Our House Composers of organ music include:-
TIM ATTRIDE is currently Director of Music at All Saints Church, Birchington, Kent. During his time there, he has written extensively for the choir and now has over one hundred compositions, including a Requiem, a Missa Brevis, a setting of an extract from Caedmon’s “Dream of the Rood”, many short anthems and around fifty hymn descants. Many of these compositions have been used not only by his and other local church choirs, but also on occasions in Canterbury Cathedral, Rochester Cathedral as well as in various concerts by local chamber choirs. He has also composed a number of pieces for organ solo, many of which have been used as far away as the US, Canada, Australia and across Europe. He already has music published in the UK by Animus, Chichester Press & Fagus Music, plus one piece recorded for a commercial CD by Amemptos. Having retired early from a career in the Civil Service, his time is taken up with the grandchildren and bell ringing.
STEPHEN BARBER studied with Arthur Wills and Nicholas Danby among others. He was an organ student at St Paul’s Cathedral, London and then assistant organist in St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin as well as Director of Music in the cathedral Grammar School. He has been the Director of Music at All Saints Church and then St John’s Church in Peterborough. He was a music teacher for many years but has now retired and is the organist in his local village church.
GAVIN BATEMAN has had a love of playing the organ since he was eleven; it has been his passion ever since. In his spare time away from his career as a BBC sound supervisor in London he studied the organ with the late David Sanger. In 1998 Gavin changed career to become a music teacher and Departmental Head at Longridge School in the Scottish Borders. He moved to Birmingham in 2007 for a position at Edgbaston High School. He continued his organ studies with Kevin Bowyer and in 2013 obtained his ABRSM Diploma in organ performance. Since his retirement in 2017 Gavin has played for church services across the West Midlands and has performed at various concert venues including Birmingham Town Hall. He has also furthered his interest in composing and arranging and has sold many titles to date. Gavin is a great advocate of digital music display systems and has made various technical adaptions to his own instrument including the development of a foot-operated page turner specifically for use with the organ.
DANIEL BISHOP was Sub Organist of Liverpool Cathedral until 2023, having studied with Ian Wells and Ian Tracey, holding posts as Neilson Organ Bursar, Organ Scholar and Director of the Girls’ Voices at the Cathedral. After graduating from Huddersfield University, he took up his Cathedral appointment and that of music teacher at Liverpool College where he is now Director of Music. He has performed in many venues in the UK, Europe and the USA and has several publications to his credit.
SHEAN BOWERS was Assistant Director of Music at Bath Abbey, having previously been Organ Scholar at Liverpool Cathedral. Extra to training and conducting the Abbey choirs, he plays for services and concerts, and has directed and accompanied several BBC broadcasts. In addition, he founded and directs both The Melody Makers (Bath Abbey’s youngest voices) and the Schools’ Singing Programme, involving 1,500 children weekly, the second largest in the country.
ALLAN BULLARD grew up in London and studied in the 1960s with Herbert Howells and Antony Hopkins at the Royal College of Music, and with Arnold Whittall at Nottingham University. He taught in higher education for many years and has composed music for both amateur and professional performers all his life. More recently he has written over thirty organ preludes and voluntaries and has edited and contributed to many organ and choral collections, as well as writing much educational music. His choral and instrumental works have been performed in venues, large and small, in the UK, the USA, and elsewhere. His works are recorded on CD by such ensembles as Selwyn College Choir, Kings College Choir, The Sixteen, and are regularly broadcast in the UK and the USA; he lives in East Anglia.
STEPHEN BURTONWOOD was born in Whitehaven, Cumbria. His parents worshipped and served in a number of Methodist circuits, where his father was a minister, so Stephen’s first experiences of music in worship were in the context of Methodism. Stephen trained for teaching at Westminster College, Oxford, where he was college organist for two years, receiving organ tuition from the late John Webster, who was organist to Oxford University and who taught the organ at Trinity College of Music in London. Stephen also received tuition from Dr Walter Hillsmann, Dr Simon Lindley and Dr Tom Corfield at Leeds Minster.
ANNETTE BUTTERS is Director of Music at St Mary’s Parish Church, Barnard Castle. Following a long career as a military musician, including time at Kneller Hall, Annette went on to study music as a mature student (specialising in the trumpet) and graduated from The London College of Music with honours. A second career followed which included concert management, peripatetic brass teaching, arts administration and a wide variety of performances. Her passion for playing the organ came late but in addition to her much-loved organ duties Annette directs a flourishing community orchestra and choir at St Mary’s. She also enjoys composing and arranging for a variety of genres and is actively involved in the world of brass band and musical theatre.
