Michael Veazey
Michael was educated in Gloucestershire and has been conducting since the age of 16. He studied music at Leeds University, The Franz Liszt Academy in Weimar (Germany), where he studied Conducting as a joint principal study, and the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester. Full-time study of orchestral and choral conducting followed for two years at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Cardiff. There his teachers included Howard Williams, of English National Opera, Adrian Partington, Artistic Director of the BBC National Chorus of Wales, and Anthony Negus and Gareth Jones of Welsh National Opera in Opera Coaching (répétiteur studies).
Michael has been the music director of multiple choral societies and choirs over the past two decades.
Michael is currently the Music Director of Potter’s Bar Choral Society in Hertfordshire; of Ealing Voices in West London; and from September 2024, of The Hardynge Choir in Hertfordshire.
He directed Godalming Choral Society for 10 years, a chorus of over 100 members, where he conducted large-scale choral works such as the Verdi Requiem and The Dream of Gerontius with full orchestras and professional soloists.
More recently Michael has also been the music director of Brent Opera, where he directed Verdi’s Rigoletto and Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana from the piano. He has also worked regularly with UCL Opera as a Repetiteur.
Accompanist and Deputy Music Director
Matthew Woodward
Matthew Woodward grew up in St Albans and was a John Clough Music Bursary winner at St Albans School. He studied the piano with Isabel Beyer and more recently with Karen Dore and went on to read Music at Royal Holloway and Bedford New College (now Royal Holloway University of London) graduating in 1995. After a brief spell in the catering industry, Matthew trained as a music teacher and, for a number of years, taught class music at a large secondary school in St Albans. He now teaches the piano privately in Biggleswade and St Albans.
He joined the instrumental staff at Heath Mount School, Watton-at-Stone in 2005, and is the school’s resident accompanist for concerts, examination candidates and choirs. Matthew acts in a similar capacity at St Albans School and also teaches the piano in the prep school at St Edmund’s College, Ware. In addition to his teaching, Matthew gives regular recitals as both a soloist and duettist.
Matthew has been the accompanist for The Hardynge Choir since 2005.
