"Music
is a gift that God has given me and I have to use that in the best
way I can to help other people."
How did the Director of Music at a St Cuthbert's, Birkby,
Huddersfield in the Wakefield Diocese come to share Dame Judi
Dench's solo at an August Prom Concert in the Royal Albert Hall
last year?
Paul Whittaker OBE pulled off this coup by signing Stephen
Sondheim's "Send In The Clowns" as Dame Judi sang in the
Sondheim 80th birthday tribute Prom.
Paul signed the entire concert, with Sondheim present, and it
was the first time a BBC Prom concert has been signed for the deaf.
Paul has become the leading choice to sign musical performances for
the deaf, and this has taken him to stages and platforms across the
country to add his touch to concerts and musicals from Les
Miserables to Joseph.
Huddersfield-born and deaf from birth, Paul has devoted his life
to music which he experiences as rhythm, pattern and emotion. An
accomplished musician, he fits in his duties at Birkby with his
signing performances as well as running the charity Music and the
Deaf which encourages deaf children to experience, learn and
perform music themselves.
He is the Artistic Director and founder of the charity Music and
the Deaf. He has a music degree from the University of Oxford, a
post-graduate diploma from the Royal Northern College of Music and
an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of
Huddersfield and was presented with the OBE for his services to
Music in 2007.