Outstanding Deaf Musician, Dr Paul Whittaker, OBE, has teamed up with Decibels as an Consultant & Adviser.
Paul was born in Huddersfield on 1964 and has been deaf from birth. After gaining a music degree from Wadham College, Oxford, and a post-graduate diploma from the Royal Northern College of Music, he founded “Music and the Deaf”, which he ran for 27 years before leaving in 2015 to pursue a freelance career.
For 25 years Paul has been signing shows on concerts both in London and on tour, and also worked at the BBC Proms, Edinburgh International Festival and Aldeburgh Festival. He has worked with The Sixteen choir and with Rambert Dance, and travelled across Europe and to Hong Kong and Macau with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra on their “Feel the Music” project.
He currently runs 6 signing choirs, and is passionate about raising standards of BSL signed song, which has led to the creation of an online teaching resource – www.sibsl.co.uk.
In 2005, Paul was awarded and OBE for Services to Music and holds Honorary degrees from the University of Huddersfield and the Open University.
Website: www.paulwhittaker.org.uk
Facebook: Paul Whittaker OBE
Twitter: @DrPaulOBE