Musical Director

Reginald Searle

Our Musical Director, Reginald Searle (Reg) studied at the Royal College of Music before graduating in 1963. He taught in two London schools and worked part time in the music profession, singing a range of music from opera to television variety shows. He then taught in Suffolk for five years before moving to Longsands School, St. Neots, as Director of Music.  He founded the Longsands Choral Society in 1971 to enable the school choir to perform much more ambitious works than had previously been the case.  Financial pressures soon required that the Society became independent under its present name St. Neots Choral Society.

Reg changed to teaching Mathematics in 1975 when he became a Housemaster at the school. He also returned to solo singing at that time and has sung with several societies in the area.

In 1989, with more than a little encouragement from his wife, he founded the St. Neots Sinfonia, which has since given 3 or 4 performances per year of works from the standard orchestral repertoire - two of which are joint concerts with the Choral Society.

Reg took early retirement from Longsands in July 1994 when the pastoral structure of the school was re-organised. This has enabled him to concentrate on writing more music than was the case hitherto.

In 2024, Reg was shortlisted for the Lady Hilary Groves prize by Making Music, awarded to an individual or group who has made an outstanding contribution to British Music.