David Leeke  1957-2014

Musical Director 2006-2013

Obituary

 David Leeke was a native of Shrewsbury; educated at the local grammar school, he went on to study organ at the Royal College of Music and then taught music in Kent for over twenty years. On his return to Shrewsbury in 2000 he became Organist and Director of Music at Shrewsbury Abbey, and in 2006 he took up the post of Director of Music and Liturgy at St Chad's Church. He was also appointed as Shrewsbury Cantata Choir’s musical director in 2006 after our founder, Ian Ward, left Shropshire to work in France.   At St Chad’s David oversaw the rebuilding of the organ and established St Chad's Music Festival and the Sam Baker School of Church Music which supports the training and education of those involved in church music. He also set up programmes for children's choirs, choral scholarships and concerts.     During his time in Kent David was appointed as Music Adviser to the Diocese of Canterbury, which presented opportunities for him to conduct televised and other broadcast events in Canterbury Cathedral. This experience stood him in good stead in 2008, when the BBC filmed three episodes of Songs of Praise from St Chad’s church. Normally the BBC likes to provide their own conductor; however, in this instance they were happy for David to lead the music. Shrewsbury Cantata Choir was the featured choir for the Remembrance Sunday programme, which was an especially moving one.    David worked tirelessly to educate, encourage and inspire music-making in Shropshire and beyond, and was keen to involve children and young people in this. As well as being a senior examiner for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM) in the UK and overseas, he was active in serving the Royal School of Church Music (RSCM) as a Regional Coordinator and examiner, and in chairing the Lichfield Area Committee. He was honoured with an Associateship of the RSCM, as well as a Community Award from Shrewsbury’s mayor, earlier this year.   With a lifetime’s wealth of experience of choral music David had developed the great ability of putting together a varied and interesting programme, and he helped to extend Cantata’s repertoire. Under David’s baton we were urged, some of us semi-reluctantly, out of our comfort zone of such great choral classics as J S Bach’s St Matthew Passion, Haydn’s Creation, or Elijah (Mendelssohn) into a ‘Brave New World’ of works like Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast, for example, or the little-known St Mark Passion by Charles Wood - not to mention Paul Patterson’s Canterbury Psalms and lighter items such as an arrangement of John Bratton’s The Teddy Bears’ Picnic. His patience, hard work and persistence in this were rewarded - and our musical horizons were broadened.    In rehearsal David urged us as a choir to look beyond the notes themselves and focus on the ‘broad brushstrokes’ of producing a really musical sound; he had an aversion to the minutiae (not to mention tedium) of over-rehearsal. ‘Think about the phrasing: give it some shape!’ he would say. Whether or not we always delivered the required 'shape' is debatable, but he was quick to praise when we got a particularly demanding passage right, and a blissful smile would light up his face if we sang especially beautifully.   David’s supremely laid-back approach to most things - including rehearsals, administration and budgets - had the potential to exasperate some of the more pernickety among us at times, but the bottom line was that he focused on what he saw as of prime importance, and together we worked to achieve a good end result. He drew on his wide network of contacts to provide excellent orchestral players and soloists for concerts, which were always all about the music and never an exercise in egotism or self-aggrandisement. David had an unfailing confidence in the choir’s ability to produce fine performances and somehow, like a rabbit out of a hat, we rose to the challenge and did just that.   Cantata’s Silver Jubilee concert in April 2011 was a very special one, with David Leeke and Ian Ward both conducting. Our incoming musical director, Thomas Payne, was also present on that unique occasion.   On a personal note, I am especially grateful to David for using some of my choral compositions and arrangements with Cantata. Hearing a piece ‘in the flesh’ after being contained merely in the composer’s mind is a thrilling experience, so I record here my own sincere thanks to David for such encouragement and affirmation.   David resigned as Musical Director of Shrewsbury Cantata Choir early in 2013, following his diagnosis of stomach cancer. Throughout the final months of his life, he was determined not to let his illness - or treatment - prevent him from continuing to do what he could when he could; he had a zest for life and was a generous-spirited man with a good sense of fun. He remained passionate about making good music and has made an outstanding contribution to the musical life of Shrewsbury and much farther afield.   David married Kathryn, whom he clearly adored, last September.

Gill Berry (alto)