Gordon Cree was born in Ayrshire and was classically trained in piano and singing at
the RCS. In a lengthy career, he has garnered a formidable reputation as a pianist, singer,
conductor, composer, arranger-orchestrator and cabaret artiste.
Having started his professional life as assistant to BBC/STV staff broadcast pianist,
Peggy O’Keefe, he went on to study arrangement and orchestration with Brian Fahey, late
conductor of the BBC Radio Orchestra.
As a pianist and conductor, he has worked with many well-known artistes, from
American opera legend, Marilyn Horne, to British comedy king, Sir Ken Dodd, as well as more
longstanding tenures as musical director to Moira Anderson and Anita Harris.
His arrangements and orchestrations have been performed and broadcast by orchestras
including the Halle, the BBC Concert Orchestra, the Pacific Symphony Orchestra, the
Auckland Philharmonia, the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and L’Orchestre National du
Capitole de Toulouse.
In 2009 BBC Radio Scotland dedicated an entire programme to his life and work; in
2012 he was elected a Fellow of the Guild of Musicians and Singers; and in 2019 received the
Lifetime Achievement Award from the Scottish Music Hall Society.
He is currently the president of the Scottish Showbusiness Benevolent Fund and
custodial trustee of Scotland’s only Wurlitzer cinema pipe organ, which is housed in
Pollokshaws Burgh Hall on Glasgow’s South Side.
Gordon Cree