Our Music Director, Paul Dunderdale

Paul comes from Preston in Lancashire and read Music at the University College of North Wales in Bangor.  He went on to attain a Masters in Education from Liverpool University. He is married with two sons.  

Paul worked in arts administration and studio production during the '70s, and came to the island in 1980.  He taught Music and Music Technology to A-level at Castle Rushen High School for 20 years and, prior to his retirement in 2004, he taught at Ramsey Grammar School.  

He sang in choirs from an early age and took up clarinet at 12.  At 16 he gathered a group of friends together to form a chamber orchestra, thus starting him down the slippery slope that is conducting.

He first worked with a windband while teaching in Manchester in 1978 and has worked with windbands ever since.  Over the last few years, Paul has also worked with the Wanderers Male Voice Choir and, more recently, with the Onchan Silver Band.

In 1997, Paul was co-founder of the Isle of Man Wind Orchestra, together with Henry Teare and Chris Weldon.  He has had many highlights with the band in the past fourteen years and looks forward to many more.

Paul's musical interests are eclectic.  He is an occasional composer, with a long-standing interest in music technology, and has produced music for a number of plays and for the Island's  "Our Town" feature in the Millennium Dome.  He has written and arranged a number of pieces for windband and 'Manannan', his suite for band based on Manx folk tunes, was recently published.

In his spare time he enjoys reading, hill walking, cooking, fly fishing and photography.