Genesis




	The Wessar is the brainchild of Christopher Wiltshire, and the idea came to him from his widespread experience of teaching and examining music. You may be interested to read about his practical and academic experience to date.

As piano teacher, accompanist and repetiteur, efficient sight reading has been a cornerstone of Christopher Wiltshire’s musical life.

He was lucky. In his mid-teens, his cello teacher, Frances Isborn, insisted he sight read the piano parts of cello sonatas from Beethoven and Brahms to Richard Strauss and orchestral reductions of concertos from Haydn to Elgar. In fact he was sight reading, in rehearsal, the full cello repertoire with no chance of stopping to correct mistakes because he was accompanying a superb cellist.




	Teachers want a closer look after the Wessar presentations in Singapore.

He had to master the essential of reading at sight – continuity. This type of opportunity is not open to many but Christopher now hopes that the simple principle of the Wessar will help students enjoy this vital, rewarding and satisfying element in their musical training.

After these stimulating early years, Christopher spent four successful years at the Royal Academy of Music studying composition and orchestration (with Howard Ferguson and Richard Rodney Bennett), piano and trumpet. He was twice winner of the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Composer’s Award. Whilst completing the usual degrees and diplomas, he gained a B.Mus at Durham University and later undertook postgraduate studies in Music Education at London University. His Master’s degree at Sheffield (in composition) preceded a Doctorate at Goldsmith’s College London. In 1992, the Royal Academy awarded him an Honorary Diploma “for services to music”.

An initial career in teaching encompassed Primary, Secondary and Higher education. After turning free-lance, Dr. Wiltshire concentrated on conducting a variety of choirs and orchestras (including the award-winning Sheffield Chamber Orchestra), piano teaching and retailing his compositions through customscores.co.uk . Having worked in the professional theatre in London, his move to Sheffield enabled him to build links with the Crucible Theatre where for several years he worked as composer, arranger, coach and musical director. He has maintained strong links with music education through festival adjudication and his thirty years as an examiner world-wide for Trinity Guildhall.