WHEN Michelle Sutcliffe volunteered to give Honley Male Voice Choir a helping hand when it staged its 75th anniversary gala concert with international star Lesley Garrett last September she never thought it would lead to a permanent appointment.
Michelle, who understudied for Miss Garrett at choir rehearsals, has been appointed the choir’s accompanist, succeeding John Oldfield.
She is perhaps best known in music circles for her success in running the Kirklees Youth Performing Arts Company which staged a series of musical shows in Huddersfield.
Born in Huddersfield, Michelle has been playing the piano since she was 12.
She began her musical career in the early 1980s as a vocalist and pianist for the Huddersfield Youth Jazz Orchestra.
Michelle toured the USSR with them, performing in Moscow, Leningrad, Odessa and Kiev and as a result she became part of a small group in the orchestra which was highly commended in a Music for Youth competition at the Royal Festival Hall.
Later, as a vocalist and keyboard player, Michelle joined a group called Highlife who were runners up in the Huddersfield Examiner’s Search for a Star contest.
In the late 1980s she worked as a music instructor for Kirklees Council and as a result went with the Kirklees Youth Performing Arts Company on two tours to Germany.
Michelle later took over the running of the company as artistic director, directing and producing musical shows first at the Arts Centre in Venn Street and then at the Lawrence Batley Theatre.
Michelle has worked as accompanist for a number of local operatic societies and in 2004 she was Musical Director for Woodhouse Operatic Society’s production of the Hot Mikado at the Lawrence Batley Theatre.
