Grenville Jones announces decision to step down from Bath choirs

Grenville Jones, affectionately known as “Bath’s Mr Music” due to his popular concerts and charity work, has announced he will be standing down from leading his choirs in the city.

Photo © Grenville Jones / Grenville Music

After 30 years of conducting choirs in Bath, he will be stepping down at the end of this year.

Grenville’s association with Bath choirs started when he was invited to conduct an established Bath mixed-voice choir in 1997 which was in decline.

During the 11 years with them, he rebuilt numbers to over 80 singers and took them to Europe, Canada and New Zealand.

He also introduced ‘celebrity’ concerts, with named stars such as Jamie Cullum, Alfie Boe, Aled Jones, Hayley Westenra, Clare Teal and Katherine Jenkins.

Grenville is the founder of the nationwide charity Golden-Oldies, which he launched in 2007. The charity, of which Sir Cliff Richard is Patron, has continued to grow and now hosts over 180 singing sessions for older vulnerable people across England and Wales.

Part of his reason for stopping his choir work locally is to allow more time to direct and manage the ever-growing Goldies Charity, which has received numerous accolades and awards in past years.

Bath Spa University awarded Grenville an Honorary Doctorate for his community music work and in 2018 the Goldies Charity won the prestigious National Lottery Awards Education Category.

It’s 16 years since he started the Bath Good Afternoon Community Choir and there are now 32, including four new afternoon choirs in South London.

Grenville is also the founder of the celebrated City of Bath Male Choir, which were finalists in the BBC’s ‘Last Choir Standing’ TV series with tours across Europe, Boston, Nashville and Japan.

His son Laurie took over as Musical Director last year, but Grenville maintains close links with the choir and is currently planning a visit to Bath’s twin city Alkmaar next April with a group of over 60.

He said: “No I’m not retiring! I will continue conducting my new mixed-voice Tuesday evening choir in South Gloucestershire and the Devizes Good Afternoon Choir on Friday afternoons.

“Bath has too many choirs in my opinion, hence my bowing out! There just are not enough people who want to sing and getting audiences has become tougher these last few years.

“I’ve loved the time spent with some wonderful people, but it seems that every week there’s yet another Bath evening choir starting.

“Time for me to concentrate on my music business, growing my afternoon choirs across the UK and leading developments with the Goldies Charity.”

Grenville has raised thousands of pounds for various charities, plus over £1 million for his own charity.

After the death of his middle son, Kieron, in 2023, he arranged and funded a special memorial concert in Bath Abbey which supported the local ‘We Get It’ cancer support charity in Bath, raising over £8,000 for their work.

Grenville’s final Christmas charity concert will be in St Michael’s Church on Saturday 21st December. Tickets are available from grenvillemusic.ticketlight.co.uk or by calling 0844 888 9991.