The Association maintains records of service for all choristers and associated musicians of the Cathedral, past and present.
Click the headings to display lists of members. If you are able to update or correct the records please get in contact through the contact page.
Cathedral Choristers
Lay Clerks
& Choral Scholars
& Choral Scholars
Directors of Music
Assistant
Directors of Music
Directors of Music
Organ Scholars
Cathedral Choristers
Cathedral Choristers
Lay Clerks
& Choral Scholars
& Choral Scholars
Cathedral Lay Clerks & Choral Scholars
Directors of Music
Cathedral Organists, Masters of the Music & Directors of Music
| Name | Dates of Service | Biography |
|---|---|---|
| John Stocks Booth† | 1858 to 1879 | |
| George Gaffe† | 1880 to 1907 | |
| William Lewis Luttman† | 1907 to 1930 | |
| Cuthbert Osmond† | 1930 to 1937 | Cuthbert Edward Osmond BMus FRCO ARCM b. 1904, d. 1937 Born in Salisbury, Osmond was appointed Assistant Organist of Salisbury Cathedral (1917 to 1927) before taking up the position of Organist at St Albans. |
| Albert Tysoe† | 1937 to 1947 | Dr Albert Charles Tysoe Mus.D FRCO b. 1884, d. 22 May 1962 Born in Northampton, he studied with Haydn Keeton at the University of Durham. He was organist of St Giles (1903 to 1914) and All Saints (1914 to 1920) in Northampton and Leeds Parish Church (1920 to 1937). He was chorus master of the Leeds Festival and conductor of the Halifax Choral Society (1922 to 1937) before being appointed Organist at St Albans. He died in Chichester. |
| Meredith Davies CBE† | 1947 to 1949 | Albert Meredith Davies CBE BMus b.30 July 1922, d. 9 March 2005  Born in Birkenhead, Cheshire, the second son of a clergyman, at the age of seven he became a junior exhibitioner at the Royal College of Music as a cellist. He then went to the Stationers' Company's School, North London where he soon showed an interest in the organ and was taken as a pupil by George Thalben-Ball. At age 17 he served as organist at Hurstpierpoint College for a year, before being elected in 1940 as organ scholar of Keble College, Oxford. Studies for his Philosophy, Politics and Economics degree were interrupted by war service (1942 to 1945) with the Royal Artillery after which he was appointed Organist and Master of the Choristers at St Albans Cathedral. He moved to Hereford Cathedral in 1949 as Organist and Choirmaster. Having been encouraged by Sir Adrian Boult to become a full-time conductor, he went to the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome in 1954 and 1956 to study conducting with Fernando Previtali. He returned to Oxford in 1956, to spend three years as organist and supernumerary fellow of New College, Oxford. He then became conductor of the City of Birmingham Choir before moving to operatic conducting with Colin Davis's Chelsea Opera Group. During the 1959-60 Birmingham season, Davies took over the conducting of Britten's Spring Symphony from the composer, who was unwell. Britten was so impressed that he invited him to conduct at the 1960 and 1961 Aldeburgh Festivals. Davies made a very successful Covent Garden debut in November 1960, conducting Peter Grimes. In 1963 Davies became music director of Britten's English Opera Group (EOG) for two years. Davies had by now had a significant association with Benjamin Britten. Britten's original intention was to conduct the War Requiem himself. Davies was engaged to prepare the large chorus, drawn from all over the diocese. When Britten, following a minor operation, arrived in Coventry for final rehearsals, he found the acoustics unsatisfactory, cathedral staff unco-operative, and the chorus on the verge of walking out when an attempt was made to reduce their numbers because of lack of space. Meanwhile, the Soviet government refused, on political grounds, to allow the intended soprano soloist Galina Vishnevskaya to take part, and her part had to be learned at ten days' notice by Heather Harper. As the premiere neared, it became evident that Britten was uncomfortable about directing the performance himself. Alternative conductors such as Georg Solti and Carlo Maria Giulini were suggested, but Britten proposed that Meredith Davies would conduct the orchestra, chorus and Heather Harper, and Britten himself would conduct the chamber orchestra accompanying the two male soloists (Peter Pears, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau) and the Melos Ensemble. The performance was a triumph and is still considered a landmark in British 20th-century music. Britten and Davies also shared the conducting at the first London performance in Westminster Abbey, but thereafter Davies often conducted the work by himself. In 1964, he was appointed musical director of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and stayed in that post until 1971. He was also chief conductor of the BBC Training Orchestra, musical director of the Royal Choral Society and conductor of the Leeds Philharmonic Society. He was Principal of Trinity College of Music (1979 to 1988), President of the Incorporated Society of Musicians (1985 to 1986), and Chairman of the Delius Trust (1991 to 1997). His father-in-law, Leslie Bates was a bass lay clerk at St Albans (1910 to 1924), and his three sons were Cathedral Choristers: Hugh (1964 to 1966 and also Bass Lay Clerk 1968 to 1970), Jeremy (1964 to 1968) and Benjamin (1969 to 1974). |
