Musical Solutions' owner, musician David Cookson's first professional music job was as répétiteur with the 'old' D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. He held that post at the time of the company's Centenary celebrations in 1975, the height of its 'Golden Era'. David worked with stars such as John Reed, Kenneth Sandford, Michael Rayner, Meston Reid, John Ayldon, Gareth Jones, Julia Goss, and Lyndsie Holland. In particular, he coached them and many others in the new rôles they were to play in Utopia Limited and The Grand Duke.
Over the last 35 years he has worked as Musical Director and répétiteur with many companies, both professional and amateur, including three years at the Opernhaus in Zürich, Switzerland.
Musical Solutions was started in 1998, when David was faced with the challenge of a group of singers who needed to learn Ruddigore, and who were geographically distant from each other. The group did not meet in person until a few days before the performance, and so needed to 'hit the ground running', musically-speaking. With very little 'together-time', it was vital that everyone learned the material from the same source, and that that source was accurate and easy-to-use.
Disappointed by the lack of accuracy of public-domain MIDI distance learning material (which still pertains), David gradually added more G&S operas to the Musical Solutions learning material. He soon realised that such an accurate learning resource would have a great value in enabling soloists and chorus alike to learn their rôles quickly and easily, thus ensuring accuracy as well as saving valuable rehearsal time. The complete G&S canon has been available from Musical Solutions in MIDI format since 2003, in Audio CD format since 2006, and in MP3 format since 2015.
Musical Solutions has customers all over the world, on every continent, which shows how widespread the popularity of G&S really is. Our MIDI files, MP3 files and Audio CDs are also the ideal vehicle for the learning of Gilbert and Sullivan in schools, and we are pleased to offer a generous discount to bona-fide school, high school, college, and university productions which would like to take advantage of our learning material. Please ask.
David sees support for the promotion of G&S to young people as a vital component of the work of Musical Solutions. We have provided support to many school and youth productions over the years, and fully intend for that support to continue into the future.
Musical Solutions is a staunch supporter of the International Gilbert & Sullivan Festival.