Gary Coward studied singing at the Royal College of Music and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Then followed a career in singing which was continuous, if unspectacular, for nearly forty years. This involved a wide range of genres including principal rôles such as Guglielmo, Almaviva, Malatesta, Belcore, Enrico, Danilo, Dr Falke, Germont Père, di Luna, Don Carlo in Forza, Renato, Rigoletto, Tonio and Scarpia for the smaller companies; parts and covers for English Touring Opera, Scottish Opera and English National Opera; concerts, recitals, ENO chorus, consort and session work; and forays into lighter music, including Old Time Music Hall. This, combined with a lifelong passion and the study of all things vocal, developed into a career in teaching and was kick-started by his work with Gerald Finley in helping him through a mid-career transition. 

Since then, a large student base has evolved, made up of a younger generation of singers who want to start their career with a firm technical grounding, ensuring a vocally trouble-free professional life; and those in mid-career who feel that the mechanics and reliability of their instrument are not what they used to be.

His students have won the LBS Bach Singers Competition, Oxford Lieder Prize and London Handel Competition. And have been prize winners at Viñas Barcelona, Eva Martón, Ferrier, Tauber, Cesti, Royal Overseas League and Cardiff Singer of the World competitions. They have attended the National Opera Studio and the Young Artists Programmes at The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; Deutsche Oper Berlin; Marseille and Stuttgart, and are frequent performers in the most prestigious international opera houses and concert halls.

His students mainly come from the UK, but there are those who travel from the Netherlands, Sweden, France, Spain, Germany, and Austria on a regular basis. He is also a principal study professor at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and teaches on the Jette Parker Young Artists' Programme at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.