Gareth Malone

Biography

Gareth Malone was born into a family of Irish descent as the only child of James and Sian Malone, who had met at their local Gilbert and Sullivan society. His father, James Malone, grew up in Parkhead in Scotland in an Irish family, and was a bank manager. His English mother of Irish descent, Sian, worked in the civil service. Gareth was educated at Bournemouth School. and he studied drama at the University of East Anglia, Norwich, where he was in the university choir and composed music for theatre productions. After graduating he gave private tuition and then applied for a postgraduate vocal studies course at the Royal Academy of Music; he passed with distinction in 2005.

Until December 2009, Malone worked for the London Symphony Orchestra at LSO St Luke's where he ran their youth choir and community choir. Whilst working at the L.S.O., Malone was awarded the position of Edward Heath Assistant Animateur in 2001. He entered television work when approached by 20/20, a production company which wanted to make a series about singing in schools. Without knowing who could front the programme they had researched the term "community choirmasters" and discovered Malone's name. The Choir was the result and won two BAFTAs and a Broadcast award.

On 31 December 2009, Malone conducted the first New Year's Eve Twitter Community Choir performance of Auld Lang Syne. He asked his followers on Twitter, and friends on Facebook, to join in with the event.

A later project was The Knight Crew, a youth opera based on a book written by Nicky Singer and performed at Glyndebourne. After choosing approximately 50 cast out of over 400 applicants between the ages of 14 and 20 through workshops and auditions, and months of rehearsals, The Knight Crew was performed at Glyndebourne between 3 and 6 March 2010. The project was filmed for a television series, Gareth Malone Goes to Glyndebourne and aired on the BBC on 1 July 2010.

In May 2010, Malone was awarded the Freedom of the City of London by Nick Anstee, Lord Mayor of the City of London (not to be confused with the Mayor of London) in recognition of his music education work in that city.

In 2013, Malone recruited 16 singers aged from 18 to 27 for his Gareth Malone Voices choir. They recorded a CD album and gave concerts at 14 locations throughout Britain in 2014.

In October 2023, Malone became the patron of the Canterbury Choral Society.

Television work

Gareth Malone's television appearances began in 2007 with his reality television series The Choir, broadcast on BBC Two. The series focused on teaching choral singing to teenagers with no such experience, the first programme being set in Northolt High School, a comprehensive school in the west London suburbs. Subsequent programmes continued the theme by taking choral music to challenging situations: Boys Don't Sing (2008) featured pupils at Lancaster School, Leicester, an all-boys school where there was reluctance to sing; the third series, entitled Unsung Town, featured the formation of a community choir in South Oxhey, a suburban town where singing was not a common activity.

In 2010 Malone presented a children's programme for CBBC, The Big Performance in which ten keen, but extremely shy, young singers took the opportunity to overcome their fears. They sang for a larger audience each week, taking it in turns to be the soloist, and in the final week they performed for BBC Proms in the Park. A second series was broadcast in 2011 with the final week taking the form of a performance of a choral arrangement of the song "Keep Holding On" for the BBC charity telethon Children in Need 2011. The ten singers led a live choir in the studio along with children's choirs nationwide, linked by satellite.

For the BBC Two programme The Choir: Military Wives, first broadcast in November 2011, Malone went to Chivenor Barracks in Devon and 29Cdo in Plymouth creating two choirs from wives and partners of military personnel deployed to Afghanistan. The culmination of the programme was the opening performance for the Royal British Legion's Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall on 12 November 2011 where the Plymouthand Chivenor choirs performed as one. The three-minute piece performed by the Military Wives Choir was the song Wherever You Are, a love poem compiled from letters written between the women and their absent husbands and partners and set to music by composer Paul Mealor.

A successful campaign was launched to promote sales of the CD single, with the aim of it becoming the 2011 Christmas number one in the UK Singles Chart, which was supported by BBC Radio 2 DJ Chris Evans. First day sales, which included all pre-orders, indicated that they were outselling their closest rivals, Little Mix, by a hundred singles to one, causing Ladbrokes to close betting for the Christmas number one, and Simon Cowell to admit defeat in the race. The pre-order sales caused the single to become one of the top 20 best-selling music products of all-time at Amazon.co.uk.

In 2011, Malone's show Gareth Malone Goes to Glyndebourne won an International Emmy Award in the Best Arts Programme category.

On 16 November 2014, it was announced that Malone and a group of celebrities he had mentored had reached the UK number 1 with their Children in Need charity single "Wake Me Up", a cover of the song originally recorded by Swedish dance act Avicii.

On 10 September 2015, Malone appeared on the BBC One programme Who Do You Think You Are?

In 2017, Malone presented Pitch Battle on BBC One, which The Guardian described as a "new Saturday teatime singing contest". The review continued: "His Pitch Battle entrance – following the sort of VT explainer that Celebrity Big Brother contestants tend to receive – was excruciating. As the crowd roared, he opened his jacket and showed off his shirt, like a professional wrestler would if he was doing double duty as an usher at his cousin’s wedding." The show was axed after one series, although Malone defended the series in a Radio Times interview, saying: "I thought it was good".

In March 2020, Malone announced an initiative titled the Great British Home Chorus, a new home choir for people internationally whilst everyone was stuck at home during the COVID-19 pandemic. He also revealed he had been in talks with the BBC about making another television programme. In the first week over 100,000 people viewed the first session on YouTube. In July 2020, as a finale to the Great British Home Chorus, Malone orchestrated a choral version of You Are My Sunshine with over 11,000 singers taking part, accompanied by the London Symphony Orchestra. The song was released as a single, with all the profits being donated to NHS Charities Together.

