Neil Shrimpton

Neil Shrimpton

Musical Director (& Arsenal fan)

Neil is and always has been, our resident Musical Director on our stage shows and rehearsals.  You will see him on stage with his trademark ‘white’ jacket.

Having shown a natural talent for music at an early age, Neil began formal piano lessons aged 6 and went on to graduate as a classical pianist from the London College of Music in 1992, followed by a Post-Graduate diploma in Composing for Film & Television in 1993.

As a full time professional musician, Neil enjoys a varied career as a teacher, performer (variously as concert pianist, accompanist & theatre pit musician) & musical director and also as a composer/arranger/orchestrator & conductor. Equally at home with classical, jazz, popular music & musical theatre,

Neil’s versatility means he is usually working on several projects at any given time, combining or switching between a number of different musical roles over the course of an average week.

Neil has been VIAM’s musical director since the project began and as well as conducting the mass choir at all the shows (the glamorous bit!) he works closely with the stage choir at their monthly rehearsals, producing all the extra harmonies & backing vocals, and is also heavily involved with producing the guide tracks & sheet music for the schools.

Neil’s other talents have also been employed to produce piano tracks for previous shows & on the “Smile” album and he even sang lead vocals on a rendition of the Blues Brothers classic “Everybody Needs Somebody” in previous VIAM shows.