President: Dr Christopher Robinson

Dr Christopher Robinson CVO, CBE was born in Peterborough in 1936.  He became President of FCM in 2004, succeeding Dr George Guest. 

From a chorister at St Michael's, Tenbury he moved to Rugby school.  Whilst at Rugby he won an organ scholarship to Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford and then became Assistant Organist at New College, Oxford.  

After a period teaching at Oundle School he moved to Worcester Cathedral in 1962 as Assistant Organist and became Organist & Master of the Choristers in 1963. 

In 1975 he was appointed Organist & Master of the Choristers at St George's Chapel, Windsor where he succeeded Sidney Campbell. 

He finally moved to St John's College, Cambridge as successor to George Guest in 1991 until he retired in 2003.  He then took over the choir at Clare College, Cambridge for a year. 

He was President of the Royal College of Organists from 1982 - 84, conductor of the Oxford Bach Choir and City of Birmingham Choir and has also conducted the Three Choirs Festival. 

He was awarded a Lambeth Doctrate in 2002 in recognition of his contribution to church music in this country and overseas.  In 1992 HM the Queen appointed him a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order for his work at St George's Chapel, Windsor. 

Making music is his main hobby and he also enjoys gardening and watching cricket.

Vice-Presidents:

 Vice-President:  The Bishop of Brentwood

The Rt Revd Thomas McMahon, Bishop of Brentwood, was born in Dorking, Surrey in 1936. 

He was educated at St Bede’s Grammar School Manchester before training for the priesthood at St Sulpice, Paris, famous for its organists Charles-Marie Widor & Marcel Dupré. 

He was ordained in 1959 at Wonersh, Surrey, moving to Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, then becoming parish priest at Stock, Essex where he continues to live today.

From 1972 –1980 he served as Chaplain to Essex University and was a member of the National Ecumenical Commission. 

He was consecrated as Bishop of Brentwood in 1980. He was Chairman of the Church Music Committee from 1997 to 2001 and founded a Cathedral and Choral Trust and extended the Choir School in 2000. 

He became a Vice-President of Friends of Cathedral Music in 2003.

His hobbies include music, reading, art, architecture, tennis and walking.

Vice President: Dr Francis Jackson

Dr Francis Jackson CBE was born in Malton, Yorkshire in 1917 and was a chorister at York Minster from 1929 - 1933 and a pupil of Sir Edward Bairstow.  He studied music at Durham University and became assistant organist of York Minster before succeeding Bairstow there in 1946.  

During the second World War he was a cavalryman in the 9th Lancers.

He remained at York Minster until his retirement in 1982 when he became Organist Emeritus. 

He is the Friends of Cathedral Music’s longest serving Vice-President known for his many wonderful compositions including the hymn-tune East Acklam, the name of the village in Yorkshire where he lives. 

He is a Past President of the Incorporated Association of Organists and a Vice President of the Royal College of Organists.  

He continues to give organ recitals throughout Britain and performed abroad including six tours of America as well as Australia.    

In retirement he still composes, gives organ recitals and also has a great love of poetry and literature.

Vice-President:  Dr Alan Thurlow

Dr Alan Thurlow was born in Essex in 1947 and gained his love of church music from his early days as a choirboy at his parish church in Woodford Green. 

He read music at Sheffield University before going to Emmanuel College, Cambridge for a period of research into pre-reformation English Church music. 

In 1973 he was appointed Sub-Organist at Durham Cathedral. In 1980 he was appointed Organist and Master of the Choristers at Chichester Cathedral from which he retired in 2008.

He is an Organ Adviser for the Diocese of Chichester and an area representative for the Royal School of Church Music. 

He has travelled abroad widely with the Cathedral Choir and the RSCM and has served as Chairman of the Organs Advisory Committee of the Council for the Care of Churches. 

In 1995/6 he served as the President of the Cathedral Organists’ Association. 

In 2005, the Archbishop of Canterbury conferred a Lambeth Doctorate on Alan in recognition of his service to the world of church music, especially in Chichester Cathedral.  

He was Chairman of the Friends of Cathedral Music from 1990 to 2002 and appointed a Vice-Chairman on his retirement as Chairman. 

His hobbies are walking, cycling and real ale.

Vice-President:  Ian Hislop

Ian Hislop  is best known as the editor of the satirical magazine Private Eye and a team captain on the popular current affairs TV quiz Have I got News for You.  Behind his wit and quick-fire brain is a person with a deep love of music.  He was born in Wales son of a Scottish father and English mother and the family spent time in Nigeria, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Hong Kong.  He was educated at Ardingley and Magdalen College, Oxford where he took a degree in English Literature.  He began working for Private Eye in 1981 and became the youngest ever editor of the magazine in 1986 and in 1991 won the British Society of Magazine Editors' Award..   Ian is a writer and broadcaster for many TV programmes and writes for The Spectator, The Financial Times, The Guardian and The Mail on Sunday.  His TV programmes have included one on the First World War and a series for Channel 4, entitled Canterbury Tales, about the history of the Church of England.  Ian married his wife Victoria in 1988 and they have a son and a daughter.  He is a regular church goer and enjoys the sound and atmosphere of choral music performed in our churches and cathedrals.

Vice President: Dame Emma Kirkby

Dame Emma Kirkby studied classics at Oxford (Somerville College) and became a teacher with no expectations of becoming a professional singer.   She sang for pleasure in choirs and small groups and was a founder member of the Taverner Choir and was most at home with Renaissance and Baroque repertoire.   She took part in recordings with the Academy of Ancient Music ant a time when most college trained sopranos were not seeking a sound appropriate for early music intruments.  She built long term relationships with chamber groups and orchestras, particularly London Baroque, the Freiburger Barockorchester and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and now with some of the younger groups, the Palladian Ensemble and Floregium.  She has made well over a hundred recordings of all kinds from madrigals of the Italian and English Renaissance, Bach and other cantatas and oratorios.  In 1999 she was  voted Artist of the Year by Classic FM listeners and in 1997 was appointed DBE.  Despite all her recording activity, Dame Emma prefers live concerts, especially the pleasure of performing favourite programmes with colleagues.

Vice President:  James MacMillan

James MacMillan, the Scottish composer and conductor, read music at Edinburgh University and then studied composition at Durham.  He lectured at Manchester University before returning to Scotland and settled in Glasgow, becoming Associate Composer with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.  The première of  The Confession of Isobel Dowdie at the Proms in 1990 with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra brought his work to public and critical acclaim.   He has written a percussion concerto for Evelyn Glennie in 1992 and a cello concerto for Rostropovich in 1997.  Catholicism has inspired many of his works including many sacred works for choirs.  His use of familiar themes, coupled with colourful orchestrations, has made his music more accesible than the more academic style of more avant garde composers.  His Mass of 2000 commissioned for Westminster Cathedral and his Galloway Mass and St Anne's Mass have parts for the congregation to join in.  His style has been established as basically melodic, yet still totally modern, and above all, written in a very personal style that is listener-friendly.