ALBAN CLARKE was born into a musical environment. He studied at the Royal Academy of Music studying under Arnold Richardson gaining the Lady Wallis Budge Prize for Organ Improvisation and the GRSM Diploma. He also gained the MTC certificate at London University. Church posts include St John’s Church Richmond, St Mary’s Church, Thorpe and the Barn Church, Kew. He was responsible for all the children’s services at West London Synagogue, where his Junior Choir appeared on BBC Songs of Praise. Commercial recordings include Three Richmond Organs for Priory Records, Music for the SPCK series The Living God and a recording of St Mary’s Church, Thorpe. His career spanned teaching piano, violin and singing in schools. He was the senior organist at Kingston Cemetery and Crematorium plus working with the Richmond Academy of Dance as pianist. He now deputises occasionally at his various past posts. Recital locations include Westminster Abbey and All Souls, London. His technical interest can be viewed on subject matter relating to the Alexandra Palace Organ on the Alexandra Palace Organ Appeal website. He lives in Richmond with his wife, Joy, who is a painter and artist, creating some of his record covers.
ROBERT COCKROFT read music at the University of London, graduating with a BMus. His principal instrument was the organ which he studied with a number of teachers, including Gordon Stewart. After a career in journalism, during which he was a critic for the Guardian and Yorkshire Post newspapers, and lately a newspaper editor, he began to write music. His pieces have been performed in churches and concert halls in several countries. He plays the organ at a small church near his home in West Yorkshire and he holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Huddersfield.
JAMES CRYER studied the organ with Richard Popplewell at the Chapel Royal. He won the Dixon Prize for Improvisation at FRCO and was Organ Scholar at Westminster Abbey under Simon Preston and then at St John’s College, Cambridge under Dr George Guest. He was Assistant Organist at the Queen’s Chapel of the Savoy, for whose choir he wrote a set of published Responses which have been sung on Radio 3. As a piano accompanist he has recorded on Naxos with the clarinettist John Bradbury. He is currently Organist at All Saints, East Sheen, for whom he has written a Latin Mass and several carols.
The late CARLO CURLEY was dubbed by the press The Pavarotti of the Organ, and, for nearly forty years, until his untimely death in 2012 continued to be one of the World’s foremost concert organists. Born into a musical family in North Carolina in 1952, he attended the North Carolina School of the Arts and was privately coached by Arthur Poister and Robert Elmore. Ultimately, he studied with two of the World’s greatest organists of the day: in New York with the legendary Virgil Fox and at the Temple Church, London, with the iconic Sir George Thalben-Ball. Very early in his career, he made history as the first organist to play an organ concert at the White House at the personal invitation of President Jimmy Carter. He subsequently toured the World, playing in every state and province in North America and Canada, and extensively in Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Hong Kong and Japan. Wherever he went, he was interviewed on TV and radio, and made numerous appearances for the BBC, including organ spectaculars from the Cathedrals of Ely, Lichfield, Norwich, Guildford, Gloucester and Westminster Abbey. He recorded exclusively for Decca records, including the first-ever commercial video of a classical organ performance, ‘Organ Imperial’ from St Mary, Redcliffe, Bristol. He played his last great performance in Liverpool Cathedral in June of 2012 and in August of that same year, died just two weeks before his 60th birthday, the whole organ world lamented news of his untimely passing. Carlo and Ian first met in 1977 on Carlo’s first British tour; they became good friends and continued their friendship over some forty years, playing many duo concerts together.
RICHARD FRANCIS studied at the Birmingham School of Music with George Miles, William Fellowes and Richard Greening. Following a one-year Dip Ed at Reading, he taught at George Heriot’s School, Edinburgh before returning to his native Shropshire. Following a further period of study at University College, Bangor under William Mathias, he was appointed as organist and choirmaster at St Laurence’s Parish Church, Ludlow, Shropshire where he remained for some 30 years before retiring (and marrying!). He now resides in Corvedale playing the organ at Diddlebury and Munslow, composing and restoring classical vinyl records for Oxfam.
CLIVE GREY studied at Bangor, North Wales, and obtained a doctorate at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge. He taught at Basel and Zurich Universities in Switzerland for many years before returning to the UK to work at Edge Hill University in Lancashire. Now retired, he devotes his time to composing, writing, playing at four churches in the Wirral and North Yorkshire, and researching musical activity in Liverpool. He recently completed the first two volumes in a major study of choral music sung at the Anglican Cathedral between 1881 and 1924, the first focusing on the life and work of the its first organist, Frederick Burstall, and the second on the music heard at the Pro-Cathedral and Lady Chapel.
