Musical Director

In 1948 Valerie M Chadwick, Festival 80 Choir's Musical Director, had an unusual start in life by being mistakenly advertised in the births column of the Rochdale Observer as Peter William!
From the age of five to eighteen she was educated at the Rochdale Convent Primary and Grammar School. It was during these years that her parents raised her interest in music and the singing, elocution and piano lessons began.
By the age of eighteen Valerie had won many music festivals and given concert tours at home and abroad. By this time too she had battled with a grand piano attached to the stage by a ball and chain in a Blckpool Theatre and had suffered the misfortune of falling off a stage whilst performing in a male prison in Rochdale's twin town of Bielefeld.
At eighteen Valerie was awarded a place at the Northern School of Music, Manchester, and three years later left there as a graduate (G.N.S.M.) and also a Licentiate of the Royal Academy of Music, London (L.R.A.M.)
Her teaching career in local schools eventually led her to take a Higher Degree in Counselling and Pastoral Care (D.A.S.E.) Lancaster, also qualifying as a registered Diagnostic Tester with the Phsychological Society. She was then promoted from Head of Upper School to Director of Senior Studies to Assistant Deputy Head in a large comprehensive school. During her teaching career she had also been music critic for the 'Rochdale Observer' and had established herself as a popular adjudicator and official accompanist at music festivals.
After twenty five years of teaching Valerie finally took early retirement in 1995 and is now a part time administrator in education.
Her lifelong interest in photography has more recently led to commissioned work on behalf of churches, some seeking English Heritage Lottery Funding. Many of Valerie's photographs of the churches' stained glass and artefacts have been successfully used in submissions for grants. Many others have been incorporated into books supported by biblical text. Three years ago Valerie and friend Freda Jackson became publishers in their own right and together they have now published nine books, all officially registered with the national libraries of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
Throughout all this Valerie has been the Musical Director of the Rochdale Ladies Choir for the best part of thirty five years and together they have given hundreds of charity concerts in and around Rochdale.
Other hobbies include computer studies in relation to art work, digital imagery and desk top publishing as well as reading and travel.
Valerie's latest achievement is to have been accepted as a member of the Association of Christian Counsellors (Pastoral Ministry) and she now hopes to extend her work in the field of counselling and related issues.