Musical Director of the Linsdale Singers

Dennis Pim has been the Musical Director and conductor of the Linsdale Singers since the 1980s.

At school Dennis learnt the piano, organ and violin and sang in several choirs. Whilst at university in London he sang in and directed a number of choirs, formed his own group of eight singers, the Tadige Singers, who sang together regularly for over 10 years, and was the deputy conductor of the London University Choir of Christ the King under Alan Wilson with whom he also had organ lessons.

In 1981 Dennis moved to the Leighton Buzzard area of Bedfordshire to take up a post as lecturer at the Open University. Shortly afterwards he was invited to fill the vacancy of a conductor for the Linsdale Singers and he has been the Choir’s Musical Director and conductor ever since. As well as conducting the Linsdale Singers, over the years Dennis took a keen interest in the local operatic society which presented two fully staged musicals/operettas each year. With this society he variously performed on stage, directed or conducted shows (on occasion both at the same time), as well as taking on committee posts. As if the Linsdale Singers and the operatic society wasn’t enough, he was also director/singer with local 8-voice fund-raising group Octad and organist at his local village church – a post he held for nearly 25 years.

Today Dennis has now retired from his full time Open University post, but is still active in research into pitch drift in a cappella choral singing. Practial music-making remains an important aspect of his life, and as well as looking after the Linsdale Singers he is deputy conductor and member of both the Open University Orchestra and the Open University Choir, and a member of the Luton Concert Orchestra.

Since its founding in 2017 Dennis has been the Musical Director and conductor of the Leighton–Linslade Gala Orchestra. This group of around 40 players provides an opportunity for local musicians to play together, and to bring high-standard live orchestral music to Leighton Buzzard. Their repertoire generally consists of light music and popular classics, and all their concerts raise money for local charities. Dennis is very much enjoying this new venture of orchestral conducting which complements his main love of choral music.

Over the years Dennis has composed or arranged a number of mostly choral works, manu times in response to a particular need for the Linsdale Singers. He received a commission by the Open University Choir for its 25th anniversary and the Linsdale Singers regularly sing his settings of the Evensong service canticles and the preces and responses during their cathedral visits. More recently he has also enjoyed making some orchestral arrangements. In 2020 he finally completed his ‘Kingsfold Mass’, an unaccompanied Latin mass in four parts which was some 4 years in the making.

You can find recordings of a selection of pieces composed by Dennis in the Listen section of the website.