SIMON HANCOCK is Director of Music at St Matthew’s Church in Surbiton. A lifelong pianist, organist, singer and composer, he was awarded the LRSM Diploma in Piano Performance in 2009. A career in classical music broadcasting allowed him to absorb many different styles of music while working at Covent Garden, English National Opera and with the major London orchestras. Largely self-taught as a composer, Simon has drawn inspiration from the many works he has performed over the years. His prizewinning setting of Dorothy L Sayers’ ‘The Three Kings’ was performed in Canterbury Cathedral and broadcast on Classic FM, and in 2019 he was a finalist in the BBC Carol Competition. His carol setting was broadcast a number of times on Radio 3 and has since been published. He has also had two pieces included in Jubilate’s most recent song collections. His Toccata for organ was performed twice at the 2019 London Festival of Contemporary Church music.
KEITH HARRINGTON is by profession a PhD synthetic organic chemist. As a Parish Church organist in Cheshire, he became very interested in the development of digital church organs, purchasing one for home practice from Makin in 2001. On the retirement of David Clegg in 2004 he took on the role of Managing Director of Makin Organs Ltd. Following Makin’s acquisition of Copeman Hart & Company Ltd from Ernest and Cheryl Hart in 2011, the company was rebranded as Church Organ World and now markets and provides customer support for Copeman Hart, Johannus, Rodgers and Makin products in the UK. Keith is now a Senior Manager at the Global Organ Group which oversees these companies worldwide. In 2024 Keith was awarded with three Honorary Fellowships for services to church music from the Three Counties School of Music, the Cotswold Society of Church Musicians and the North & Midlands School of Music. In his spare time Keith is involved heavily in the local community being a Director of his old school Trust for fifteen years and Chair for twelve until he resigned in early 2019. In the past he has taught Business Studies classes and thoroughly enjoys making high quality traditional wooden furniture in his own workshop.
TIM HARVEY is a freelance musician, working in Liverpool. He was Director of Music at Giggleswick School, Liverpool College and at King’s School, Chester before pursuing a freelance career. He was organ Scholar at Durham University, studying organ with Richard Lloyd, Noel Rawsthorne and Chris Stokes. He has FRCO and LTCL diplomas and an Advanced Diploma in Jazz Piano from the University of St. Andrew’s. Tim has a keen interest in improvisation and is an experienced piano recitalist in this field; he is also an examiner for ABRSM.
PAUL HAYWARD read music at the University of Wales, Bangor before undertaking postgraduate study at the University of Aberdeen with Professor Paul Mealor, specialising in choral composition. He also holds several diplomas in conducting, composition and performance, including the Fellowship of the Guild of Church Musicians by examination. Paul is a freelance conductor and composer based in the Midlands, having worked for many years in church music, including two cathedral assistant organist positions.
IAN HIGGINSON was born on Merseyside and moved to Gloucestershire in 1983. He holds several Fellowship diplomas in both organ and composition from various musical establishments, plus two doctorates in composition. He studied conducting with the late Dr Melville Cook, the late Sir David Willcocks and Jonathan Delmar, while he studied organ with David Saint (St Chad’s Cathedral in Birmingham), Ian Tracey (Liverpool Cathedral) and the late John Scott (ex-St Paul’s Cathedral). Ian was Organist and Director of Music at the University of Gloucestershire from 2002 until 2021. He was then appointed University Fellow and Professor in the Sacred Music faculty at the Florida-based Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi University in 2021, where he teaches composition and conducting on the Bachelor’s, Master’s and Doctoral degree courses. Ian is also school organist and tutor in piano, organ and composition at St Edward’s School, Cheltenham and tutor in piano and composition at Sir William Romney’s School, Tetbury.
JOHN HOSKING is Organist in Residence of Blackburn Cathedral, having previously held posts as Director of Music at Holy Trinity, Southport and Assistant Director of Music at St Asaph Cathedral. He is also one of the organists for BBC Radio 4’s Daily Service and works regularly with the Diocese of Manchester (HeartEdge) Choral Scholars. He has played for two BBC Radio 3 Choral Evensong programmes recently as well as two live broadcasts on BBC1 from Blackburn Cathedral at Christmas 2022. A graduate of the Royal College of Music, John held the organ scholarship at Westminster Abbey for an unprecedented three years. During this time, he played for many Royal and State occasions and performed 20 solo recitals in the Abbey. A busy recitalist, he has performed in many prestigious venues including Notre-Dame Cathedral, Paris and Washington National Cathedral. He has played over 40 solo recitals in Chester Cathedral. As a composer, John has over 40 published works. Both of his settings of the Requiem were premiered in the North Wales International Music Festival and the recording of his “14 Stations of the Cross” for organ was deemed Editor’s Choice in Organists’ Review magazine.
