Music Director - James Boyle
James is a member of the Association of British Choral Directors and has completed the initial conductors training with the organisation. He is originally from Edinburgh and started singing in choirs whilst at school, performing “Zadok the Priest” when he was 10 and performing the part of Sem in the School and Edinburgh Festival Productions of “Noyes Fludde” by Benjamin Britten when he was 13. He kept singing during his school years and performed many classical pieces during his time there.
James took a break from singing whilst he was at University but when he moved to Newcastle upon Tyne, he joined The Newcastle Male Chorus and even sang in The Royal Albert Hall as part of a concert of 1000 Yorkshire Male Voices (the Geordies became honorary Yorkshire men for the gig!). After he moved away from Newcastle he took a break from singing due to work and personal commitments but then in 2011 he joined The London Welsh Rugby Club Choir, of which he is still a member and is a trustee, the membership secretary and webmaster of the club. He has performed with them in France, The Netherlands and in the 2012 London Olympics Closing Ceremony.
James joined MK Acapella in 2013 when he moved to Milton Keynes. He was originally a Baritone but moved to the Bass section in 2015. He became the Club Vice-Chairman in 2014 and the deputy Music Director in 2015. He took over as the Chairman of MK Acapella from 2016 – 2019 and is currently the Public Relations Officer as well as having taken over as Music Director from 2021.
James has attended all of the BABS conventions since 2014 and has taken part in the Director’s Academies and a number of Harmony Colleges. In 2017, James took part in the Extreme Quartet stream at Harmony College (where you have to learn 6 songs and then sing them with 3 others in a competition with only 20 minutes to rehearse). He enjoyed it so much that he now attends various Harmony Brigades (where you have to learn 12 songs over about 4 months to performance standard and then compete with randomly selected others in one of the 12 songs which is selected randomly for you). James has participated in the UK, European and Mixed New England Brigades. Through his involvement with this area of Barbershop, he is also a member of Endeavour, which is a mixed Chorus and silver medallists in the 2019, 2022 and 2023 BABS mixed competitions. He was also a member of EQ Rendezvous, bronze medallists at the European Barbershop Mixed Chorus Championships held in Sweden in 2022.
James also enjoys singing in quartets and was a member of The Codebreakers, which was made up of members of MK Acapella but due to one of the members moving away from Milton Keynes, the quartet disbanded.
