Christopher Gray

Christopher Gray has been Director of Music at St John’s  College since April 2023. With responsibilities focusing on the College’s celebrated choir and organ, he works with the Choristers, Choral Scholars, Lay Clerks and Organ Scholars to provide music that enhances the liturgy of the beautiful Gilbert Scott chapel, upholding a tradition that dates from the 1670s.

After early musical education in his hometown of Bangor, Northern Ireland, Christopher became Assistant Organist at St George’s Parish Church, Belfast. At the age of 18 he moved to England to take up the organ scholarship at Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he read music. A Fellow of the Royal College of Organists, Christopher studied the organ with David Sanger and Nicolas Kynaston at Cambridge. He was subsequently taught by Margaret Phillips at the Royal College of Music, where he was a post-graduate student and a prize-winner. During this time, he also held the organ scholarship at Guildford Cathedral.

In 2000 Christopher was appointed Assistant Director of Music at Truro Cathedral, working closely with Andrew Nethsingha and then Robert Sharpe. In 2008 he became Director of Music, taking on responsibility for the cathedral choir and its seven sung services each week, as well as the Father Willis organ. As Musical Director of Three Spires Singers and Orchestra he conducted most of the large-scale choral repertoire.

During his first three terms at St John’s Christopher has led a collaboration with the Academy of Ancient Music, the Advent Carol Service broadcast, and a tour to Luxembourg and the Netherlands, as well as premiering new works composed for the Choir by Joanna Marsh. In the coming months he will make his first recording with the Choir.