On Wednesday 18 January, we were very pleased to welcome Ben Collyer, a second year student at the Royal College of Music, to Brentwood Cathedral for his lunchtime Organ Recital

Ben Collyer is Organist at St John’s, Hyde Park Crescent, London. He began his musical education at the age of 7 as a treble in his local parish church in Stockport. When he was 16, he began studies at Chetham’s School of Music, where he learned with Christopher Stokes and Graham Caskie. At Chetham’s he performed frequently with Manchester Chamber Choir and Chetham’s Symphony Orchestra, and with visiting conductors Jac Van Steen, Paul McCreash and John Rutter. In 2017, Ben was awarded his ARCO diploma from the Royal College of Organists. In 2018 Ben took on the role of Organ Scholar at Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, where he also studied for a BA in musicology. In his second year, he was appointed as the director of the student-run College choir.

As a soloist, Ben has performed in a number of prestigious venues, both in the UK and abroad. Some recent venues include L’Église Saint Vincent de Carcassonne and the Royal Opera House in Muscat, Oman.

In the academic year 2021-22, Ben was Organ Scholar at St Paul’s Cathedral, where he was involved with several prestigious services including the Platinum Jubilee service for Her Majesty the Queen.

In 2021, Ben was given the Richard Newton Scarth Award to study for a MA in Organ performance at the Royal College of Music, where he now works with David Graham and Andy Dewar. His studies have taken him abroad to European cities such as Paris, Haarlem, and Leipzig, where he enjoys playing some of the best instruments in the world. Ben was recently awarded a scholarship to study on the Artist’s Diploma course at the Royal College which he will begin after finishing his MA in 2023.

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