Organist and Director of Music at St. Mary-with-All-Souls Church, Kilburn.

Ian Gibson was educated at the Grammar School, Enfield and the Latymer School. During this time he was also a Junior Exhibitioner at the Royal Academy of Music where he studied piano and violin. Ian read music at St Catharine's College, Cambridge where he was President of the College Music Society and a Choral Exhibitioner. Ian began his teaching career at William Ellis School and moved to UCS in 1997 becoming Assistant Director of Music in 2002. At school, Ian's principal responsibilities are for string playing and he directs the Chamber Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra, String Ensemble and some string chamber music. He has also been involved with accompanying and taking sectionals for the Choral Society. Work in the theatre has included Wizard of Oz, Little Sweep and Captain Stirrick. In September 2008 Ian became Warden of the Lower School. Academically, Ian maintains a strong interest in the teaching of musical analysis and history. Currently, he is Director of the North Camden Chorus and Camjam, a music centre for children ages 6-10 run by the Local Education Authority.

Simon Walton enjoys a highly successful and varied career as a performer, teacher, conductor/director and coach.  A former principal flute with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, he began his concerto career at the age of 14 with the Neilson concerto, and continued, whilst still at school, to perform much of the flute concerto repertoire with a variety of orchestras around the country.  He continued his studies at Manchester University, where he won several performance and academic prizes including the Concerto Competition, and as a postgraduate at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.  Whilst continuing his post-graduate studies, Simon started his professional singing career in London's leading churches, including Westminster Abbey and the Brompton Oratory, with whom he has recorded and broadcast for the BBC. In 1996 he made his operatic debut in the role of Luigi (Il Tabarro). Other fully staged appearances have included Turrido (Cavalleria Rusticana), Edgardo (Lucia di Lammermoor), Macduff (Macbeth), Loge (Das Rheingold) and Samson (Samson et Dalilah).  Simon has appeared and recorded with Kent Nagano and the Opéra de Lyon and Claudio Abbado and the Berliner Philharmoniker.  Oratorio performances have included Verdi’s Requiem, Puccini’s Messa di Gloria and Mendelssohn’s Elijah.  In 2006 He was invited to create the role of Frank Troy in the premiere of a new opera Far from the Madding Crowd by Andrew Downes, commissioned by the Hardy Society.  In 2007 Simon also made his first foray into the ‘Heldentenor’ repertoire singing Florestan in a concert performance of Fidelio.  In a broader musical context Simon has worked as a professional accompanist on the piano, an instrument on which he has also recorded Saint-Saëns Septet and performed Rachmaninov's 2nd Piano Concerto.  He has given flute and singing masterclasses in this country and taken a choral workshop with the Wesleyan University Musicum Collegium Connecticut USA. For the last six years, Simon has been invited to be a member of the senior coaching staff on the residential Grittleton Chamber Music Course for adults.  In 1993 Simon was invited to write Young Musician Plays Flute (Watts Aladdin Books, London) as part of their education series, a flute teaching book which has since been translated into several languages.

 “Simon Walton's Playing The Flute, Recorder And Other Woodwind [presents a] step-by-step coverage of mastering the basics of playing. A list of composers and performers, glossary and index round out a coverage perfect for home-schoolers or as supplemental assignment for music studies.” (Midwest Book Review USA)

In addition to his academic teaching at UCS Simon is also heavily involved in the extra-curricular instrumental programme and accompanies many student recitals and examinations on the piano.  He is a form tutor for the Remove Year and the Silver Award Co-ordinator for the Duke of Edinburgh Award at UCS.  Simon also enjoys playing the violin, viola, cello and double bass, although mostly for fun and on an amateur basis.