latest update - December 2010

We are pleased to be able to announce that Dr Simon Lindley has been appointed as our Musical Director as from September 2011.  Simon will be working with us in a guest capacity until then.

Dr Simon Lindley

Simon Lindley is Organist of Leeds Parish Church and of Leeds Town Hall.

(photo shows Simon with Alison Hudson at a Choral Society reception)

At the City's historic and famous Parish Church his duties include the direction of its world-renowned Choir. He is also Music Director of St Peter's Singers, one of England's leading Chamber Choirs, and has served in that capacity since the foundation of the group in 1977.

Other current conductorships include Sheffield Bach Society, Halifax-based Overgate Hospice Choir and Leeds College of Music Community Choral Society. During the coming season [2010-2011] Simon is Chief Guest Conductor of Doncaster Choral Society. He is pianist to St Peter's [Leeds Parish Church] Church of England Primary School, Burmantofts.

Senior Lecturer in Music at Leeds Polytechnic from 1976 to 1987, Simon was in 1988 appointed to the new post of Senior Assistant Music Officer for Leeds City Council's [then] Learning and Leisure Department, working on a kaleidoscopic diversity of productions in the office of the award-winning Leeds International Concert Season – notably weekly Town Hall Lunchtime Recitals, programmes for the Saturday symphony and choral concerts and as Artistic Advisor to the Leeds Summer Heritage Festivals from 1989.

Before moving to Yorkshire thirty-five years ago, Simon was organist to several famous London Churches  Organ Tutor at the Royal School of Church Music's College of St Nicolas and held posts at Westminster and St Albans Cathedrals and as Director of Music to St Albans School.

At St Albans, he was the first full-time assistant to the legendary Dr Peter Hurford OBE.

A notable 1969 début recital at Westminster Cathedral, and his acclaimed live broadcast from the 1975 Proms of the Elgar Sonata at the Royal Albert Hall established his reputation as a player of distinctive style. This reputation has been enhanced by an extensive discography including two best-selling Naxos CDs and an award-winning performance of the fiendish solo part in Khachaturian's Organ Symphony with the BBC Philharmonic on Chandos conducted by Feyodor Gluschenko and recorded live at a concert in Leeds Town Hall.

Also for Chandos he has made a number of critically praised CDs as accompanist to cornet virtuoso Phillip McCann in the series The World's Most Beautiful Melodies. Simon's playing is also to be heard on many recordings by the Orchestra of Opera North - most recently with Paul Daniel in a Walton CD including Belshazzar's Feast and the 1937 and 1953 Coronation Marches, and in Bartók's Duke Bluebeard's Castle under Richard Farnes.

As an orchestral organist, he has worked – and continues to work – with all the leading British orchestras, and very regularly as organist for concerts by Huddersfield Choral Society. He remains one of very few players regularly playing full oratorio organ accompaniments without orchestra. Recent solo work has included the Poulenc concerto with the Orchestra of Opera North and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. There have been recent performances of the Saint-Saëns Organ Symphony with the RLPO and, on a UK Tour, with the Warsaw Philharmonic. He undertook a similar tour in 2007 with Maestro Paul Freeman and the Czech Philharmonic.

In the 70s' and 80's, Simon worked as Chorus Master to two of the West Riding's most famous adult choruses – Halifax Choral Society under Dr Donald Hunt OBE and Leeds Philharmonic Society with Meredith Davies. He still conducts Leeds Philharmonic on a regular basis for the annual Lord Mayor's Carol Concerts at Leeds Town Hall and is a life Vice-President of both choirs.

President of the Royal College of Organists from 2000 to 2003 and of the Incorporated Association of Organists from 2003 to 2005, Simon is Secretary of the Church Music Society – a position he has held since 1991.

As a choral conductor, his work is to be heard on many recordings and broadcasts with the famous Choir of Leeds Parish Church whose director he has been since early 1975.

Personalia, awards and achievements:
Born in London, the son of an Anglican priest and a writer and the grandson of Belgian poet and art historian Professor Emile Cammaerts, Simon was educated at Magdalen College School, Oxford and in London at the Royal College of Music, studying organ, piano and voice. He is an Associate of the Royal College and a Graduate of the Royal Schools of Music [London].

Work in many capacities for the Royal School of Church Music has included directing RSCM courses on four continents. He is a member of the Royal School's Advisory Board and holds the honorary diplomas of ARSCM [1987], and FRSCM – the latter presented in 2002.

Simon is a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists and holds the College's coveted Choirmaster's Diploma [CHM]. He is also a Fellow of Trinity College of Music and a Licentiate of the Royal Academy of Music.

In Autumn of 2001 an honorary doctorate of Leeds Metropolitan University was conferred upon him in recognition of his services to the musical and civic life of his adopted city. He is the recipient of Honorary Fellowships from Leeds College of Music, the Guild of Church Musicians, the Guild of Musicians and Singers and, most recently, the Royal School of Church Music. In Summer 2005 he received the Freedom of the City of London, where he began his career as an organist over forty years ago and in the Spring of 2006 he was the recipient of the coveted Spirit of Leeds award from Leeds Civic Trust.


His interests include writing, printing and typography, cooking, travel - especially rail travel - and local history.

Simon lives at the Moravian Settlement in Fulneck near Pudsey at the confluence of the West Riding rural and industrial heartlands. He is currently Grand Organist to the United Grand Lodge of England and to the Masonic Province of Yorkshire, West Riding.