Leigh Mason
Leigh is a graduate of the University of Wales in Bangor where she was awarded a B.Mus. and an M.A. in Performing and Conducting. She subsequently went on to gain a PGCE and currently teaches music at Ysgol Bryn Hyfryd, Ruthin.
Although she loves teaching, singing has been Leigh’s passion since her school days. She started as one of the founder members of the Chester Primary Schools Choirs, going on to become a founder member of the Flintshire County Youth Choir. She has since sung with the Four Counties Youth Choir, the National Youth Choir of Wales and with the Sirenian Singers.
Leigh is a talented alto and at university, she performed in many major works such as Mozart’s Requiem, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Handel’s Messiah and Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana. She sang the part of the Angel in Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius and the Second Witch in Purcell’s opera Dido and Aeneas. Since leaving university she has sung with the Chester Operatic Society in Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado.
Leigh is also a talented instrumentalist, playing piano, flute, double bass and trombone in wind bands, string orchestras, jazz bands and also in the pit orchestra for shows including Oh What a Lovely War, Oliver, Guys and Dolls, Jekyll and Hyde and My Fair Lady.
But Leigh feels most at home when she picks up the baton! She was the choral director for the Bangor University’s music society and in 2007 conducted the Wrexham Musical Theatre Society’s production of The Wizard of Oz. In September 2008 Leigh became the Choral Director of the Mold and District Choral Society.
In 2017 Leigh founded Lleisiau’r Afon, a ladies choir based in her home village of Carrog. They learned very quickly and soon became a force to reckon with and can occasionally be seen singing alongside the Fron in concert.
In March 2010 Leigh became the fifth conductor of the Froncysyllte Male Voice Choir since its formation in 1947 and its third female conductor. Since joining the choir she has unquestionably stamped her personality on the choir with her dynamic and energetic style of conducting, which has become as important a part of the choir’s performance as the singing.
In the last eight years Leigh has conducted over 100 concerts travelling all over the UK and Ireland as well as internationally to New York and, most recently, to Austria in 2018. She has led the choir to competition success in the Isle of Man, the Derry International Choral Festival and swept the board at the 2017 Cornwall International Male Voice Choir Competition.
However, leading the choir to victory in the Male Voice category at the Llangollen International Music Eisteddfod in July 2018 is her greatest achievement to date. Leigh herself described it as “achieving one of my life’s ambitions”.