Paul Buckley
At school in Walthamstow, Paul learned the guitar and the trumpet and took advantage of every opportunity to play as much as possible. He was a keen member of the Walthamstow Silver Band and Loughton Concert band as well the local youth orchestra.
Paul enjoys exploring all sorts of music, and is especially keen to share that interest with others. In the 80’s before coming to Ipswich he worked in Hackney at Chat’s Palace community centre and ran the adult music workshop there. In Ipswich in 1994 he founded and became the MD of the Suffolk School of Samba at the Ipswich Caribbean Centre, which brought music making to a lot of people who might not otherwise have had the chance. The Samba school is still going with its latest MD at its new home here at St Peter’s by the Waterfront, and is still bringing in new people.
He composes and in 2008 was lucky enough be selected by the Society for the Promotion of New Music to write a piece for a Bhangra beat and salsa mash-up ‘Bhangra Latina’. ‘Invitation’ got a commercial release and a performance in the Queen Elizabeth Hall.
He was a guitar tutor for the Suffolk County Music Service, continues to teach in schools and privately, and he is an active musician in his bands the Cornerhouse Trio and the Sonrisa guitar duo. He has taken up the French horn to help preserve this endangered instrument and is loving playing it.
Paul was previously the St Peter’s Band MD but has now stepped back from this role to concentrate on the Saints Community Band. He always tries to make playing an interesting and enjoyable experience that everyone in the bands can be part of.