In August 2022, Malone appeared on Celebrity Masterchef. He was eliminated in the quarterfinals of the competition.

In September 2022, Malone appeared in series 2 of The Masked Dancer as Cactus, and was eliminated in week 4.

Personal life

Malone is married to Becky, an English teacher. They live in North London with their three children. Their elder daughter, Esther, was born in 2010. Their son, Gilbert, was born in 2013. They also have a younger daughter, Dvora, who was born in 2019.

Bibliography

Gareth Malone has written two books on the subject of choral singing. His most recent title, Choir: Gareth Malone, is an account of the production of his television series The Choir.

Television filmography

Malone's television appearances include to date:

Discography

Albums

Singles

References

References

1. Douglas, Torin. (26 March 2010). "Winners – 36th BPG Television and Radio Awards". Broadcasting Press Guil d.
2. {{IMDb name
3. Ross, Deborah. (15 March 2008). "Gareth Malone: Note perfect". [[The Independent]].
4. {{London Gazette. (16 June 2012)
5. (16 June 2012). "Honours for Branagh and Jowell". [[BBC News Online]].
6. "Gareth Malone featured article: TheGenealogist".
7. Gibb, Bill (13 April 2014) [http://www.sundaypost.com/tv-showbiz/music-theatre/scots-singsongs-were-the-making-of-gareth-malone-1.316051 Scots singsongs were the making of Gareth Malone] The Sunday Post, Retrieved 1 June 2014
8. Performance and Identity in Irish Stand-Up Comedy: The Comic 'i' By Susanne Colleary, January 2015, Palgrave Macmillan, Page 24.
9. Black, Claire (1 June 2014) [http://www.scotsman.com/what-s-on/tv-radio/gareth-malone-on-the-choir-and-his-new-album-1-3241791 Gareth Malone on The Choir, and his new album] The Scotsman, Retrieved 1 June 2014
10. He sang with the Symphony Chorus of the [[Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra]] (BSO)Bournemouth Echo
11. (2008). "Television Nominations 2008". British Academy of Film and Television.
12. (2009). "Television Awards Winners in 2009". British Academy of Film and Television.
13. (2009). "Broadcast Winners for 2009 Announced". Directors UK.
14. (29 March 2010). "The Choir's Gareth Malone receives Freedom of the City of London". City of London Corporation.
15. Dammann, Guy (22 May 2014) [https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2014/may/22/gareth-malone-voices-tour-review Gareth Malone's Voices review – before you know it, you're singing too] The Guardian, Retrieved 1 June 2014
16. Laws, Roz (7 March 2014) [http://www.birminghampost.co.uk/whats-on/music-nightlife-news/gareth-malone-perform-birminghams-symphony-6774653 Touring is a dream for TV choirmaster Gareth Malone] Birmingham Post, Retrieved 1 June 2014
17. "Gareth Malone OBE patron of Canterbury Choral Society".
18. "BC Children in Need Appeal – Highlights 2". BBC Children in Need.
19. "Military Wives: Wherever You Are". Gareth Malone official website.
20. (2 December 2011). "Chris Evans backs military wives' choir in push for Christmas number one". The Daily Telegraph.
21. (November 2011). "2011 International Emmy® Award Nominees".
22. "BBC One - Who Do You Think You Are?, Series 12, Gareth Malone".
23. Heritage, Stuart. (19 June 2017). "Gareth Malone: the excruciating downfall of Mr Choir". The Guardian.
24. "Gareth Malone on the future of cancelled Pitch Battle: "The BBC haven't shot it in the back of the head"".
25. "Gareth Malone's ''Great British Home Chorus'' announced".
26. Shaw Roberts, Maddy. (31 July 2020). "11,000 voices sing 'You Are My Sunshine' in heartwarming finale to Gareth Malone's lockdown choir". [[Classic FM (UK).
27. (19 August 2022). "Celebrity MasterChef: Gareth Malone 'gutted' after elimination following 'curdled' custard catastrophe".
28. "About Gareth". GarethMalone.com.
29. "A girl is born!". GarethMalone.com.
30. (14 June 2020). "Gareth Malone admits he's cried during making of new 'virtual choir' TV show".
31. "Curtis Brown Literary and Talent Agency: Gareth Malone".
32. "Choir: Gareth Malone – Tears, Triumphs and Transformations". GarethMalone.com.
33. "TV Programmes". GarethMalone.com.
34. "Boys Don't Sing".
35. "Unsung Town".
36. "How a Choir Works".
37. "Shanties and Sea Songs with Gareth Malone".
38. "Gareth Malone Goes to Glyndebourne".
39. "Extraordinary School for Boys".
40. "Military Wives".
41. "The Choir: Sing While You Work".
42. [https://www.ssafa.org.uk/latest/military-wives-choir-world-war-one-prom BBC documentary tells story of the Military Wives Choir’s amazing World War One commemoration]{{Dead link. (July 2025)
43. "Sing for the King: The Search for the Coronation Choir".
44. "Gareth Malone's Easter Passion".
45. "Gareth Malone's Messiah".
46. "Gareth Malone". The Official Charts Company.
47. "Official Classical Artist Albums Chart 20 October 2013 - 26 October 2013". The Official Charts Company.
48. "Official Classical Artist Albums Chart 9 December 2016 - 15 December 2016". The Official Charts Company.
49. "Official Classical Artist Albums Chart 15 November 2019 - 21 November 2019". The Official Charts Company.
50. (25 December 2011). "Military Wives claim Christas number-one". [[The Official Charts Company]].
51. Campbell, Tina. (16 November 2014). "Gareth Malone's All Star Choir tops charts with Children In Need 2014 single". Metro.