Music Team Update

It is announced today that James Orford, Organist and Assistant Director of Music at St Paul’s Knightsbridge, has been appointed Organist of St Paul’s Cathedral. We will bid farewell to James at the end of September.

The Vicar of St Paul’s Knightsbridge, The Reverend Canon Alan Gyle, said “After three years of delighting the congregation of St Paul’s Knightsbridge with most excellent and sensitive liturgical music-making, it is wonderful to see James take up this prestigious role. His dedication to high standards and command of a vast range of repertoire, coupled with his humour and collegiality has made James a pleasure to work with.”

Director of Music, Dr Joseph Fort, said “Organists like James are rare, and we are exceptionally fortunate to have had him at St Paul’s Knightsbridge over the last three years. James is an inspiring musician, who in his playing combines a deep intellect with verve and energy. But he also wears his talent and his learning lightly, and as a colleague he has been a fun and generous presence about the place. While we will miss him, we also share his joy in his new appointment, and wish him every success as he takes up the role at St Paul’s Cathedral.”

Recruitment for the role of Organist and Assistant Director of Music will begin in the autumn. In the meantime, we are delighted that Jeremy Cole, formerly Director of Music of Wells Cathedral, and sometime Organist of St Paul’s Knightsbridge and St Martin-in-the-Fields, returns to SPK as Interim Organist from October.

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JAMES ORFORD is a prize-winning organist and pianist based in London.  He is currently the Organist and Assistant Director of Music at St Paul’s Church, Knightsbridge and works extensively as a soloist, accompanist, continuo player, repetiteur, and teacher.  He has previously held posts at Eton College and Westminster Cathedral, before which he held organ scholarships at St Paul’s and Truro Cathedrals, the Royal Hospital Chelsea, and King’s College, London.  Having started his organ studies with James McVinnie and Christian Wilson, he later studied with David Titterington and Bine Bryndorf at the Royal Academy of Music, where he obtained top marks in both his undergraduate and postgraduate degrees.

James enjoys a busy performing schedule as a soloist and has given recitals and concerts in many of the UK’s most notable venues and at a number of major festivals, including at St Paul’s, Westminster, and Liverpool Cathedrals, Westminster Abbey, the Royal Festival Hall, and the Royal Albert Hall.  He has also given recitals in Denmark, Belgium, Italy, and Sweden.  In 2021, his debut solo album – his own complete organ transcription of Vivaldi’s L’estro Armonico – was released on the Linn Record Label and was featured on Apple Music’s Classical A-list.

As an accompanist, James has worked with a vast number of choirs, both professional and amateur.  Among these are The Sixteen, the Monteverdi Choir, Tenebrae, the London Choral Sinfonia, Sansara, Thames Philharmonic Choir, and many other cathedral and church choirs.  He has accompanied choral performances in the USA, Canada, Germany, France, Switzerland, Sweden, and Nigeria and has appeared on many recordings and broadcasts as both an organist and pianist.  These include several world premiere recordings of music by Sir Stephen Hough, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Jean Langlais, Lennox Berkeley, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, and Francis Grier.  Mirabilis, a recently released disc of Stephen Hough’s choral music was one of Gramophone Magazine’s “Best Classical Albums of 2023”.