The late MARTIN HOW MBE was a British composer and organist who was born in Liverpool. Educated at Repton School, where he was a music scholar, he was awarded an organ scholarship to Clare College, Cambridge, where he read music and theology. In this post he had responsibility for the Chapel Choir of men and boys and the Choral Society. He was a keen athlete and ran for the university, narrowly missing being awarded a ‘Blue’ for cross-country running. Martin spent most of his career with the Royal School of Church Music, where he was known principally as a choir trainer specialising in the training and motivation of young singers. He was awarded an MBE for services to church music in the 1993 New Year Honours. Since his retirement from the Royal School of Church Music, he continued to compose and played the organ as an honorary member of the music staff at Croydon Minster.
IAN JORDINSON was born in Preston, Lancashire and joined the local church choir aged seven. He began piano lessons the same year and later began organ lessons with which he continued for some forty years. Whilst his working life was with the Civil Service his main interest has always been both choral and organ music. He became an Organist and Choirmaster at sixteen and has been involved in similar posts ever since, currently helping out at his local church in Marnhull, Dorset. With the choir he founded in 1999 he has played in many UK cathedrals. He continues to compose for both choir and organ.
DANIEL MANSFIELD is Director of Music at Holy Trinity, Southport, where he trains and directs the choir for liturgies and concerts, and leads the annual singing tour. He also works as a freelance musician based in Liverpool, with a busy schedule of teaching and performing in and around the city, as well as regularly playing organ recitals at locations around the UK. Daniel studied with Ian Wells and Ian Tracey, and held Organ Scholarships at Liverpool Cathedral and Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral. He is a graduate of Liverpool Hope University, and holds the Associateship diploma of the Royal College of Organists.
EDWARD MARSH was educated at the renowned Chetham’s School of Music and also as a chorister in Manchester Cathedral Choir. He continued his musical studies in organ, harpsichord and conducting at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, where he was also Organ Scholar at St Philip’s Cathedral. He has also held posts at Leeds Parish Church and All Saints’ Parish Church, Gosforth. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists and holds the Choirmasters’ Diploma of the same. His output of organ arrangements is substantial, including many popular works arranged for 4 organs and percussion that headed up the annual Battle of the Organs series between the organists of Liverpool Cathedral and Leeds Parish Church. His Toccata, sur le theme Pat le Factuer (Postman Pat), recorded by Kevin Bowyer, has been broadcast and performed all over the world, and is a firm favourite with audiences and players, alike.
CHRISTOPHER MAXIM was Organ Scholar and a prize winner at Bristol, after which he was awarded a full Research Studentship to Cardiff where he completed a PhD in music. He is currently Organist & Choirmaster of the C12th church of St Mary Magdalene, East Ham, teaches for Junior Trinity, and is an ABRSM examiner. Having had careers in both higher and secondary education, he now also works as an education consultant. His compositions are performed as far afield as Australia and America, have been broadcast on the radio in the USA and UK, featured in music festivals including the Gloucester Three Choirs, and recorded on several CDs. He is well published.
STEVEN MAXSON is the Diocesan Director of Music for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Middlesbrough, where he also has responsibility for the music at St Mary’s Cathedral, as well as for leading the roll out of the National Schools’ Singing Programme within the Diocese. Steven was born in Lancashire, and schooled in Oldham, before becoming Organ Scholar of Keble College, Oxford, whilst reading for a degree in music at the University. Subsequent positions include Organist of Oxford Oratory, Assistant Organist of Cardiff Metropolitan Cathedral, as well as almost twenty-five years at Grimsby Minster (previously Grimsby Parish Church), as, successively, Organist and Master of the Choristers, Assistant Organist, and Director of Music.
IAN PATTINSON is a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists and also a graduate of Birmingham Conservatoire (1998). Whilst at Birmingham, Ian studied organ with David Bruce-Payne and held organ scholarships at St Agatha’s Church, Sparkbrook, and Birmingham Cathedral. Ian then became Organ Scholar, and later Assistant Organist, at Blackburn Cathedral, whilst also studying organ with David Sanger. He took up his current post of Organist at Lancaster Priory in 2001 and has composed several choral and organ works for use in the liturgy at the Priory. Ian also works as a teacher of organ and piano, and as an accompanist on those instruments.
