Patrick McCarthy has been a notable figure on the local area musical scene for over twenty years He was trained as a singer at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the London Opera Centre. His operatic and singing career has taken him all over the British Isles and Europe. Music lovers may remember his dramatic rescue of a Prom performance of Carmina Burana back in 1974. He is currently Musical Director of the Dovercourt Choral Society the Colchester and Ipswich Bach Choirs, the Colchester Philharmonic and the Ipswich Chamber Orchestras, the Harwich Festival and, of course, the Witham Choral Society. He was for a time also conductor of the Clare and Maldon Choral Societies.

He has conducted many of the major choral works with the WCS amongst them repertoire such as Sir Arthur Sullivan's Festival Te Deum (available on CD), Haydn's Creation and Te Deum, Bach's St. Matthew and St. John Passions, and the less traditional Coleridge-Taylor's Hiawatha's Wedding Feast. Patrick has also guest-conducted the Essex Symphony Orchestra.

In the 2004/2005 season with WCS he conducted Elgar's Caractacus. This rarely performed work was a considerable challenge to both choir and orchestra and was sponsored and supported by The Elgar Society. The performance was much appreciated by those members of the Society who attended and received enthusiastic reviews from local press.

A highlight of 2006 was a concert at the renowned Snape Maltings Concert Hall, Aldeburgh, where Patrick conducted the combined forces of the Witham Choral Society, the Ipswich Bach Choir and the Colchester Philharmonic in a memorable performance of Elgar's Dream of Gerontius where it was reported that the choirs were truly magnificent and the success of the production was surely down to Patrick McCarthy. Local press review.