Georg

My name is Georg (pronounced George) and I’m a professional musician living in south London. I have two beautiful children, Jacob and Leah who mean the world to me. I have been earning a living as a musician ever since leaving college 14 years ago and consider myself very lucky to have been able to do so. Any working musician, unless they’ve hit the big time, will tell you that it’s not always easy to make music and make ends meet! My attitude is that I wasn’t put on this earth to make money but to make music and when I do that I feel like the richest guy in the world! One motto that I hold close to me is; ‘variety is the spice of life’ and that philosophy shows itself strongly in my career. As a singer I have performed in all musical styles from Jazz bar piano vocals (my first job after leaving college, good times!) to grand opera! (I toured the UK and the states with various opera companies in my 20’s). Musicals are a big favourite of mine too. I’ve been in too many musicals to list them all here, but my favourite roles include; Tony in West side story, Danny in Grease, Anatoly in Chess and, absolute favourite so far, Curly in Oklahoma! When not performing on stage I like to produce, direct or musically direct. I recommend any aspiring performer to have a go at the production side of the business. When I left college I was lucky enough to be able to continue studying with one of the world’s great singing teachers, Eduardo Asquez, but I was struck by how little work there was for all the talented singers I heard coming and going from his studio. So I decided to put on an Opera, ‘Carmen’, to showcase their talents. Having never conducted, directed or produced a full scale work before this was a challenge (understatement!!!). I learnt more in those 4 months than I did at 3 years of college! Since then I have conducted Carmen twice, Chess, Company, Annie, South Pacific(many times!), Merry Widow, Pirates of Penzance and King and I among others and directed The Mikado and Guys and Dolls. I have also produced the Bromley Open Air summer festival as well as many smaller concerts and shows. All great fun! More recently I have fallen in love with the Big Band music that I grew up listening to. My parent’s radio was pretty much permanently tuned to Radio 2 which, when I was a kid, meant Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Doris Day and various other great, so called ‘easy listening’, artists. I also used to love the Saturday afternoon movies, black and white re-runs of Judy Garland meeting Gordon McRae on a porch somewhere and singing about how in love they were! All those singers that I heard in childhood have had a big impact on my vocal style and it’s a joy to see a resurgence in that style of music and that style of singing, brought about by the likes of Robbie Williams and Michael Buble, among others. My own Rat Pack style show ‘Music to watch girls by’ has been performed at various venues over the last 5 years including the Crystal Palace Concert Bowl and in its present format features, along with myself, Pete Sinclair and Shane Hampsheir. Not just great singers but great friends….. you can’t beat that when you’re on stage!! When I’m not performing I teach singing, another string in my musical bow that I enjoy immensely, for several reasons: There is an old adage that you learn as much from your pupils as they learn from you and I have found this to be true. There is something very special about the bond between teacher and pupil, particularly in singing and particularly in one to one singing teaching. You take a journey together. As teacher you are the guide but you walk the same path and share the same experiences and discoveries and that is something that can only be understood within the relationship. Some of my most moving and profound moments have been given to me by my students and my own teachers and I will always be grateful for that.