NESMS Chairman - Dr. Roger Williams, Organist, Conductor and Composer.

• Born in Swansea and brought up in Yorkshire, Roger left school at 15 to attend the Huddersfield Music Department before graduating from Cardiff, London and Cambridge Universities. After a period as a free-lance musician in London he was appointed to the Music Department of the University of Aberdeen. He was Chorus Master to the Scottish National Orchestra and is Honorary Music Adviser to NTS. His association with NESMS goes back over two decades, having served on the Music Committee and Council, of which he is the current Chair.

 

 NESMS Treasurer - Mr Kenny Hall CA

• Kenny retired from EY, where he was responsible for the audits of many international oil service companies, in 2023. He has served as treasurer of several charities and, with both children now working outside Aberdeen as professional musicians, has an interest in helping the school continue to meet the ongoing and future needs of local students, as well as meeting its financial and governance reporting requirements.

 

Dr Richard Coleman

• Richard Coleman is a retired hospital consultant based in Aberdeen, and latterly both Director of Medical Education and Associate Medical Director for NHS Grampian.  Since his school days he has been a keen amateur musician.  He continues to enjoy choir singing and playing the double bass.  He used to have singing lessons at NESMS from Alan Watt.  He is married to Rosalind, a music teacher.  Their three children (two of whom were also NESMS students) are now all professional musicians.  He has been a Trustee of NESMS since 2021 and chairs meetings of the NESMS Finance and General Purposes Committee.   He is committed to maintaining and developing opportunities for music education in the North East of Scotland.

 

Mrs Rosalind Coleman

• Rosalind Coleman’s whole career has been in music education, including class music, woodwind and piano teaching.  For the past 25 years she has been schools’ woodwind instructor in Aberdeen.  She joined NESMS in 2015 as a tutor specialising in beginners’ recorder and musicianship.  She has always encouraged her advanced students to have additional lessons with the woodwind tutors at NESMS, believing that students can gain from experiencing a broader outlook in their learning.  Early music education has also been an important part of her commitment to music education.  Her children have attended NESMS in the past and they continue to work in the music profession.  Rosalind has been a NESMS Trustee since 2011.

 

Mr Alan Cooper

• Alan Gordon Cooper was born in Aberdeen and attended Ashley Road Primary School, Robert Gordon’s College and Aberdeen University where he read for a combined degree in English/French. As part of the French side of the degree he went to the University of Rennes, Bretagne where he was Lecteur d’Anglais teaching spoken English to French Students. He also taught spoken French in a Languages Laboratory to American and Red Chinese students, and did recordings for the French Merchant Marine. Returning to Aberdeen he graduated in 1968. He spent a lot of time in the Music Department and for Duncan Johnson who was the University Organist at the time translating La Musique D’Orgue Française De Jehan Titelouze à Jehan Alain into English. After a post-graduate year he graduated as a French and English teacher. He started his professional life as a French and English teacher in Aberdeen and Grantown where he struck up a friendship with an elderly neighbour Dr Paul Peck who had been a violinist in the Paul Whiteman Orchestra, playing in the first performance of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue.  On returning to Aberdeen, he took a job in the Sheet Music Department of Bruce Miller’s Music Shop where he remained for thirty years. During that time he taught popular organ playing in the evenings and became an assistant music reviewer to Geoffrey Atkinson for Aberdeen Press and Journal. He reviewed concerts for over twenty years. He became Deputy to Donald Hawksworth the President to Aberdeen and District Organists’ Association which he took over when Donald became seriously ill.  He is now President of Aberdeen Chamber Music Concerts as well as being a committee member of the Organist’s Association.  For the last few years he has also reviewed CDs for the British Music Society giving his unrivalled knowledge of many contemporary British Composers.

