Gareth Perkins developed a love of music at an early age, and began piano lessons at about the age of seven, and organ lessons a year later. He began performing professionally in public before his tenth birthday, and began his first regular church post at the age of eleven.
After schooling he trained in accountancy before becoming bored with number crunching. He read for his first degree in music at Dartington College of Arts where his major studies were organ and voice. Graduating with honours in 1994 and with the highest score for performance across the College during each of his three years there, he subsequently underwent a year's course in teacher training.
After this Gareth studied for a Master's degree in music at Birmingham Conservatoire, continuing his organ studies with David Saint. During this time he was Director of Music at St. Paul's Church in the Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham - the Collegiate Church of the Conservatoire - and here he established a fine new professional choir of music undergraduates and graduates drawn from the University and Conservatoire. His weekly organ recitals at St. Paul's were a popular part of music making in Birmingham, and he became established as a much sought-after choir trainer, organ recitalist and accompanist, working with a number of prestigious choirs.
Whilst in Birmingham he was appointed Head of Music and Senior Lecturer at Abbey College, which became ranked third in the country in national league tables during his time there. At this time, Gareth also began to give frequent organ recitals in cathedrals and other venues around the country. He has broadcast on several occasions as an organist and with various choirs.
He returned to Devon in 1997 to become Organist & Choirmaster at Paignton Parish Church and, subsequently, Musical Director of Britannia Choral Society at Dartmouth's Royal Naval College. He then also took on the Organist & Choirmaster position at Stoke Gabriel Church, which meant very busy Sunday mornings combining the two posts, and a certain amount of apprehension when visiting preachers' sermons overran the allotted time! Relinquished those positions, Gareth very much enjoying freelancing around the UK as an organist, choir trainer and vocal coach. However, as of Midnight Mass 2011, Gareth was persuaded to take on a new post at St. Andrew's Church, Paignton, and to form a new choir to sing in the splendid acoustic of this building, the church not having had a choir for many years. Gareth is enjoying this new challenge, and has already recruited a new four part choir, and is looking forward to future successes. .
As an organ recitalist he has played in most of the major venues in the U.K. He aims to give his programmes the widest possible appeal and to lead his audiences on a varied and thrilling musical journey through the organ's repertoire and transcriptions, revealing the organ to be truly 'The King of Instruments' and not a dusty collection of pipes from which obscure sounds - and obscure music - sometimes emit! As a vocal trainer, he delights in teaching and encouraging his singers to sing in the best of the bel canto style and to explore the enormous and wide-ranging repertoire available to singers, and he has a very successful record as a voice teacher and choir trainer. He is also known to be a very sensitive accompanist, and to be able to read complex accompaniments at sight with accuracy and awareness of style. He also has the knack of knowing how to rescue a performance if the soloist goes adrift! He loves teaching music and takes on a limited number of pupils in piano, organ and singing in order that he may be able to devote sufficient time to give them the best quality of tuition he is able to provide.
In addition to his Master's and Bachelor degrees, Gareth is privileged to be the only musician to hold the distinction of having successfully gained the highest qualification (Fellowship) of each of the three major music examination boards in the UK; he is a Fellow of the Associated Board of The Royal Schools of Music, of the Trinity College of Music (London) and of the London College of Music. He also holds the highly-regarded Associate diploma or the Royal College of Music.
His hobbies include sailing, cooking, gym, surfing the net, making wine and beer and enjoying his two cats Sesquialtera and Sifflet - both having found him as strays, and both named after organ stops!