| Peter Burton† | 1949 to 1957 | Claud Peter Primrose Burton MA BMus (Oxon) FRCO (CHM) b. 19 April 1916, d. 6 July 1957 Born in Shere, Surrey, he attended Canford School before going on to study music at St John's College, Oxford (1935 to 1939), gaining his MA in 1943 (his studies being interrupted by army service in World War 2 from 1940 to 1946). He had organ lessons with William H. Harris at Windsor. He was appointed orgainist of St Paul's Church, Halifax (1939 to 1940) and of St Mary's Collegiate Church, Warwick (1946 to 1950). He then took up the role of Master of the Music at St Albans. He sadly died in a swimming accident rescuing a chorister (who survived) at Hemel Hempstead swimming baths in 1957. He dived in to save the boy, but unknown to him, he was suffering from tuberculosis and the act of diving caused his lungs to collapse, thus losing any buoyancy, and drowned. |
| Peter Hurford OBE† | 1958 to 1978 | Dr Peter John Hurford OBE MA(Cantab) DMus. FRCO b. 22 November 1930, d. 3 March 2019  Peter was born in Minehead, Somerset in 1930 and educated at Blundell's School. He studied both music and law at Jesus College, Cambridge, graduating with dual degrees, subsequently obtaining a reputation for both musical scholarship and organ playing. He then studied in Paris under André Marchal, exploring music of the Baroque period. From 1956 to 1957, he was organist of Holy Trinity Church, Leamington Spa and for the same period he was Music Master at Bablake School, Coventry. He was then appointed Organist and Choirmaster of St Albans Cathedral in 1958, serving with great distinction until 1978. During this time, he conceived the idea of an organ competition, partly to celebrate the new Harrison & Harrison organ (designed by Ralph Downes and himself), and in 1963 began what was to become the St Albans International Organ Festival, now a world-renowned festival of organ music with competitions whose past winners include many of the great names in modern organ music. He was awarded a number of Honorary Doctorates, was appointed an Honorary Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge in 2006, was President of the Royal College of Organists (receiving its highest honour, the RCO Medal, in 2013), and was appointed an OBE. He suffered a minor stroke in 1997, but recovered enough to resume his performing career seven months later. In early 2008, he was diagnosed with advanced Alzheimer's Disease and he retired from performing in 2009. |
| Stephen Darlington MBE | 1978 to 1985 | Dr Stephen Mark Darlington MBE MA (Oxon) DMus (Oxon) FRCO b. 21 September 1952  After attending King's School, Worcester, Stephen became Organ Scholar at Christ Church, Oxford, studying under Simon Preston. In 1974, he was appointed Assistant Organist at Canterbury Cathedral, where he stayed for four years before being appointed as Master of the Music at St Albans Cathedral in 1978, where he was also music director of the International Organ Festival. In 1985, he returned to Christ Church as organist and tutor in music, holding the post for 33 years until September 2018. At Christ Church he maintained the highest choral traditions in the Cathedral whilst also developing the College as a centre of academic musical excellence. An extensive discography, comprising over sixty CDs, includes several award-winning recordings which have excited the critics and the listening public over the last forty years. There have been many awards, including a Grammy nomination for An Oxford Elegy by Vaughan Williams (Nimbus), a Classical BRIT Award for Howard Goodall's Eternal Light: A Requiem (EMI Classics) and several Gramophone nominations, including five volumes of Music from the Eton Choirbook (Avie) released in 2019. He has travelled widely both with Christ Church choir and as an organist and conductor, performing in all the major concert halls in the UK, as well as in prestigious venues throughout the world. He has also developed a strong media profile on television, featuring as conductor in over sixteen documentaries in the last fifteen years. He remains in demand as a visiting lecturer, in particular at the Universities of Western Australia, Melbourne and Sydney, the College Conservatory