Baritone.

Stephen talks about a memorable venue, Jaca in Spain.

By some strange coincidence, my twin daughters were born in the same hospital in London as I was (though some thirty years later of course!) Known to everyone - except my parents - as Larry, I am married to the soprano/student/supermum Lucinda Houghton. As well as the twins we now have two boys and live at the end of a track in the Ashdown Forest with our three cats and lots of deer and creeping things.

My early musical training was with the inspirational Peter Branker at the choir of Christ Church, Southgate in North London, where I grew up. For my sixth form years I was lucky enough to go to the Latymer School in Edmonton. The music-making there was exceptionally good as it was directed by Michael Brewer (who went on to take charge of music at Cheetham's, the specialist music school in Manchester). With the school choir I got to perform works such as Belshazzar's Feast and the B-minor Mass - real revelations for me at the time. The madrigal group won many prizes, including the BBC's 1974 “Let the People Sing” competition. It was the enjoyment and satisfaction I got from all this that led me to consider a career as a professional singer.

At the Royal College of Music in London I studied with Hervey Alan (a famous bass-baritone of the 1940s and '50s) and also took the 'cello for a couple of years. In 1977 I auditioned for Andrew Parrott and was invited to join the Taverner Choir for a reconstruction of the 1589 Florentine Intermedii at St John's, Smith Square - my first big 'early music' gig. I went on to perform and record with many of the leading choirs in London, both as a chorus member and soloist. After ten years of freelance work and the arrival of three of my four children the need for a more regular income led me to audition for the BBC Singers, the UK's only full-time professional choir, a job I still retain.

I can't actually remember the first time I sang for Gothic Voices, but it must have been some time in the 1980s. I follow an illustrious line of basses and baritones - including Richard Wistreich, Peter Harvey and Colin Mason. I soon became a regular fixture with the group, especially on recordings which needed one or even two baritones, or when one of the tenors was unavailable (as I started out with the Taverner Choir singing tenor, I can usually manage the tessitura!). It is a welcome change from my diet of largely contemporary music at the BBC Singers. There is nothing that beats working with the small group of talented (and lovely!) singers that make up Gothic Voices.

I spend my spare time struggling with an array of bad-tempered, petrol-driven garden machinery and pretending that I enjoy playing football with my sons. My hobby is avoiding doing my accounts, one at which I seem to be extremely successful. My mother, having failed to give me the middle name 'Procrastination', always said that written on my gravestone would be the inscription 'I WAS JUST GOING TO' - what my dear wife says will be written there is unrepeatable!!