Bath choirmaster's award for sharing joy of singing

Bath choirmaster Grenville Jones has been commended for his work with local choirs

A choirmaster has been recognised with a Points of Light Award for his charity work bringing singing to older people.

Grenville Jones, from Bath, said the letter from the Prime Minister also made note of the internet sessions he held during the pandemic.

The daily Points of Light award recognises volunteers who make a change in their community.

"It is a good endorsement of our work, [Singing] is exactly what makes me get up in the morning," he said.

Mr Jones told BBC Bristol he wears two hats: "One hat is the Golden Oldies charity which I started 16 years ago which is social fun singing in community centres and libraries and that is now all across England and Wales.

The other hat is his choir hat, a series of 30 community choirs which run across the west country.

"Of course I don't take them all because even I can't be in two places at once, but we've got a lot of brilliantly talented leaders from Gloucester down to Cornwall," he said.

Each of the choirs supports a local organisation which they nominate themselves, with more than £30,000 raised last year.

"I get great pride in the fact that we're doing our bit in the community," he explained.

'Singing is a tonic'

Apart from his community choral work Mr Jones also led the City of Bath Male Choir to fifth place in the BBC Last Choir Standing competition and continues to tour with them.

He organised a concert in Bath Abbey last year when his son passed away which he said raised "a huge amount of money for the local cancer charity".

"One of my friends said to me: 'Grenville, you can't support all the charities, and I said why not'."

Mr Jones said he is planning to start a new mixed voice choir in Rangeworthy, South Gloucestershire.