James Thomas MA FRCO (born 1963) is an English organist and choirmaster. He has held several liturgical posts at cathedrals, including Blackburn, Chichester and St Edmundsbury Cathedral.
Thomas was born in Banbury, England. He was educated at Magdalen College School, Brackley, before going on to read music at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge where he was organ scholar. Upon graduating, he spent a year studying for the Postgraduate Certificate in Education. He gained the FRCO diploma in 1985 and was awarded the prize for extemporisation. He spent two years at the Rouen Conservatoire, taught by Louis Thiry, and was awarded a Premier Prix in organ performance in 1988. He was twice a finalist for the Tournemire Prize at the St Albans International Organ Festival in both 1987 and 1988. [1]
Upon returning to England in 1988, Thomas was appointed Assistant Organist of Blackburn Cathedral, a position he held for three years before moving to Chichester Cathedral as Assistant Organist, in 1991. Whilst at Chichester Cathedral, Thomas was also Director of Music of The Prebendal School, the choir school. In September 1997, he left Chichester to become Director of Music at St Edmundsbury Cathedral, a position he held until 2020. [2] During his tenure, the choir made several CDs and broadcasts on the BBC. In 1998, he was appointed conductor of the Cambridgeshire Choral Society, a post he held until 2004. [3] Thomas has given recitals up and down the country, as well as in France and Germany. In 1995, he was a semi-finalist in the Royal College of Organists "Performer of the Year" competition.
(James) Frederick Stocken is a British classical composer, organist and musicologist.
David John Briggs is an English organist and composer.
Geraint Bowen is a British conductor and organist. He is Organist and Director of Music at Hereford Cathedral.
William Stanley Vann Hon FTCL FRCO ARCM was an English composer, organist, choral conductor, and choir trainer, primarily in the Anglican cathedral tradition.
Andrew Parnell is an organist and harpsichordist.
Malcolm Archer is an English composer, conductor and organist. He was formerly Organist and Director of Music at Bristol Cathedral, at Wells Cathedral and at St Paul's Cathedral and Director of Chapel Music at Winchester College.
Andrew Mark Nethsingha, FRCO, ARCM is an English choral conductor and organist, the son of the late Lucian Nethsingha, also a cathedral organist. He was appointed Organist and Master of the Choristers at Westminster Abbey in London in 2023, having previous held similar positions at St John's College, Cambridge, Gloucester Cathedral and Truro Cathedral.
The Southern Cathedrals Festival is a five-day music festival held in rotation among the English cathedrals of Chichester, Winchester and Salisbury, in the penultimate week of July. The festival was restored in 1960 after initial attempts to create the annual occasion were followed by 28 years without it. The respective director of music acts as festival director when it is that cathedral's turn to host the event.
Mark Wardell was Assistant Organist at Chichester Cathedral from 1997 to 2009, serving for five of those years as Director of Music at the Prebendal School, the Cathedral Choir's School. He had previously held positions at Royal Holloway College, University of London, St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle and Christ's Hospital School, Horsham.
St Mary Magdalene Church, Newark-on-Trent is the parish church of Newark-on-Trent in Nottinghamshire, England. It is dedicated to Mary Magdalene and is the tallest structure in the town.
All Saints' Church, Ryde is a parish church in the Church of England located in Ryde, Isle of Wight. The building is a landmark of the island, the spire being visible from many places around the Isle of Wight and from the mainland, projecting beyond the skyline. All Saints' is sometimes referred to as the "Cathedral of the Island" It is a Grade II* ecclesiastical listed building.
Sarah Baldock is an English organist and choral conductor, formerly the Organist and Master of the Choristers of Chichester Cathedral. She is notable as one of the earliest women to be appointed to the senior music post at a Church of England cathedral. She was married to counter-tenor David Hurley. Baldock has become known as a popular soloist in the UK and abroad.
David John Chandler Price is a British choral conductor and organist.
Thomas Frederick Harrison Oxley was a British organist, who was appointed Organist of St Edmundsbury Cathedral aged 24. At the time, he was the youngest cathedral organist in the country. He was the first English cathedral organist to supplement the boys' voices in the cathedral choir with those of girls; he began to use girls' voices as early as the 1960s as a separate choir and to support the boys' voices for large events. The cathedral choir then became a permanent mixed treble line from the early 1970s until 1984.
Richard Hey Lloyd was a British organist and composer.
Sarah Elizabeth Arwen MacDonald is a Canadian-born organist, conductor, and composer, living in the United Kingdom, and currently holds the positions of Fellow and Director of Music at Selwyn College, Cambridge, and Director of the girl choristers at Ely Cathedral. She has been at Selwyn since 1999, and is the first woman to hold such a post in an Oxbridge Chapel. In 2018 MacDonald was given the honorary award of Associate of the Royal School of Church Music (ARSCM).
Philip Armes was an English organist, notably holding posts at Rochester, Chichester and Durham Cathedral.
Jonathan Vaughn is a British-American organist and choir director who currently serves as the associate director of music at Christ Church, Greenwich, in Connecticut, USA. He was an assistant organist at Wells Cathedral for ten years and has held similar positions at other churches and cathedrals in England and the United States.
John Robinson is an English Choral Conductor and Organist. Currently, he is the Director of Music at Blackburn Cathedral. He has led choral festivals for various organisations including the RSCM and Pueri Cantores. His choral recordings include releases on Decca Records and Sony Classical as well as regular broadcasts for the BBC. He has prepared Children's Choirs and soloists for leading conductors uncluding Charles Dutoit, Andris Nelsons and Keith Lockhart to sing with ensembles including Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Lyric Opera and Boston Pops. He is active as an Organ Recitalist, having performed in venues across the US and Europe, and recorded on the organ for Priory Records, Herald Records, Hyperion Records, Regent Records (UK) and Ambisonic.
Magnificat and Nunc dimittis in D is a choral setting by the Irish composer Charles Wood of the Magnificat and Nunc dimittis for the Anglican service of Evening Prayer. Scored for four-part choir and organ, it was written in 1898. It is also known as Evening Service in D major.