Our pupils do amazing things every single day, but behind those achievements are all of the hardworking staff here at Merchant Taylors’ School. In Staff Spotlights we look to explore the diverse backgrounds and skills of the people who make Merchant Taylors’ a great place to be. This week we hear from Ian Crawford, Assistant Director of Music.
When did you join Merchant Taylors?
I’m new this year; I joined in September, like many others!
Tell us about your role. What excited you about it? How did you get into it?
I’m the Assistant Director of Music, so I teach music across the school, assist Mr. Couldridge with the running of the department and contribute to all aspects of music-making at Taylors’. I also have particular responsibility for choirs and choral singing here at school, which was one of the things that really excited me about the job. Fundamentally, I think singing is a great thing for everyone to do. It makes us feel better, it helps us express how we feel and it brings people together as a community (whether that’s in a school, a place of worship, a stadium or anywhere else). I’m really looking forwards to working with my colleagues – both here in Music and across the school – to explore opportunities for singing as the year goes on.
What are you most proud of outside of your work at school?
Outside of school, I compose choral music for a wide range of singing groups and I’m always really delighted whenever a choir decides to sing one of my pieces. I found out the other day that a choir in Australia was going to be singing one of my Christmas carols this year, which I thought was amazing. Sadly, it’s a bit far to go for one concert, but I’m sure they’ll do a fantastic job.
What did you study at A-Level?
Music, Early Modern History, English Literature and Maths.
What piece of media would you recommend and why?
That’s a good question! Something I’m just starting to get to grips with is Spotify and music streaming in general. I have concerns with how streaming works as a business (in particular, how so little of the money it makes gets passed on to the musicians), but for the listener, it’s a brilliant resource for finding new artists, new tracks and new styles of music that you might never have discovered otherwise. Maybe, once we find a new artist we really like via streaming, we could all buy one of their CDs too…
