Bill Charleson

Bill Charleson, present Musical Director of Manhattan Sound, has been a professional musician since leaving school.

Bill's musical education was gained at the Royal Manchester College of Music (now the Royal Northern College of Music) and the University of York, from where he graduated with an MA in electro-acoustic music.

As well as composing and arranging, Bill is a true multi-instrumentalist, handling clarinet, concert and alto flutes, piccolo, saxes and piano all with equal aplomb.

Early playing experience was gained in the famous Ken Mackintosh orchestra with which he fulfilled many recording and broadcast engagements, later undertaking tours with Shirley Bassey, The Andrew Sisters, Dick Haymes, Johnny Mathis and many others.

On return to his native Manchester, Bill secured a position in the Palace Theatre orchestra later undertaking much session work for the BBC, Granada TV, Thames TV and Yorkshire TV.
Engagements with the BBC Northern Dance Orchestra, BBC Northern Symphony (now BBC Philharmonic) and the Halle Orchestra followed.

As a composer Bill has produced several albums of library music for Studio G Music Libraries, many tracks of which have been used on network television programmes and advertising jingles worldwide. Many of his brass band compositions and arrangements have been published and recorded by the top brass bands, perhaps the best known being "Clog Dance" which was featured in the movie 'Brassed Off'. Bill's jazz compositions have been published and recorded by the world famous National Youth Jazz Orchestra.

Bill is co-author of "Jazz Sax" published by Chappells and the author of "Jazz in the Classroom", published by OU Press. In 1989 he received the YTV Peter Knight Award for arranging and was the subject of a half-hour programme made for network TV. In the same year, the BBC awarded Bill the prestigious Marty Paich prize.

Bill's later career was occupied within academia, being the Director of Studies at Leeds College (famous for its jazz programmes) and an external examiner for universities offering popular music courses.

As a jazz saxophonist Bill has played alongside many British and American jazz stars. He was featured on the Anglo-American orchestra of Joe Jackson on the soundtrack of Francis Coppola movie "Tucker, a Man and his Dream". Present career is that of solo saxophonist, arranger and M.D. of The Manhattan Sound.