Composers

The Manchester Chorale is fortunate to have a number of talented composers in its ranks:

Keith Berrett

Now a retired finance director, Keith originally studied music at Goldsmiths in London. Over the years he has written arrangements and occasional compositions for local chamber choirs Amici, Duodecimo and Capriccio, and more recently the Manchester Chorale.

An interest in composition led him to devising and running the Chorale’s 40^th Anniversary Composition Competition. Away from music he looks after the finances for a local golf club and also publishes cryptic crosswords under the pseudonym “Starhorse” (which, appropriately enough, is an anagram).

Mary Black

As a singer, choir director (https://liverpoolphoenixvoices.co.uk/) and composer, Mary is able to incorporate her research in singing and directing into her varied practice. Her recent publications include:

Music and Mental Imagery Music and Mental Imagery (Routledge)

Justin Evans

Chris O’Hara

Chris is a music teacher in Manchester and has experience both as a singer, a choral director and composer; he has also been a composer and arranger for the BBC. Compositions include works for children, SATB choirs and orchestra. His composition ‘We Dare to Dream’ was awarded 1st prize as the theme song for the 2013 Hong Kong International Youth and Children’s Choir Festival.

In 2014 he was a finalist in the first Jean Sibelius International Composition Competition and in 2015 was awarded the Pullen Memorial choral composition prize in the USA. In 2018 Manchester Chorale premiered his composition ‘Scars Upon Their Hearts’, settings of poems written by women poets of WW1. In 2022 he was awarded 2nd prize in the Japan ICC Competition and in May 2025 gained 1st prize in the Madrigal Chorale (Detroit MI) composition contest. In August 2025 his version of ‘Ave Verum’ was awarded silver in the International Ave Verum Composition Competition.