Welcome to FORTISMERE PERFORMING ARTS CENTRE
Fortismere MUSIC Centre
About
Mission
Fortismere Music Centre was founded in 2009 to provide high-quality instrumental lessons and ensembles to the local community. Our music school, community choir and symphony orchestra are bound together by a belief that community music-making should be bold and ambitious, tackling the most exciting themes and composers, with a flair for the theatrical and a sense of fun. Above all else, we invite everyone to join in. We believe that it is in such an experience of joining in, either as an instrumental student or a singer, as an orchestral player or an audience member, that the truest sense of our community flourishes.
Meet the Team
Thomas Gregory
Community Symphony Orchestra Musical Director​
​
Thomas Gregory studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in his hometown London. From then he received a fellowship to continue his studies at the University of Michigan, completing both a Masters and Specialist degree in cello performance studying with the eminent Danish Cellist Erling Bløndal Bengtsson. Thomas performs regularly as soloist with an extensive knowledge of the solo repertoire. As a member of the Marmara Piano Trio, he performs regular concerts throughout the year. Thomas has been Musical Director of the Community Symphony Orchestra since 2009.
Marvin L. Perrott
Community Choir Musical Director​
​
Marvin studied Early Music at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and has extensive experience both as a singer and conductor. Equally at home in the concert hall Marvin has performed as a soloist in the Messiah, Monteverdi’s 1610 Vespers and Bach’s H-moll Messe at the Aldeburgh Music Festival. In 2004 Marvin formed the Clemens non Papa Consort, a group whose aim is to perform lesser known works of the Baroque, Renaissance and Classical periods to a high artistic standard. Marvin has been Musical Director of the Community Choir since 2015.
Mattie Morgan
Centre Manager
​
Mattie has had links with Fortismere music-making for many years, first of all through her children and more recently as a member of the Community Choir. She has played the piano since the age of 4, and sang in the Cambridge University Music Society choir as a student under Stephen Cleobury, performing in venues such as the Royal Albert Hall and King's College Chapel. Having started her working life in the Marketing Department of Trinity College of Music, she spent the intervening years working in editorial roles in non-governmental organisations and then as a teacher, before taking up the Centre Manager post at FMC where she is excited to be getting the opportunity to play the piano with the Orchestra as well.