Pride of Guernsey: Martin Cordall

THERE are many reasons why Ian Rothery has nominated Martin Cordall for the Moonpig-sponsored Arts Contribution of the Year Award.

He has for 30 years been a musical director for Guernsey Youth Theatre, composing The Mayor of Casterbridge for it and musically directing many other productions.

To launch the rebirth of the GYT to Guernsey Youth and Community Theatre he has recently been the co-coordinator, composer and musical director of perhaps Guernsey’s most ambitious theatre production, The York Mystery Plays part one. This took place at St James and featured a cast of nearly 200 actors, dancers, singers and musicians.

He composed and directed A La Perchoine, the result of painstaking research to accurately tell the history of the evacuation, and A Stitch in Time, based on the Guernsey Millennium Tapestry.

Both productions were performed by massed schools, involving hundreds of children and adults. In addition Martin composed a special arrangement of Sarnia Cherie last year for the Guernsey Music Centre Youth Choir which they sang on tour.

He is also musical director for the Elastic Band, which includes the Elastic Dixieland band and the Glenn Miller Sound. The band has been entertaining Guernsey audiences for over 30 years.

Ian said Martin is ‘an absolute musical expert’, has done ‘many years of essential work’ and is ‘an absolute asset to the island’.

‘He deserves total recognition,’ Ian added.