Garry Humphreys was born in Nottingham of Welsh and Polish parents. He studied singing with Norman Platt (the founder of Kent Opera), Nigel Rogers (the famous baroque tenor) and (principally) John Carol Case, and for twenty years was a freelance professional singer in London. He also studied conducting with Bryan Fairfax and has been influenced by Sir Adrian Boult, Vernon Handley and Rudolf Kempe. In addition he has been the secretary or organizer of many musical bodies and events – including the Elgar Society London Branch and the Association of English Singers and Speakers – and was chairman of the English Song Award. He has twice served as an adjudicator of the English Singers' and Speakers' Prize and is joint editor (with Michael Pilkington) of A Century of English Song (Thames Publishing), an ongoing series aiming to make available in practical performing editions distinctive British songs of the last hundred years.


He now concentrates on writing, speaking and conducting. His writing encompasses articles (mainly, but by no means exclusively, on musical subjects), reviews and programme notes. His programme notes aim to provide the reader with a context in which to listen to a performance unencumbered by irrelevant or, to the lay listener, incomprehensible technical material; his notes on unjustifiably neglected British music in particular have been commended as thorough and readable sources of information not easily available elsewhere.

For many years he was a member of the speakers' panel of the Federation of Recorded Music Societies. Enthusiasm, added to clarity of thought and presentation, has ensured many return visits to several societies. Garry Humphreys is also available for narrations and presentations and in 1995 – although for personal reasons unable to take up the invitation – was asked to join the 'Talking Notes' team at the Royal Festival Hall by its director Gregory York (the former BBC Radio 3 announcer Malcolm Ruthven).

Garry Humphreys is now able to undertake conducting engagements and in 2002 and 2003 was guest conductor of the Broadheath Singers' annual concert of British music, conducting revivals of music by Arthur Bliss, Frederic Cowen, George Dyson, Eric Fogg, Robin Milford, Thomas Pitfield and Charles Stanford.

Garry Humphreys is a retired Chartered Librarian (MCLIP), a Fellow of: the Academy of St Cecilia (FASC), the Guild of Musicians and Singers (FGMS), the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA), and a Full Member of the Incorporated Society of Musicians.

In addition to music, his other interests include books, social history, architecture, printing and typography, walking and family life. He lives in north London with his wife and daughter and two crazed cats.



Garry Humphreys 2007-8
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