Barry Hawken
Under the musical directorship of Mr Barry Hawken, Imerys Mid-Cornwall Male Voice Choir has enjoyed much success and renown for its high-quality singing and the variety of its concert performances. Exciting projects in recent years have included singing in the Hall for Cornwall and recording one of their songs for the BBC 1 programme ‘The Great British Countryside’. They also provided the musical setting for the film premiere of ‘Days of Clay’ shown at the Bell Theatre, Brannel School. Amongst their memorable performances they were part of ‘Kernowyon A Gan’ Men of Cornwall Sing at The Royal Albert Hall.
Barry Hawken is a true son of China Clay Country having lived his life, until last year when he moved to Mena just outside of St Dennis, in the small village of Whitemoor which lies on the edge of China Clay Country and the northern edge of Hensbarrow Downs. Barry’s early involvement with music was as a member of the St Dennis Youth Band under the late, great, Eddie Williams who led the Youth Band to many contest successes across the country, including being crowned National Youth Brass Band Champions of Great Britain in 1971 and 1972. Barry progressed to the senior band and was its General Secretary for a number of years.
In 1985, Barry was approached to help with a Musical to be produced by the Methodist Church at Whitemoor and this led to his involvement with choral music. Over the next ten years, Barry drew together some of the best young singers in Cornwall including Marc Ellery, Alison Juleff and Gary Tucker in a series of musicals which packed the chapel each year for five nights in a row. From these musicals, Barry formed the mixed-voice choir, ‘Halwyn a gan’, Cornish for ‘Whitemoor Sings’, continuing his role as Musical Director up until 2013.
Like many of his contemporaries, Barry went straight from school into the China Clay Industry, although in the office rather than in the processing side of the industry. After qualifying with the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply he held the position of Senior Buyer but it was still his love of music that most motivated him. In 2006 he took voluntary redundancy to begin work in schools across Cornwall, particularly in the mid-Cornwall cluster of primary schools which feed into Brannel Secondary School, thus pursuing his fervent belief that children from the China Clay Villages should be afforded the same musical opportunities and tuition which children from the more affluent areas of Cornwall have access to. As part of this strategy, Barry, with support from the Hall for Cornwall, formed the children’s choir, ‘Kernow Voice’.
The same year, Barry accepted an invitation to become the Musical Director of the ECC Engineers Male Voice Choir, leading to an amalgamation with the St Austell Male Choir to form the Imerys Mid Cornwall Male Choir.
As a freelance music practitioner, Barry has been heavily involved in projects for English Touring Opera, the Foundation for Youth Music, the National singing programme ‘Sing-Up’ and the Hall for Cornwall.
Outside of music, Barry has been Chairman and Secretary of many organizations, including Whitemoor Recreation Ground, Whitemoor Millenium Committee, St Dennis Band and Football Club Carnival Committee and is the Property Steward for Whitemoor Methodist Church. As a young boy, Barry was chosen to play the role of Tom Stocker in the BBC ‘Play for Today’ docu-drama, ‘Stocker’s Copper’ which follows the story of the 1913 China Clay Strike. The film’s Director, Jack Gold, won a ‘Best Director’ award and in subsequent years it was shown in a number of countries around the world, whose population, no doubt, form part of the Cornish diaspora.
Compiled and written by Tony Mansell (Bardh Kernow – Skrifer Istori)