Belfast Cathedral removes director of music role

Belfast Cathedral has announced that it will be making the role of director of music redundant from the beginning of next month, along with the removal of the cathedral’s professional choir, citing ‘difficult financial circumstances’.

The redundancies come as part of a ‘restructuring’ of the music department and will see the director of music role replaced by a part-time cathedral choir director and the paid, professional choir replaced by a ‘voluntary adult choir’.

In a statement released on the cathedral website, the dean and the honorary secretary of the board of Belfast Cathedral, wrote that: ‘It is with considerable regret that, owing to the difficult financial circumstances in which Belfast Cathedral continues to find itself, the Dean and Board will now commence a restructuring of the Music Department at Belfast Cathedral.’

The restructuring will see the departure of director of music Matthew Owens, who took the role in September 2019 after 14 years as organist and master of the choristers of Wells Cathedral. The Belfast Cathedral statement reads: ‘Matthew’s leadership and vision have seen Belfast Cathedral Choir attain new levels of excellence in supporting the worshipping life of this place and enjoy considerable international repute through its Resonus Classics recordings.’

The news has been met with shock from the classical music industry, with Andrew Nethsingha, the director of music at St John’s College, Cambridge who will be taking up the role of organist and master of choristers at Westminster Abbey in 2023, tweeting: ‘Devastating to hear the news from Belfast Cathedral. Thoughts are with all the musicians there.’

Peter Allwood, chair of the Cathedral Music Trust has released a statement describing the decision, as ‘a real blow for the cathedral, its musicians and the local community.' He adds that the cathedral’s musical reputation ‘will be impossible to maintain under part-time leadership and voluntary singers.’ and ‘the recently formed Children's Choir will suffer from lack of professional support and direction, losing a golden opportunity to develop musicians of the future.’

The Trust has offered to ‘do everything in our power to work with the cathedral to help to establish a sustainable path for musical excellence,’ but no further information is available to confirm whether this has been successful in saving the choir and director of music role.

You can read Belfast Cathedral’s full statement here.