Director of Music - Patrick Russill KSG
Professor Patrick Russill is one of the leading figures in English church music. Following organ studies with Nicholas Danby while organ scholar at New College, Oxford, he was appointed Organist of the London Oratory in 1977 at the age of 23 in succession to Ralph Downes, on Downes’ nomination. Between 1984 and 2003 he was Director of the Oratory Junior Choir and in 1999 he was appointed Director of Music at the Oratory, assuming overall responsibility for its choral tradition and especially for its famous professional choir, which under his direction ‘remains among the finest mixed-voice choirs in the country’ (Choir & Organ).
Now Emeritus Head of Choral Conducting at the Royal Academy of Music, between 1997 and 2024, Patrick developed the UK’s first and most successful conservatoire choral conducting course. He was also Visiting Professor of Choral Conducting at the Leipzig Hochschule für Musik und Theater 2001-2023 and has taught at conservatoires in Stockholm, Helsinki, Berlin, Düsseldorf, Strasbourg and Cluj-Napoca (Romania). He was Chief Examiner of the Royal College of Organists 2005-2017. In 2022 he was awarded a personal professorial chair and is now an Emeritus Professor of the University of London.
As an organ recitalist he has played at the Royal Festival Hall and Queen Elizabeth Hall, in Europe, Asia and all over the UK. He introduced the reconstructed Tudor organs of the Early English Organ Project to London’s South Bank in a Queen Elizabeth Hall recital acclaimed by the Independent on Sunday, in its classical review of 2007, as the outstanding London keyboard concert of the year.
He has published articles on various aspects of the Catholic musical tradition including early Tudor liturgical organ music, baroque organ music of Catholic Germany (in The Cambridge Companion to the Organ), Howells’s Latin church music and Dupré’s Vespers as well as editions of choral music by Sweelinck and Howells in particular. He was Musical Editor of The Catholic Hymn Book (1998) and a contributor to New Grove.
Patrick is a Vice-President of the Herbert Howells Society, Chairman of the Church Music Society, and an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music and of the Cathedral Organists Association. In 2015 he was honoured by the Association of British Choral Directors with its annual Chair’s Award for Choral Leadership and in 2023 he was awarded the Medal of the Royal College of Organists (its highest honour).
He also holds Fellowships honoris causa of the Royal College of Organists, the Royal School of Church Music and the Guild of Church Musicians, in recognition of his seminal influence on three decades of students, many of whom are now in significant church and cathedral posts, and for his influence on and contribution to church music in the UK. He is also a trustee of the Organists Charitable Trust, and of the Nicholas Danby Trust, which supports young organists of outstanding promise, by awarding scholarships and bursaries for conservatoire study within Europe.
In 2024 Patrick was honoured with a Papal Knighthood of the Order of St Gregory.
Organist - Ben Bloor
Ben Bloor is the Organist of the London Oratory Church where he accompanies the professional adult choir for weekly Mass and Vespers and oversees the famous Downes/Walker organ. He combines this with a busy freelance recital career and the post of School Organist at Westminster School, where he teaches organ and plays for services in Westminster Abbey. Previously, he held organ scholarships at Derby Cathedral, St George’s Chapel Windsor Castle, New College Oxford and Westminster Cathedral, and was the Assistant Sub-Organist at Rochester Cathedral. Ben was the winner of the 2012 Northern Ireland International Organ Competition, and a semi-finalist in the inaugural Wadden Sea International Organ Competition held in Denmark in January 2017. He was awarded second prizes in the Boston Bach International Organ Competition 2018 and also the Canadian International Organ Competition in 2021. In 2023, he won the Douglas May Award at the St Albans International Organ Competition. Ben holds a First-Class Honours degree in Music from the University of Oxford and the Limpus prize for highest marks in the 2013 FRCO examinations. He is a recipient of the Worshipful Company of Musicians’ Silver Medal for his contribution to organ-playing and held the Junior Fellowship at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. Ben’s debut solo organ CD, L’Orgue Grégorien, recorded at the Oratory is available on the Ad Fontes label.
Email: organist@bromptonoratory.co.uk
Website: www.benbloor.com
Assistant Director of Music & Director of the Oratory Junior Choir - Charles Cole
Charles Cole began his musical training as a chorister at Westminster Cathedral. He went on to win a major music scholarship to Ampleforth and organ scholarships at Exeter College, Oxford and Westminster Cathedral. He is Assistant Director of Music at the Oratory and Director of the London Oratory Junior Choir which, in addition to its liturgical duties, provides the Children’s Chorus for the Royal Ballet’s productions at Covent Garden. He is Director of Music at St Philip’s School where he also directs the Schola and is also Deputy Organist at Westminster Cathedral.
In addition he is the Director of the Schola Cantorum of the London Oratory School, a world-famous boys’ choir, which sings the Vigil Mass at the Oratory every Saturday. Perhaps most widely known for its role on the soundtracks of major films such as the Lord of the Rings and the Harry Potter series, the Schola has toured extensively, most recently to Rome and Spain. Recent concerts include Bach’s St John Passion, Monteverdi’s Vespers and a joint performance of Bach’s B minor Mass with the Choir of Westminster Cathedral.
Charles was involved in two of the papal liturgies on the occasion of Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to London, conducting the brass in James MacMillan’s Tu es Petrus, commissioned for the Mass at Westminster Cathedral, and playing the organ for the Prayer Vigil at Hyde Park for a congregation of 80,000. Since 2011 he has been a Gregorian Chant Director at the Church Music Association of America’s annual Colloquiums in Pittsburgh, Salt Lake City, and Indianapolis. He has also given choral workshops for choirs in Jerusalem, Nazareth and Bethlehem.
Email: oratoryjuniorchoir@gmail.com
Pettman Organ Scholar - EVAN LAWRENCE
The Oratory’s organ scholarship was endowed in 2011 by Mr Ian Pettman in lasting and loving memory of his late wife June. Ian and June were both great supporters of the Oratory’s liturgical and musical traditions. June died in 2006 and Ian in 2016. The scholarship allows a student to gain experience of traditional Roman Catholic liturgical music performed to the highest standards, both through practical involvement and observation. The scholar is principal accompanist for the Oratory Junior Choir and also assists and participates in the Latin liturgies. A distinctive aspect of the Pettman scholarship is that it also supports other aspects of the scholar’s training, including organ tuition and travel to study historic organs abroad. Previous scholars now hold significant cathedral and collegiate posts.
Evan Lawrence became our ninth Pettman organ scholar in September 2024. Growing up in Dublin, Evan studied violin and piano as a scholar of the Royal Irish Academy of Music and sang with RTÉ Cór na nÓg. He became an organ student of Dr Carole O’Connor and at 15, he was appointed Junior Organ Scholar of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin. In 2021 he received the Sr Catherine McCauley Cup for the most promising organist in the Feis Ceoil national competition, giving a prize recital for Dublin’s Pipeworks Organ Festival.
Evan is currently in the final year of his degree in violin performance at the Guildhall School of Music and is a private organ student of Daniel Moult. He held the Champniss Organ Scholarship at the Grosvenor Chapel 2023-4, and before that was organ scholar of St Mary’s Church, Battersea 2021-3, while studying with Anne Marsden Thomas. He has taken part in masterclasses with distinguished organists including Katelyn Emerson, Henry Fairs and Eric Lebrun. Evan was recently invited to give a recital in Westminster Abbey and in January 2024 gained his Fellowship of the Royal College of Organists, winning the Limpus and Dixon prizes for top marks in performance and improvisation