VOCES8 Foundation Advisory Board
William Wallace
16 years ago I was singing in Westminster Abbey with an Old Choristers’ choir (the Purcell Club), when two younger singers, Paul and Barney Smith, told me about what they planned to do when they finished at university; ‘and, by the way, William, you are going to be the chairman of our board.’ So I said yes, and enjoyed chairing Voces 8 as it grew. I stepped down as chairman after 10 years, and have now finally stepped down from the board. I was an Abbey Chorister at the time of the Coronation. Since then I’ve become an academic, spending three years in the USA and then teaching international relations in Manchester, Oxford and the London School of Economics. I also became a politician, in the UK’s third party, the Liberal Democrats, and have been a member of the UK’s second parliamentary chamber, the House of Lords for over 20 years (including five years in government). I’ve sung in the Cornell Glee Club, the Manchester and Oxford Bach Choirs, and still sing in the Parliament Choir and the Purcell Club.