The Staff

Gareth Henderson has been a professional singer for nearly 25 years. In that time he has worked with Bill Wyman of the Rolling Stones, Mark Hill, the award winning songwriter and producer and Dance Music legend "Yazz" (The Only Way Is Up).

He has sung in many of the bands that have graced the South's music scene from the mid eighties onwards, performing his last "official" gig on the Millenium - after all, no one gets to do two of those!

He has been a professional vocal coach since 1997 and during that time has taught a huge number of pupils who have gone on to make success from their vocal talents, including not just many local gigging singers but leads in Les Miserables in the West End, vocal harmony act 4Tune who were highly praised for their vocal abilities on the X-Factor and in addition he helped Yazz with her vocal development during the recording of her "Running Back To You" album.

As a live vocalist, he has performed in literally thousands of gigs including venues like Southampton's Mayflower Theatre, the Bournemouth BIC, the West End's Strand theatre and the London Palladium.

He spent ten years as vocal arranger and coach to the school's big 'Pop Gospel' choir, En Masse, where he developed a passion for harmony vocals that regularly gets put to good use in the recording studio, creating complex vocal arrangements.

He owns a top quality recording studio that has an outstanding reputation, in particular for it's vocal results, with a diverse range of styles from classical to thrash metal and everything in between.

Robin Gair, the school's founder, has been a singer for in excess of 45 years. His career encompasses many genres of music but he remains spectacularly enthusiastic about most of them.

As a vocalist he has supported acts like Manfred Mann and John Lee Hooker as well as singing in many of the finest rock/pop acts to come out of the Wiltshire area.

In addition to forming the original Southern School of Popular Singing, he also started the school's well regarded Pop Choir En Masse, comprised of approx 40 of the schools pupils, who performed in venues across the country.

He also started En Masse's junior division, E Minor Pop Academy, who now have around 100 members across the two branches.

Having started the school back in 1993, Robin has now retired from general full time vocal coaching but is still available for specialist workshops and specific vocal needs.

E Minor Pop Academy Principal, Louise Henderson began her dancing career aged 3 years old!

She has studied Ballet, Tap, Modern and Street dance and has over 25 certifications in various disciplines of dance.

She has performed in over 10 musical theatre productions as well as performing live in pop shows at venues like the Mayflower theatre, Bournemouth Pavillion, Salisbury City Hall as well as The Strand Theatre in the West End and indeed the London Palladium.

Additionally she spent five years performing regularly as a vocalist with a live pop act in various smaller venues across the country.

Having been born into the musical family that began the entire Southern School Of Popular Singing and E Minor Pop Academy concepts and growing up around musicians (her Godfather was actually once one of the Bee Gees!), it was inevitable that she would end up working in the field of music and performing.

Her role in The E Minor Pop Academy includes not only managing the individual branches of the academy on a week by week basis but also administering the shows and choreographing the dance routines.

Her other full time role as a mother of three boys has gained her a huge amount of experience in the gentle but firm handling of energetic youngsters.

Although she has a full time job in Marketing, Lydia has been working as a Choreographer with the E Minor Pop Academy for the last ten years.

Lydia started training as a dancer at the age of 3, and has gained many dancing qualifications, including Ballet, Modern and Tap. Dancing is one of her real passions, which is why she loves being able to pass on her techniques to the members of the academy every Saturday.

As well teaching Choreography, Lydia also gets involved with some of the vocal coaching, and like dancing has been singing for many years.

Not only has she performed in many venues around the south, she has also had the privilege of performing live at the London Palladium, which is one of her biggest achievements to date. Lydia is extremely outgoing and brings a lot of fun to the Academy. If you come to see our shows, you may even be lucky enough to see Lydia comparing the evening!

Louise has been singing for about 15 years. Her training began classically, singing in choirs at school and around the country, and singing in places such as St. Paul's Cathedral and Westminster Abbey.

At the age of 12, she discovered The Southern School of Popular Singing and quickly started having private lessons (which she maintains today). She later became a member of 'En Masse', giving her the opportunity to perform regularly in shows, both locally and in venues such as The London Palladium and The Strand Theatre, London.

At present, as well as being a singing coach for the E-Minor Pop Academy, Louise is a full time Primary School Teacher and music co-ordinator for her school. She also sings in a 4-piece harmony girl band '4Real' and a popular tribute band 'Abba Rival', both of which take her singing to venues and events around the country.

Charlotte has been singing since the age of nine, which is when she started her singing lessons with Gareth Henderson. After being a member for 6 years at The E Minor Pop Academy, she never dreamed that she would be successful enough to be one of the vocal coaches of the Academy! She is extremely privileged to still be a big part of this fantastic organisation.

Charlotte has always had a love for music, both singing and playing the Violin and has recently passed Grade 5 in the Theory of Music. This has given Charlotte a great understanding, which is especially helpful in her vocal coaching.

As well as teaching The Pop Academy, Charlotte is part of a girl group called '4 Real', gigging mostly around Southampton and Salisbury. She is currently at the University of Winchester studying a BA (Hons) in Primary Teaching, and although it is hard work, she absolutely loves it!

Jack White became a member of Southampton's E-Minor Pop Academy in 2001 aged 11. At such a tender age, Jack's feel and natural talent for singing was clear. During his four years as a pupil, he undertook private lessons with Gareth Henderson, giving him essential vocal training and guidance in the music industry. It was through his singing that Jack realised that he also had a natural flair for songwriting.

Jack's experience in performing and singing is pretty impressive to date. Not only has he performed to over 32,000 at Southampton's 'St. Mary's Stadium', he also landed himself the lead role of Michael Jackson in Patrick Alan's west-end show 'Thrillerlive' in the 'Dominion theatre'.

Jack has also sung at a number of jam nights in London, where celebrities such as Will Smith, Joss Stone, Duffy, John Legend and many more have performed live. Live music is one of Jacks greatest passions, which is very much expressed in his original material that he writes. Jack is now tacking every opportunity to start focusing more on his own material, which he intends to record very soon.

Although only 18, Daniel Cooper has a list of achievements within the music business. Joining the teaching staff of Salisbury E-Minor Pop Academy is his latest venture and one that Dan feels privileged to be a part of.

Dan started singing aged 11, when he became a pupil at the Southampton Branch of E-Minor. During his 5 year stay with the Pop Academy, Dan's vocal capabilities grew, which landed him with several live backing sessions with the X-Factors Marc Lake.

Dan has also appeared at Southampton's Mayflower Theatre and Cafe Mumbai where he was fortunate enough to be selected to sing with Lemar!

Dan believes in keeping his voice in check by having regular singing lessons with Gareth Henderson at the Southern School of Popular Singing and enjoys spending time writing original material. His other keen interest is producing. This plays a large part in Dan's life, where he continues to learn skills and record his own material at home. Dan's busy schedule also continues at weekends, when he is the sound engineer for a popular singing act who perform regularly throughout the south.