in Cincinnati, and at the University of Bordeaux. He has collaborated with many distinguished contemporary composers such as Judith Weir, John Tavener, Howard Goodall, Robert Saxton, Francis Grier, Gabriel Jackson and Mark Simpson. Stephen was President of the Royal College of Organists from 2000 to 2002 and until recently was Choragus of the University of Oxford. He is the holder of a Lambeth Doctorate in Music and is the Chairman of the Ouseley Trust. He is also an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music, Fellow of the Royal School of Church Music, and Emeritus Honorary Canon of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford. He remains Emeritus Professor of Music at Oxford and Emeritus Student (Fellow) of Christ Church. He was appointed a MBE in 2019 for services to Music. |
| Colin Walsh | 1985 to 1988 | Dr Colin Walsh MA Hon.DMus FRCO ARCM b. 1955 During his career, Colin has always been associated with long established choral foundations. He has been Assistant Organist at St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, and Salisbury Cathedral, and was Master of the Music at St. Albans before being appointed Organist of Lincoln Cathedral. Since January 2003 he has been Organist Laureate at Lincoln (where he presides over the fine Father Willis organ) and plays regularly for the Cathedral's services. He has served as a Council Member of the Royal College of Organists and is a visiting organ teacher at the University of Cambridge. His teachers have included Simon Preston, Nicholas Danby and Jean Langlais. His three year studies in France with Jean Langlais at St Clotilde inspired him to specialise in French symphonic and modern music, in particular the works of Franck, Vierne and Langlais. This has brought him wide acclaim throughout the world. In 1988 he played Messiaen in front of the composer himself. He has played many recitals in the UK including two at the Royal Festival Hall and widely around the world. In 2006, he toured New Zealand as European artist of the Organists' Congress and has recently given concerts in the Svetlanov Hall, Moscow, Cologne Cathedral, Notre Dame de Paris, St Sulpice, and the Hong Kong Cultural Centre. He recently appeared as organ soloist in the BBC Radio 3 'Live in Concert' series. His many recordings on the Priory label include two early recitals of modern French music from Salisbury, Vierne and Duruflé from St Albans and Vierne from Lincoln. He holds an honorary doctorate from Lincoln University. |
| Barry Rose OBE | 1988 to 1997 | Dr Barry Michael Rose OBE FRAM FRSCM Hon.DMus Hon.FGCM Hon FRCO M.Univ., (Surrey) b. 24 May 1934 Born in Chingford, East London, Barry grew up playing hymns on the piano at his local Sunday school and later accompanying the choir on the harmonium at the mission church of St Anne's Chingford Hatch. Leaving the Sir George Monoux Grammar School, Walthamstow, at the age of 16, he set out on a career in commerce, working in the insurance departments of W.H. Smith and Joseph Rank Ltd. In 1956, he joined Martindale Sidwell's choir at Hampstead Parish Church as a bass, going on from there two years later to become Organist and Choirmaster at St Andrew's Church, Kingsbury, North West London. It was while he was at Kingsbury that he decided to leave the world of commerce, and despite not having any of the required qualifications for entry, the principal (Sir Thomas Armstrong) offered him a place at the Royal Academy of Music to study organ with C. H. Trevor. In April 1960, at the age of 25 and still an unqualified academy student, he became the then youngest cathedral organist in the country when he was appointed as the first Organist & Master of the Choristers at the new Guildford Cathedral. At Guildford, he founded a choir to sing the daily services, their first public appearance being the service of consecration on 17 May 1961 in the presence of the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh and other members of the Royal family. Just four years later, his new choir was 'discovered' by EMI, and through the enthusiasm and commitment of producer Brian Culverhouse, they made several best-selling recordings in the cathedral. In 1974, Barry was invited to move to St Paul's Cathedral, initially as sub-organist, and in 1977 was appointed to the specially created post of Master of the Choir. He took over those duties at the Silver Jubilee Service for HM Queen Elizabeth on 3 June 1977, for which he wrote a setting of Psalm 121, and from then on directed the choir in their daily Worship Services, several State occasions, as well as a highly successful visit to USA & Canada in June, 1980. After leaving St Paul's in 1984, he became Master of the Choirs at the King's School, Canterbury before being appointed as Master of the Music at St Albans in 1988, serving until he retired on 25 December 1997. From 1971 to 1990, he was Religious Music Adviser to the BBC's Head of Religious Broadcasting in succession to George Thalben Ball. He was appointed OBE in 1998 for his services to Cathedral Music. |
