Our Musical Director
Mr Charlie Westbrook
Charlie Westbrook graduated from the University of Birmingham with a BMus (Hons) degree, completing a specialism in orchestral conducting in his final year. Charlie also studied the contemporary classical music of Japan as part of a final year dissertation at university and has enjoyed learning more about traditional music from across the world as part of his percussion teaching. Charlie is an experienced percussionist and violinist and has been involved in the local Peterborough music scene since he was a child. Charlie now works in schools and music centres across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough as a peripatetic music teacher and conductor.
Charlie enjoys the music of Mahler, Elgar, and Beethoven. He feels a particular affinity towards Beethoven’s Pastorale Symphony, owning over fifty copies of the symphony on vinyl record. Charlie is keen to explore the music of contemporary composers, and often tries to programme works written by women, and lesser known composers, in the hope of bringing more awareness of excellent music, which is not heard as often as they should be!
Charlie has recently taken on a share of the role of Musical Director for the Cambridge Heidelberg Montpellier Youth Orchestra. With one conductor from England, Germany and France, the annual summer course is held in one of the three international host cities. Charlie also shares conducting of the Cambridgeshire County Youth Orchestra and has weekly engagements with the Senior Music Academy Orchestra for Cambridgeshire Music, and the Peterborough Community Orchestra where he has held the position of Musical Director since 2022.
Charlie has enjoyed overseeing the four fold growth and development of Peterborough Community Orchestra during his tenure. Particular highlights over this time include outdoor summer BBQ garden concerts, in the orchestra’s early years, as well as several sold out concerts at the Crowland Abbey, Lincolnshire. In July 2024, the orchestra was very fortunate to be joined by John Lyon, chief organist at Boston Stump (St Botolph’s Church), to perform highlights from the Saint Saens ‘Organ’ Symphony. Charlie feels that with every concert, the orchestra gets better and better! Some favourite programmes have been a ‘Desert Island Discs’ style concert, based on favourite tunes suggested by orchestra members, and ‘Christmas at the Movies’, the orchestra’s December 2025 performance at Queen Katharine Academy, Peterborough.
