Welcome to FORTISMERE PERFORMING ARTS CENTRE
Fortismere MUSIC Centre
About
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.
Mission
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.
Cathal Garvey
Interim Community Choir Musical Director
Cathal Garvey began his career as chorus master for most of Ireland's major opera companies, including Opera Ireland, Opera Theatre Company, Anna Livia Opera Festival, Lyric Opera and Opera South, working on over fifty productions. He moved to the UK in 2009 to take up the position of Chorus Master and Assistant Conductor with Grange Park Opera. As a violinist, he continues to play professionally across the South East of England. At the Royal Academy of Music, Cathal teaches Orchestral Conducting to postgraduate choral conductors and also regularly teaches undergraduate students. He was appointed Honorary Associate of the Royal Academy of Music (Hon ARAM) in 2019.
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.