Previous soloists and musicians
Simon Lindley playing organ at Cantley Church, Doncaster
Simon Lindley
Leeds-based musician Dr Simon Lindley was in November 2010 appointed Conductor and Music Director of Doncaster Choral Society almost exactly twenty years after first appearing as the choir’s Guest Conductor and ten years on from a performance of Messiah in December 2001. He completed a highly accomplished period as our Director in 2022.
Simon is involved with the presentation of organ concerts in support of the Society in and around Doncaster (more information about these can be seen under the tab Toccata Tuesdays) and also speaks to local organisations outlining the significant work of the Society within the South Yorkshire community. During the conductorship of Dr Roger Bullivant, Dr Lindley played the organ for a number of the Choral Society’s concerts over the years, including memorable contributions to two carol concerts and a third event comprising the Requiems of Fauré and Duruflé accompanied by organ alone.
Dr Lindley is Organist Emeritus of Leeds Minster, having served as Organist & Master of the Music there from 1975 to 2016. He continues to give regular recitals both at the Minster at Leeds Town Hall, where he was resident organist from 1976 to 2017.
Simon was educated at Magdalen College School, Oxford and the Royal College of Music. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists, serving as College President from 2000 to 2002, and also of Trinity College of Music. Simon holds Honorary Fellowships from the Royal School of Church Music, the Guild of Church Musicians, the Guild of Musicians and Singers and from Leeds College of Music.
Dr Lindley moved to Yorkshire in 1975, following service at Westminster and St Albans Cathedrals and at St Albans School. In Autumn of 2001, an Honorary Doctorate of Leeds Metropolitan University was conferred upon him in recognition of his contribution to the musical and civic life of Leeds. In 2012 a further doctorate, from the University of Huddersfield, was awarded to him for his services to choral music locally, nationally and internationally. He is particularly proud to have been the recipient of the Leeds Award last September at a special ceremony in the Civic Hall, and, in 2006 of the Spirit of Leeds accolade from Leeds Civic Trust.
Dr Lindley retains strong links with the City of London where his career began fifty years ago during student days. He is a Freeman of the City, a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Musicians and for long held office as Churchwarden at the National Musicians’ Church, St Sepulchre-without-Newgate – and as Chairman of the Friends of the Musicians’ Chapel there from 2003 to 2014. He is the current long-serving Provincial Grand Organist to the Masonic Province of Yorkshire West Riding and was a popular Grand Organist to the United Grand Lodge of England between 2010 and 2012.
Active in many aspects of Yorkshire music, Simon is Conductor of Sheffield Bach Society and this year celebrates forty years’ service to acclaimed Leeds-based chamber choir St Peter’s Singers and twenty as Music Director of Overgate Hospice Choir, Halifax.
His home is at Fulneck Moravian Settlement, just South of Pudsey at the confluence of the West Riding rural and urban heartlands.
As a Director of the English Hymnal Company, Dr Lindley was on the editorial board of the supplement to the New English Hymnal, New English Praise, issued in 2006; he is Chairman of the Company’s charitable arm, the Ecclesiastical Music Trust and a long-serving Trustee of the John Pilling Trust. For a quarter of a century he has been Secretary of the Church Music Society.
Dr Lindley comes from a musical family with roots in Belgium as well as the West Riding of Yorkshire – his sister Ruth has just retired after many years’ service in the professional choir of the London Oratory and their great-grandmother, Marie Brema, sang the role of the Angel in the first performance of Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius at the 1900 Birmingham Festival. Simon’s own family comprises three sons, a daughter and three granddaughters, two of whom are American citizens. One of his Cammaerts cousins, Michael Morpurgo, is a distinguished author and well-known for his wonderful special projects for city children.
Simon’s own interests include cooking, walking, rail travel, local history, church architecture, printing and typography.
Leeds-based musician Dr Simon Lindley was in November 2010 appointed Conductor and Music Director of Doncaster Choral Society almost exactly twenty years after first appearing as the choir’s Guest Conductor and ten years on from a performance of Messiah in December 2001. He completed a highly accomplished period as our Director in 2022.
Simon is involved with the presentation of organ concerts in support of the Society in and around Doncaster (more information about these can be seen under the tab Toccata Tuesdays) and also speaks to local organisations outlining the significant work of the Society within the South Yorkshire community. During the conductorship of Dr Roger Bullivant, Dr Lindley played the organ for a number of the Choral Society’s concerts over the years, including memorable contributions to two carol concerts and a third event comprising the Requiems of Fauré and Duruflé accompanied by organ alone.
Dr Lindley is Organist Emeritus of Leeds Minster, having served as Organist & Master of the Music there from 1975 to 2016. He continues to give regular recitals both at the Minster at Leeds Town Hall, where he was resident organist from 1976 to 2017.
Simon was educated at Magdalen College School, Oxford and the Royal College of Music. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists, serving as College President from 2000 to 2002, and also of Trinity College of Music. Simon holds Honorary Fellowships from the Royal School of Church Music, the Guild of Church Musicians, the Guild of Musicians and Singers and from Leeds College of Music.
Dr Lindley moved to Yorkshire in 1975, following service at Westminster and St Albans Cathedrals and at St Albans School. In Autumn of 2001, an Honorary Doctorate of Leeds Metropolitan University was conferred upon him in recognition of his contribution to the musical and civic life of Leeds. In 2012 a further doctorate, from the University of Huddersfield, was awarded to him for his services to choral music locally, nationally and internationally. He is particularly proud to have been the recipient of the Leeds Award last September at a special ceremony in the Civic Hall, and, in 2006 of the Spirit of Leeds accolade from Leeds Civic Trust.
