Gareth Edmund Malone (born 9 November 1975) is an English choirmaster and broadcaster, self-described as an "animateur, presenter and populariser of choral singing". He is best known for his television appearances in programmes such as The Choir, which focus on singing and introducing choral music to new participants. Malone was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2012 Birthday Honours, for services to music.
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,Gibb, Bill (13 April 2014) Scots singsongs were the making of Gareth Malone The Sunday Post, Retrieved 1 June 2014 and was a bank manager. His English mother of Irish descent, Sian,Performance and Identity in Irish Stand-Up Comedy: The Comic 'i' By Susanne Colleary, January 2015, Palgrave Macmillan, Page 24. worked in the civil service.Black, Claire (1 June 2014) Gareth Malone on The Choir, and his new album The Scotsman, Retrieved 1 June 2014 Gareth was educated at Bournemouth School. He sang with the Symphony Chorus of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra (BSO)Bournemouth Echo 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.Dammann, Guy (22 May 2014) Gareth Malone's Voices review – before you know it, you're singing too The Guardian, Retrieved 1 June 2014Laws, Roz (7 March 2014) Touring is a dream for TV choirmaster Gareth Malone Birmingham Post, Retrieved 1 June 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:
Date Title Broadcaster Notes 2007 BBC Two 2008 BBC Two 2009 BBC Two Broadcast by NHK Educational TV and (NHK Broadcasting Satellite Television 1) in Japan in 2010 2009 How a Choir Works BBC Four Single documentary 2009 Never Mind the Buzzcocks BBC Two Appeared as a guest on panel game show 2010 Sport Relief 2010 BBC One Appeared as a guest conducting the Olympic Choir 2010 Shanties and Sea Songs with Gareth Malone BBC Four Single documentary as part of BBC Sea Fever season 2010 Gareth Malone Goes to Glyndebourne BBC Two Example 2010 Extraordinary School for Boys BBC Two Example 2010 CBBC Series aimed at children 2011 The Choir Does Comic Relief 2011 BBC One Guest appearance on BBC Red Nose Day 2011 training a choir of celebrity chefs 2011 CBBC Series aimed at children 2011 Children in Need BBC One Guest appearance leading a choir of children 2011 BBC Two Spin-off single "Wherever You Are" released on 18 December 2011 2012 Sing While You Work BBC Two Four workplace choirs are formed and compete over six episodes 2012 Never Mind the Buzzcocks BBC Two Appeared as a guest on panel game show 2013 It Takes A Choir USA US version of The Choir 2013 Sing While You Work BBC Two Five workplace choirs are formed and compete over eight episodes 2013 Mr. Blue Sky (Jeff Lynne) BBC Four Choirs for a "The XX century Mozart, Jeff Lynne" 2014 Would I Lie To You? BBC One Appeared as a guest on the panel game show 2014 Gareth's All Star Choir BBC One A choir of celebrities create a recording of Avicii's Wake Me Up for Children in Need 2014 The Choir: New Military Wives BBC Two New military wives choir for the World War One PromBBC documentary tells story of the Military Wives Choir’s amazing World War One commemoration SSAFA 2015 Who Do You Think You Are? BBC One 2015 The Naked Choir with Gareth Malone BBC Two A cappella groups compete in a competition 2015 Gareth Malone's Big Choir Reunion BBC Two 2016 Gareth's Invictus Choir BBC Two In association with the Invictus Games 2016 The Choir: Gareth's Best in Britain BBC Two 2017 Pitch Battle BBC One Judge 2019 Britain's Christmas Story BBC One Co-presenter (with Karen Gibson) 2020 The Choir: Singing for Britain BBC Two 2022The Great Celebrity Bake Off for SU2CChannel 4Series 5; Episode 22022Celebrity MasterchefBBC OneSeries 17; Episodes 4-62022The Masked DancerITV2023Sing for the King: The Search for the Coronation Choir BBC OneWith Amanda Holden, Motsi Mabuse & Rose Ayling-Ellis2024Gareth Malone's Easter Passion BBC OneThree-part series2025Gareth Malone's Messiah BBC OneThree-part series
Discography Albums Title Year Peak chart positions UK UKClassical Voices Released: November 2013 Label: Decca Formats: CD, digital download 23 17 A Great British Christmas Released: December 2016 Label: Decca Formats: CD, digital download 45 2 Music for Healing Released: November 2019 Label: Decca Formats: CD, digital download 75 3
Singles Title Year Peak chart positions Sales UK "Wherever You Are" 2011 1 UK: 631,000 "Wake Me Up" 2014 1UK: 126,000 "Flesh and Blood" 2016 29
References
External links
Gareth Malone - Desert Island Discs Youtube video of Gareth conducting the Military Wives choir performing a Paul Mealor composition