Glasgow Lives: Neil, Renfrew, Director of Symphonnix Rock.
I first got into music when I was a wee boy. My grandad was a trumpet player in World War II and he had an old rickety trumpet with every dent you can imagine after having travelled the world. He picked it up and started to play it for me when I was about eight-years-old and I just thought it was really cool that someone could make such a great sound from what was basically a bit of metal.
Once I got there it was quite an odd moment. I got through school knowing music was the only thing I was good at and interested in, but I went to the building knowing I wasn’t the best. I was going there to become the best trumpet player, but at the same time I knew it wasn’t going to happen. I knew my heart wasn’t in it because my passions lay in another kind of music. While I was there I taught myself guitar which opened up the world of singing too.
When I left the Academy and began to carve out a career, I started to play the trumpet in the musical theatre scene. I often thought to myself, ‘some of these shows are missing a lot,’ which steered me into the world of musical directing. I began an eight year career of musical direction across every theatre in central Scotland which developed my interest in choral singing and the creation of Musichoir.
After two years in the making, Symphonix Rock Orchestra is a culmination of everything I’ve been involved in in my entire musical career. I wanted to create a high-end, contemporary rock orchestra where all the big anthems will be played in a new, fresh way. In Scotland there’s nothing like it - and there never has been. Of course there’s so many classical and regional amateur orchestras, but nothing like a performance-based, rock-themed orchestra.
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