Gareth Malone is a classical singer, teacher, animateur and television presenter. The charismatic choirmaster is perhaps best known for his work on the BBC programme, BAFTA award-winning, The Choir. Gareth's work is based on bringing inner city school children and the general public together through singing. 

Gareth Malone has been obsessed with music since before he can remember. He began  playing the piano as a young child and singing has been part of his life since the very beginning. Gareth grew up in London until he was ten, when his family moved to Bournemouth and he attended the local grammar school. It was here that his love of choirs began.

Studying Drama at the University of East Anglia Norwich, Gareth had to fit music into his spare time. But he was always in the university choir and started composing music for theatre productions. When he finished his  studies he wanted to continue learning about singing, and  so after a few years of private tuition auditioned for a postgraduate course at The Royal Academy of Music in, London . After two years of very hard work he passed with distinction in 2005.

The other side of Gareth's career has been working with the London Symphony Orchestra. He was awarded the position of Edward Heath Assistant Animateur in 2001, helping with school visits, education projects and little bits of concert presenting. He then went on to work with them regularly and was assistant conductor to Marin Alsop on Bernstein's Mass in June 2005. In 2009 he became chorus-master for Britten's St Nicolas Mass with Ian Bostridge and Laurence Cummings. Gareth also runs the LSO St Luke's Community and Youth Choirs which draw people from all over Hackney and Islington to the LSO's education centre in Old Street, EC1. 

Alongside his animateur work, Gareth has began presenting. He recently co-presented an open-air relay in London's Trafalgar Square of Verdi's Don Carlo with Deborah Bull for the Royal Opera House. In 2009 he made a programme called Why Do We Sing? for BBC Radio 4 which gave him a fascinating insight into the origins of singing in our species, looking right back to singing in early humans and Neanderthals.

Gareth is perhaps best known for BBC2's The Choir. The series has become incredibly successful, winning a BAFTA, an RTS and a Broadcast award. He is still in contact with many of the singers from previous projects and is delighted by the progress made by Lancaster School Choir  in the last year, proving that boys really can sing.

"Jamie Oliver might have changed school dinners with his TV series but Gareth Malone showed that we are more, much more than we eat." 
Norman Lebrecht, Evening Standard

"This is a series that shows an exceptional person trying to do something worthwhile" 
David Chater, The Times

"As profoundly a moving piece of television as has ever been made" 
Deborah Ross, The Independent

"One of the most enthralling, informative and uplifting reality series yet made" 
Andrew Billen, The Times

"[A] compelling sociological experiment... Oh Gareth, how much more love can we give you? None for you have it all" 
Daily Telegraph

"This series is so uplifting, you'll want to sing 'Hallelujah!'" The
Radio Times

LSO Youth Choir: "it was clear that Malone's talent as a conductor was bringing out the best in the choir while also encouraging them to ever greater heights." 
Music Teacher July 2006 (Magazine)

"As you can imagine, agreeing to TV cameras being in school for 26 weeks was not an easy decision. However I have to say its possibly the best decision I have ever made!" 
Paul Craven, Headteacher of The Lancaster School in the Times Education Supplement

"The Choir is sensational television because Gareth Malone is moulding young minds, forming young characters, before your very eyes. You see schools as they should be: a strong, respected headmaster, an ethos of inspiration. Above all, you see the wonderful spirit of children, the rebel who performed brilliantly at the Albert Hall, the son of immigrant parents from Vietnam who felt they had reached their journey's end, the boy with cancer who declared himself a fighter. Who would have thought a school choir would be a metaphor for an ideal society." 
Sarah Sands, The Independent on Sunday