Bernard Newman
Born in Bath, Bernard Newman gained a music scholarship to King’s College, Taunton, and then went on to study organ, piano, and composition at the Royal Academy of Music, where he won prizes for organ performance, harmony and improvisation. Whilst at the Academy he obtained his Fellowship of the Royal College of Organists, and LRAM in organ teaching. He also gained a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Durham.
After leaving the Royal Academy, he became Organist and Assistant Music Master at Wellington College, and then in 1975 Director of Music at Lord Wandsworth College, near Basingstoke. In 1992 he moved back to Bath, becoming Director of Music at Monkton Combe School. He retired from this post in 2009 to devote himself more to international examining.
He has also been conductor and accompanist for many choirs and choral societies, and was Founder and Director of the Bath All-Comers’ Orchestra, which gives opportunity for amateur musicians in the area to make music. He has also been called upon to adjudicate at many local music festivals, notably the Devizes Eisteddfod and the Bath Young Musician of the Year. Recently he has become a tutor on the “Pipe-Up” scheme, which aims to introduce the organ to young musicians in the Salisbury Diocese
Although teaching and examining commitments preclude the opportunity for too much performing, he has nevertheless given organ recitals in Holland, Germany, and, most recently, in Bath Abbey. In a lighter vein he has played at the Royal Albert Hall, London, at the Metropolitan Police Boxing Championships, and in San Diego, California, on the former BBC Concert Organ.
He lives near Bath with his wife, Debbie, and two daughters Rebecca, a nurse, and Beatrice, who is a ‘cellist and entering the Royal Academy of Music on a post-graduate scholarship.
