Musically-minded Josh Winstone is heading to the West End

When Josh Winstone talks about life in ‘the pit’ his reference point is not the coal mine but the theatre.

Conditions, dark and sweaty, might be similar and the daily grind of the work recognisable but this is the orchestra pit, a source of camaraderie, an academy of development, and a reservoir of experience to any aspiring student of music. Above all, a ‘pit job’, as it is known in the trade, is the passport to a steady living in a hugely competitive world.

Winstone earned his first work in the pit as a young teenager and the idea that he could earn £300 a week for merely playing the piano has shaped his career ever since. This summer he will graduate from the University of Chichester with a degree in Music Performance and, having postponed the offer of a place at the Royal Academy of Music in London, aims to expand his musical portfolio which already includes teaching, voice coaching, accompaniment, conducting and directing.

A growing list of credits features Alan Bennett’s 40 Years On, Legally Blonde at the Kings Youth Theatre in Portsmouth, and There’s Nothing like a Dame at the Cadogan Hall in London.  

His time at the University, he says, has helped to nurture his passion, broaden his range of skills but has also prepared him for the hurly-burly life of a professional musician where presentation, making contacts and just being nice to people are as important as hitting the right notes on the keyboard.

“There are 100s of other people who play the piano as well or better than me, so it comes down to what makes me different,” says Winstone. “It’s about people skills, about being a nice person and getting to know who you can and can’t trust.” One of the most valuable modules on his course was on self-employment and self-marketing. That taught Winstone to say ‘yes’ whenever the phone rings.

“If a job suddenly comes up you have to be prepared to drop everything else in your life and take it,” he says. But he also adheres to another mantra: ‘Take the first job, not the best job’. In other words, if a job comes up for £100, accept it, don’t wait for a better offer because it might not come. Once committed, don’t change your mind even though it’s a better offer. Reliability and versatility pay the bills.

“The culture in the music department at Chichester is to encourage versatility,” he says. “It was one of the things that attracted me to the University in the first place. I looked at Goldsmiths, King’s, Royal Holloway but people spoke highly of UoC, I went to an open day and it was brilliant. People talk about that ‘gut feeling’ when you choose a university and I felt it that day.

“The courses at the bigger universities were more compartmentalised. Here, there are close connections between all the departments and, though I’m a classically trained pianist, I was encouraged to do rock and pop and jazz. If you made mistakes that was fine. I’ve been given the confidence to go into anywhere and play in a number of different styles.”

Brought up in a supportive but non-musical family, Winstone began playing the piano at the age of eight. His first piano was bought from his music teacher for £100.

By his early teens, Winstone’s heart was set on a career in musical theatre, his dream honed into reality by Yoko Ono (no, not that one, a teacher at the Royal College of Music) and fuelled by regular visits to musical shows. “My parents always said I should have a Plan B in case my musical career didn’t work out and I did have a back-up plan,” he says. “I just wasn’t sure what it was.”

After he graduates, Winstone will return to his home in Brighton and keep working on Plan A. “The West End is the goal, directing or conducting eight shows a week, that would be magical,” he says. “But my aim is to support myself fully just from my music and I’m now doing that. The opportunities I’ve got here at Chichester I don’t think I would have got anywhere else, particularly in terms of making contacts and networking. It’s been a brilliant foundation.”

For more about the University’s Music Performance programme go to www.chi.ac.uk/department-music/our-courses/ba-hons-music-performance.

Follow Josh’s career as he heads for the big stage at https://twitter.com/josh_winstone