| Andrew Lucas | 1998 to 2024 | Dr Andrew Lucas Hon.DMus BMus GRSM FRCO Hon FGCM b. 1958  Andrew was Master of the Music at St Albans from February 1998 until August 2024. Born in Wellington, Shropshire in 1958, he was chorister in his local parish church and went to school in Shrewsbury. From 1976, he studied at the Royal College of Music, studying organ with John Birch and composition with Herbert Howells. He graduated with a BMus from the University of London and continued his organ studies after college with Peter Hurford. The award of the W T Best Scholarship from the Worshipful Company of Musicians then enabled him to study with Piet Kee at the Sweelinck Conservatoire, Amsterdam. His career began St Paul’s Cathedral in 1980 as organ student, and he was subsequently appointed Assistant Sub-Organist (1985) and Sub-Organist and Assistant Director of Music (1990 to 1998). In 1997, he spent three months on sabbatical as Organist and Master of the Choristers at St Andrew's Cathedral in Sydney, Australia. In the mid-1980s, he was also earned his living as a freelance musician including continuo organ and harpsichord with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. As an organist, he has made over 25 CDs with St Paul's Cathedral Choir and two solo recordings. He has played concerts throughout the UK, Europe and the USA. He was Artistic Director of the St Albans International Organ Festival from 1999 to 2007, directing four festivals (2001 to 2007) and the artistic consultant for the restoration of the Harrison & Harrison organ in the cathedral, completed in 2009. As conductor, Andrew has been Chorus Master of the London Concert Choir, Assistant Conductor of the City of London Choir and deputy chorus master with the Royal Choral Society, the Brighton Festival Chorus, the Academy of St Martin’s-in-the-Fields Chorus and the Philharmonia Chorus. In 2007, he directed the annual Choir Directors' Course at St Thomas Church, Fifth Avenue, New York. With St Albans Cathedral Choir, led tours to Spain (2017), Germany (2015) and Italy (2013), and in the years before these to the Netherlands, Italy, the USA and twice to Sweden and France. They also broadcast frequently on radio and television (including Choral Evensong on Radio 3 and morning service on ITV), and sung at the late Queen Mother’s 100th birthday celebrations. At St Albans, Andrew was also the music director of the St Albans Bach Choir. With the Bach Choir he conducted over 50 concerts of the large scale choral repertoire with orchestra, and under his tenure, the choir has enjoyed an excellent reputation for the highest standards in their concerts. Andrew was made an Honorary Fellow of the Guild of Church Musicians in 2006, and in September 2024, he received an Honorary Doctorate of Music from the University of Hertfordshire. |
| William Fox | 2024 to date | William Fox BMus (Oxon) FRCO b. 1995  Will is the current Director of Music at St Albans. He is also Musical Director of the St Albans Bach Choir. Before coming to St Albans, William spent six years at St Paul's Cathedral, first as Sub Organist (2018) and then as Assistant Director of Music, playing for the National Service of Thanksgiving for the Platinum Jubilee of HM Queen Elizabeth II and at the National Service of Prayer and Reflection the day following her death, as well as at other major services of national significance. He began his musical education as a chorister at York Minster, before holding organ scholarships at Wells and Hereford Cathedrals. After becoming a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists as a teenager (winning the Turpin and Durrrant prize), he read music at Magdalen College, Oxford, from where he graduated with First-Class Honours, and was Organ Scholar under the directorship of Daniel Hyde and Mark Williams. Will also teaches at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and gives recitals throughout the UK. In 2021 and 2022, he performed the complete organ works of Johann Sebastian Bach in a series of 30 recitals at St Paul’s. His recording of the organ works of Cecilia McDowall was released in 2021, gaining 5 * reviews in Choir and Organ and The Organ. As a continuo and orchestral organist, he has recently appeared with the Gabrieli Consort and Players, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the City of London Sinfonia and the Cardinall’s Musick. |
Assistant
Directors of Music
Directors of Music
Assistant Masters of the Music & Assistant Directors of Music
Organ Scholars