Location

Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland.

Specialisms

Community Musician

Additional information

Stuart takes a ‘Music for All’ approach in everything he does and loves leading choirs and ensembles. His current projects are ‘The Solway Buoys’ – Sea Shanty Singers and ‘A Touch of Purple’ Ukulele Orchestra.

Formerly a Director of Music and Head of Expressive Arts in Secondary schools and a guest lecturer on P.G.C.E. teacher-training courses, he has spent the last 20 years as a community musician in Dumfries and Galloway.

In 2007 Stuart formed ‘Sing Together​ – Naturally!’ – a monthly event open to all ages and abilities where he would teach songs and harmonies by rote, often to as many as 125 folk who just turned up! There were no auditions, neither was there a need to read music – just a hall full of people singing in glorious harmony within minutes. With assistance from the Scottish Centre for Intergenerational Practice, he took ‘Sing Together’ on the road around Scotland including Arbroath, Carnoustie, Cromarty and even Perth Royal Concert Hall. In 2014 ‘Sing Together’ was paused so Stuart could focus on directing ‘The People’s Choir’.

From 2010 to 2023, he enjoyed teaching strum and sing ukulele to his 100-plus students each week. Stuart’s groups ranged from 15 – 50 students in number, and age wise, 8 – 80+. Collectively, his students formed clan D.U.K.E.S. – Dumfries and Galloway Ukulele Strummers and Singers. Stuart taught all levels from beginner to advanced and led ukulele groups on a voluntary basis in Dumfries and Galloway primary schools. A workshop leader and author of ‘A Ukulele Player’s Introduction to Chord Melody Solos’, he was Creative Director and Founder of The Ukulele Festival of Scotland which ran from 2016-2019.

Stuart has taught strum and sing ukulele in Dumfries Prison to mixed groups of prisoners, prison officers and agency workers and the project featured in the SPS inspection report as being of benefit to relationships between prisoners and staff.  Prisoners could regularly be witnessed helping officers to play tricky chords, perhaps understandably so, as they seemed to have more time to practise than the staff!  After release, one prisoner even came back into prison to attend the final session of the course and to receive his certificate!

In 2014 he founded ‘The People’s Choir’ – a mixed-voice, intergenerational community choir, all-abilities, no auditions, and was its conductor until December, 2023. The choir presented an Autumn concert every year.

In Stuart’s ukulele orchestra – ‘A Touch of Purple’ (formed in 2016) members learn how to: a) create a ukulele orchestra arrangement of a selected song with differentiated ukulele and vocal parts and b) get these songs performance-ready. They have performed at The Theatre Royal, Dumfries and twice at the Ukulele Festival of Scotland.

In February, 2024 he founded ‘The Solway Buoys’ – Sea Shanty Singers for men who love sea shanties and enjoy singing. There are no auditions, all men are welcome and as the songs come from an oral tradition there is no requirement to read music. Stuart’s books of sea shanties – ‘Haul Away!’ and ‘Haul on the Bowlin!’ come with audio files, rehearsal tracks and ‘follow the score’ videos.

These traditional songs, specially arranged in three parts for a range of inexperienced and experienced singers, have timeless melodies, easy to sing harmonies and can be accompanied or unaccompanied.” ‘The Solway Buoys’ meet monthly in Colvend Public Hall, Dumfries and Galloway and currently have over fifty crew members ‘on their books’.

Stuart currently lives on the beautiful Solway coast in south-west Scotland with his wife, children, grandchildren and Herbie, Coco and Lulu the Cavapoochons!