| Biography | Paul Leddington Wright was organ scholar at St. Catharine's College, Cambridge where he studied with Peter Le Huray, David Willcocks and Alan Ridout. On leaving Cambridge, he free-lanced for 4 years working mainly in the professional theatre as a musical director. In 1982 he was appointed Musical director for the Methodist Association of Youth Clubs, during which time he consolidated the work of the MAYC Singers and Orchestra which he founded in the 70's.
In 1984 he was appointed Organist and Director of Music at Coventry Cathedral, a position he held until 1995. During this period he recorded and broadcasted frequently with the Cathedral Choir, and toured all over the world, including 5 trips to the USA, Jamaica, and a trip to Italy, where the choir sang to the Pope. He directed the music for many important occasions at the Cathedral, including the Queen's visit to Coventry for the distribution of the Royal Maundy in 1995.
Since 1984 he has been conductor of the Cathedral's Choral society, the Saint Michael's Singers, with whom he has made over 20 recordings. Many of those recordings have been for the Kingsway Hymnmakers Series. A new series of the choir's recordings has been released in the USA under the Cathedral Classics - Coventry Music label. He has conducted a vast repertoire of choral literature with choirs and orchestras both in the UK and abroad.
In 1995, he became part-time at Coventry in order to make space for an increasing work schedule at the BBC. He is the principal conductor for the weekly BBC TV programme, Songs of Praise, and since 1986 has conducted over 150 programmes all over the world. He is also a prolific arranger for the series. Major programmes he has conducted have come from cathedrals, concert halls, and four programmes from the Royal Albert Hall, London. In 2000, he conducted 65,000 people at the Cardiff Millennium Stadium.
He is also involved with BBC Radio and conducts frequently for the Radio 4 Daily Service and also the Radio 4 Sunday Morning Worship. He also records for Radio 2's Sunday Half-Hour.
Since 1991 he has been Artistic Director of the annual International Church Music Festival which has alternated between Coventry Cathedral, Chester Cathedral and Bern, Switzerland.
His choral music is published by Oxford University Press, and in the USA by Hinshaw and Hal Leonard, and includes many commissions from churches in the UK and USA.
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