Craig McLeish

Craig began his musical life as a chorister in St Paul’s Cathedral. After York University he returned to London to study at the Guildhall and sang again at St Paul’s as a tenor. At the time he was also arranging and copying music for West End shows such as Les Miserables and Miss Saigon, and playing bass guitar for various groups. This led to a spell in the cult pop band ‘Fat & Frantic’, currently residing in the ‘where are they now’ file. He also worked as musical assistant for David Heneker (Half a Sixpence) and David Fanshawe (African Sanctus).

In 1992 he became director of the MAYC Orchestra and Singers, performing concerts throughout the UK and being involved in a number of recordings and BBC broadcasts. Alongside this he began arranging and writing songs for children’s books (Big Blue Planet, Love Shone Down) and producing recordings for various artists (Sheila Walsh, Kim Hill, Matt Redman).

He currently works for a production company called Crazeltown Ltd, specialising in promoting new artists, songwriting and production. Recent clients include The Verra Cruz and CJM Music. This will be his 7th year as musical director of Young Voices, and his enthusiasm for the concerts is undiminished. “Young Voices is such a great way for children and young people to be introduced to live performing in front of a big audience. They get the buzz of being real stars and hopefully the variety of the music we perform will inspire them in later years. I am so proud to be involved – I wish we had had something like this when I was at school.”