The late ERNEST PRATT was a notable Liverpool musician, a student of Walter Henry Goss-Custard, he held posts as Deputy Organist at Liverpool Cathedral from 1963 to 1989, accompanist to the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Choir and first call organist of the RLPO. He was co-founder, with his wife Amy, of the Hoylake Choral Society, whose concerts he accompanied, and in that context, transcribed many major choral works for organ solo; an art form he excelled at.
The late NOEL RAWSTHORNE was Organist of Liverpool Cathedral for twenty five years from 1955 – 1980. After study at the Royal Manchester College of Music, he won scholarships to study with both Germani & Dupré. From 1980 – 1984 he was City Organist & Artistic Director at St George’s Hall, Liverpool, and travelled widely as a recitalist in the UK, Europe and USSR. In recognition of his many achievements, he was awarded a DMus from the University of Liverpool in 1994.
ARTHUR ROBSON is retired and enjoys playing the organ and training the choir in his local parish church in Bognor Regis. During his working life he taught Music in secondary schools for 20 years and then for 27 years was a lecturer and Director of Choral Studies at the University of Chichester. Here he developed the first MA in Choral Studies in the UK. Arthur’s principal interests are choir training, playing the organ and composing. He has travelled extensively to deliver workshops in these activities which have taken him to Iceland, Hungary, Germany, Belgium, France, USA and Hong Kong.
The late LEWIS RUST showed an aptitude for music at an early age, beginning piano lessons at eight and gaining a place in Liverpool Cathedral Choir at ten. He studied organ with Noel Rawsthorne and for some 20 years served as Assistant Organist to him, accompanying him on many recital tours, including those of the USSR. He was also Director of Music at Highfield School from 1967 – 2003, and many of his students went on to become notable professional musicians.
RICHARD STEPHENS read Mathematics and Music at Royal Holloway and later Music at postgraduate level at King’s College, London. Originally a pianist, he took organ lessons with Richard Seal and Firmin Decerf (Bastogne), and participated in organ summer schools in Huddersfield, Oxford and St Antoine (France). He taught Maths and Music at Wellington School and Bromsgrove School and, retiring to his native Devon, became organist in Crediton Parish Church and now plays in a variety of churches in Devon and Somerset whilst directing local choral societies and teaching.
DAVID STOKES has been Assistant Organist to the fine parish of St Anne, Stanley Liverpool since 2004, previously having held positions at St James, West Derby & St Paul, Stoneycroft. David has studied organ with Colin Porter at Mossley Hill Parish Church, Ian Wells at Liverpool Cathedral, Ian Hare at Lancaster University and Ian Pattinson at Lancaster Priory where he was Organ Scholar. He finally studied with Timothy Noon at Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, where David was a Countertenor Lay Clerk for 10 years. After completing his PGCE studies in Secondary Music at Liverpool Hope University, David became Teacher of Music at St Francis Xavier’s College, Liverpool, where he is now Coordinator of Music.
MARK SWINTON was educated at the King’s School, Chester, beginning organ studies with Roger Fisher whilst there, and studied for Music degrees at the University of York, where his tutors included John Scott Whiteley and Dr Francis Jackson. He has subsequently studied and participated in masterclasses with Johannes Geffert, David Briggs and Dame Gillian Weir. He has held roles at Clifton College, Bath Abbey, Kendal Parish Church and (since 2011) the Collegiate Church of St Mary, Warwick. His recital engagements have taken him all over the UK and abroad, and his discography includes 100+: Organ Music by Francis Jackson (Willowhayne Records) which was an Editor’s Choice in Organists’ Review in November 2020. Mark’s compositions and arrangements encompass choral and instrumental music.
IAN TRACEY DL has been Organist of Liverpool Cathedral since 1980 studying organ there with Lewis Rust and Noel Rawsthorne, and in Paris with Andre Isoir and Jean Langlais. He has toured extensively throughout Europe, the USA, and Australia. He is Organist to the City of Liverpool, Organist to the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Society, Professor, Fellow and Organist at Liverpool, John Moore’s University, and Tonal Director for Makin Organs Ltd and Copeman Hart & Company Ltd.
IAN WELLS is Honorary Deputy Organist at Liverpool Cathedral, beginning as a chorister he studied organ with Ian Tracey, was Organ Scholar to Noel Rawsthorne and Ian Tracey and subsequently Assistant Organist and Choral Conductor. Since 2008 he has been Director of Music at Holy Trinity Church, Southport, and Director of Music and Head of Upper School at Tower College, Rainhill; he is also Organ Tutor for the University of Liverpool.