 

Lord Simon Glenarthur

• Educated at Aysgarth School, Yorkshire where he became a chorister and continued to learn piano from an introduction at it aged 6/7, Simon’s education continued at Eton College where again he was a treble chorister and continued piano lessons. Simon was a regular Army Officer between 1963 – 1975 and a Reservist from 1977 to 1981. With his family, he moved to Aberdeenshire in 1976, and soon found himself singing regularly in St Ternan’s Banchory.  After 7 years flying helicopters commercially for British Airways, in 1982 Simon became a Government Minister, in the House of Lords for 7 years, and remains an elected hereditary Peer in the Lords.  Simon took up organ lesson in about 2000, and somehow found himself involved with the RCO, first as a Trustee, and for 4 years as Chairman of the Trustees. He is currently Presidents of the Scottish Federation of Organists. Simon is also a Patron of The Church Music Society and has links with the Cathedrals Music Trust, as well as being responsible for directing the St Ternan’s choir, and occasionally being involved with planning and directing major Services for Aberdeenshire.  As a Trustee, he has experience more widely, with hospitals, medical research, and other matters over a long career in different fields.

 

Mr Kevin Haggart

• With both BMus and MMus from the University of Aberdeen under his belt, Kevin went on to work in Music Education for more than thirty years, including 15 years as Head of Music at Robert Gordon's College. He also works as a Visiting Assessor for the SQA. Now freelance, Kevin is also well known as a Musical Director, trumpeter, pianist and organist in the North East and has conducted numerous choirs, orchestras and musical theatre performances, most significantly with Phoenix Theatre. He has been involved with NESMS, on and off, for almost forty years, since receiving singing lessons whilst an undergraduate.

 

 Mr William Jamieson

• William was a French horn pupil at NESMS, first under Ifor James and then later, under Lizzie Davis. William left Aberdeen to attend university and then lived in London, while working in the renewables industry. He now works for Energy Saving Trust and has moved back to Aberdeen where he takes part in a number of musical groups. He joined the NESMS finance and general purposes committee before joining as a board member in 2023.

 

Mr Kevin Kyle

• Musician and educator, Kevin Kyle was appointed Director of Aberdeen City Music School (ACMS) in May 2023. A graduate of the University of Huddersfield and the Royal Academy of Music, Kevin's career performance highlights include the BBC Proms, a finalist in the Handel Singing Competition, two solo CD recordings, and performances for English National Opera, Théâtre du Châtelet and Opéra de Lille. He is a former Director of Musical Performance at Mill Hill School, he has also taught for the National Youth Choir of Great Britain, Eton College and Westminster School.

 

Ms Barbara L McFarlane

• Retired solicitor in Aberdeen with a great love of and interest in music. Long standing Member of Council of which she was Chairman for many years. She is also a Trustee (and former Treasurer/Administrator ) of the David & June Gordon Memorial Trust as also the Thomas Primrose Trust

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Mr Ken McLeod

• Ken studied the ‘cello with Joan Dickson at the RSAMD, (now Royal Conservatoire of Scotland) and at the RCM, gaining diplomas from both. He taught cello in and around Aberdeen for 28 years before being appointed as Music Co-ordinator with Aberdeen City Council in 2000, a post he held until his retirement in 2012.  He has played in and conducted many of the amateur musical companies in Aberdeen and was a regular player with Aberdeen Sinfonietta before retiring in 2023. One of his proudest achievements was putting a successful bid to the Scottish Government to set up ACMS, which has produced and continues to produce many excellent young musicians. Ken has a long association with NESMS as a member of the board and has taken advantage of the excellent vocal tuition from Jean Webster when he was Musical Director with local music societies. 

 

Mr Sam Paul

• Sam grew up in Aberdeen where he studied French horn with Kevin Cormack and piano with Morag Simpson and Joseph Long before going on to study chemical engineering at the University of Aberdeen. During his time at school he enjoyed several years in the National Youth Choir of Scotland and National Youth Orchestra of Scotland.
  As part of the larger Aberdeen music community, he sings with Con Anima Chamber Choir and the St Machar’s and St Andrew’s Cathedral Choirs. He is a director of Music Aberdeen, NESMS, the Grampian Youth Orchestra, and chair of Aberdeen City Orchestra. He conducts the University of Aberdeen Concert Band and the University of Aberdeen Chamber Choir, and organises the Cathedral at Noon recital series at St Andrew's Cathedral. Outside of engineering and music, Sam is fond of hillwalking, photography, sound engineering, and the occasional whisky.