Dr Lindley retains strong links with the City of London where his career began fifty years ago during student days. He is a Freeman of the City, a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Musicians and for long held office as Churchwarden at the National Musicians’ Church, St Sepulchre-without-Newgate – and as Chairman of the Friends of the Musicians’ Chapel there from 2003 to 2014. He is the current long-serving Provincial Grand Organist to the Masonic Province of Yorkshire West Riding and was a popular Grand Organist to the United Grand Lodge of England between 2010 and 2012.
Active in many aspects of Yorkshire music, Simon is Conductor of Sheffield Bach Society and this year celebrates forty years’ service to acclaimed Leeds-based chamber choir St Peter’s Singers and twenty as Music Director of Overgate Hospice Choir, Halifax.
His home is at Fulneck Moravian Settlement, just South of Pudsey at the confluence of the West Riding rural and urban heartlands.
As a Director of the English Hymnal Company, Dr Lindley was on the editorial board of the supplement to the New English Hymnal, New English Praise, issued in 2006; he is Chairman of the Company’s charitable arm, the Ecclesiastical Music Trust and a long-serving Trustee of the John Pilling Trust. For a quarter of a century he has been Secretary of the Church Music Society.
Dr Lindley comes from a musical family with roots in Belgium as well as the West Riding of Yorkshire – his sister Ruth has just retired after many years’ service in the professional choir of the London Oratory and their great-grandmother, Marie Brema, sang the role of the Angel in the first performance of Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius at the 1900 Birmingham Festival. Simon’s own family comprises three sons, a daughter and three granddaughters, two of whom are American citizens. One of his Cammaerts cousins, Michael Morpurgo, is a distinguished author and well-known for his wonderful special projects for city children.
Simon’s own interests include cooking, walking, rail travel, local history, church architecture, printing and typography.
David Houlder, organ
Organist and Associate Conductor of Doncaster Choral Society (up to 2022) and chief accompanist to Halifax Choral Society, David was born in Liverpool but is also a proud Prestonian. Educated at Preston Grammar School, he studied organ there with John Robinson, gaining his FRCO at the age of 17. He read music at Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge for the MA degree, continuing his organ studies with Arnold Richardson in London. He embarked upon a teaching career as Music Master at Wirral Grammar School for Boys. From 1981 to 1999 he was Director of Music at Liverpool’s historic Blue Coat School. In 1987 David was appointed Sub-Organist of Liverpool Cathedral, latterly combining that position with a freelance career, both as recitalist and accompanist. He has played all of the cathedral organs in England and in 2001 he enjoyed a stint as Acting-Assistant Organist of York Minster. He appeared in concert regularly with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir and has recorded with them on several occasions. More recently, he has appeared with the renowned Black Dyke Band and played with them in a spectacular concert at Birmingham Symphony Hall recorded and released on DVD.
In November 2003, after nearly thirty years music-making on Merseyside, David accepted the position of Sub-Organist at Leeds Minster (then Leeds Parish Church). In addition to accompanying the daily choral services, he directs two choirs and is organist to St Peter’s Singers with whom he toured Romania in 2007 and Mallorca in 2009 and 2013 as well as Brittany in 2011.
David specialises in organ and piano transcriptions of orchestral scores and is in great demand as accompanist to choral societies on both sides of the Pennines. Recent performances have included Bizet: Te Deum, Cherubini: Mass in C minor, Duruflé: Requiem, Kodaly: Missa Brevis, Puccini: Messa di Gloria, Rossini: Petite Messe Solennelle (Piano and Harmonium parts – though not simultaneously!), Verdi: Requiem (a work very rarely performed on the organ) plus Organ Masses by Langlais, Vierne and Widor. His non-musical interests include shipping, railways and photography.
Organist and Associate Conductor of Doncaster Choral Society (up to 2022) and chief accompanist to Halifax Choral Society, David was born in Liverpool but is also a proud Prestonian. Educated at Preston Grammar School, he studied organ there with John Robinson, gaining his FRCO at the age of 17. He read music at Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge for the MA degree, continuing his organ studies with Arnold Richardson in London. He embarked upon a teaching career as Music Master at Wirral Grammar School for Boys. From 1981 to 1999 he was Director of Music at Liverpool’s historic Blue Coat School. In 1987 David was appointed Sub-Organist of Liverpool Cathedral, latterly combining that position with a freelance career, both as recitalist and accompanist. He has played all of the cathedral organs in England and in 2001 he enjoyed a stint as Acting-Assistant Organist of York Minster. He appeared in concert regularly with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir and has recorded with them on several occasions. More recently, he has appeared with the renowned Black Dyke Band and played with them in a spectacular concert at Birmingham Symphony Hall recorded and released on DVD.
In November 2003, after nearly thirty years music-making on Merseyside, David accepted the position of Sub-Organist at Leeds Minster (then Leeds Parish Church). In addition to accompanying the daily choral services, he directs two choirs and is organist to St Peter’s Singers with whom he toured Romania in 2007 and Mallorca in 2009 and 2013 as well as Brittany in 2011.
David specialises in organ and piano transcriptions of orchestral scores and is in great demand as accompanist to choral societies on both sides of the Pennines. Recent performances have included Bizet: Te Deum, Cherubini: Mass in C minor, Duruflé: Requiem, Kodaly: Missa Brevis, Puccini: Messa di Gloria, Rossini: Petite Messe Solennelle (Piano and Harmonium parts – though not simultaneously!), Verdi: Requiem (a work very rarely performed on the organ) plus Organ Masses by Langlais, Vierne and Widor. His non-musical interests include shipping, railways and photography.
