Director of Music - Patrick Russill

Professor Patrick Russill is recognised as one of the leading figures in English church music. Following organ studies with Nicholas Danby while organ scholar at New College, Oxford, he was appointed Organist of the London Oratory in 1977 at the age of 23 in succession to Ralph Downes, on Downes’ nomination. In 1999 he was appointed Director of Music at the Oratory, assuming overall responsibility for its choral tradition and especially for its famous professional choir, which under his direction ‘remains among the finest mixed-voice choirs in the country’ (Choir & Organ).

Patrick was appointed a Professor of the University of London in 2022 and is also Head of Choral Conducting at the Royal Academy of Music and Visiting Professor of Choral Conducting at the Leipzig Hochschule für Musik und Theater. He was Chief Examiner of the Royal College of Organists 2005-2017.

As an organ recitalist he has played at the Royal Festival Hall and Queen Elizabeth Hall, in Europe, Asia and all over the UK. He introduced the reconstructed Tudor organs of the Early English Organ Project to London’s South Bank in a Queen Elizabeth Hall recital acclaimed by the Independent on Sunday, in its classical review of 2007, as the outstanding London keyboard concert of the year.

He has published articles on various aspects of the Catholic musical tradition including early Tudor liturgical organ music, baroque organ music of Catholic Germany (in The Cambridge Companion to the Organ), Howells’s Latin church music and Dupré’s Vespers as well as editions of choral music by Sweelinck and Howells.  He was Musical Editor of the Catholic Hymn Book (1998) and a contributor to New Grove.

Patrick is a Vice-President of the Herbert Howells Society, Chairman of the Church Music Society, and an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music and of the Cathedral Organists Association. He also holds Fellowships honoris causa of both the Guild of Church Musicians and the Royal College of Organists. In 2015 he was honoured by the Association of British Choral Directors with its annual Chair’s Award for Choral Leadership. In 2017 he was made a Fellow of the Royal School of Church Music in recognition of his seminal influence on three decades of students, many of whom are now in significant church and cathedral posts, and for his contribution to Catholic church music. He is also a trustee of the Organists Charitable Trust, and of the Nicholas Danby Trust, which supports young organists of outstanding promise, by awarding scholarships and bursaries for conservatoire study within Europe.

Email: patrickrussill@blueyonder.co.uk


Organist - Ben Bloor

Ben Bloor is the Organist of the London Oratory Church where he accompanies the professional adult choir for weekly Mass and Vespers and oversees the famous Downes/Walker organ. He combines this with a busy freelance recital career and the post of School Organist at Westminster School, where he teaches organ and plays for services in Westminster Abbey. Previously, he held organ scholarships at Derby Cathedral, St George’s Chapel Windsor Castle, New College Oxford and Westminster Cathedral, and was the Assistant Sub-Organist at Rochester Cathedral. Ben was the winner of the 2012 Northern Ireland International Organ Competition, and a semi-finalist in the inaugural Wadden Sea International Organ Competition held in Denmark in January 2017. He was awarded second prize in the Boston Bach International Organ Competition 2018. Ben holds a First-Class Honours degree in Music from the University of Oxford and the Limpus prize for highest marks in the 2013 FRCO examinations. He is a recipient of the Worshipful Company of Musicians’ Silver Medal for his contribution to organ-playing. Ben is a Junior Fellow at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire where he studies with Henry Fairs.

Email: organist@bromptonoratory.co.uk
Website: www.benbloor.com


Assistant Director of Music & Director of the Oratory Junior Choir - Charles Cole

Charles Cole began his musical training as a chorister at Westminster Cathedral. He went on to win a major music scholarship to Ampleforth and organ scholarships at Exeter College, Oxford and Westminster Cathedral. He is Assistant Director of Music at the Oratory and Director of the London Oratory Junior Choir which, in addition to its liturgical duties, provides the Children’s Chorus for the Royal Ballet’s productions at Covent Garden. He is Director of Music at St Philip’s School where he also directs the Schola and is also Deputy Organist at Westminster Cathedral.

In addition he is the Director of the Schola Cantorum of the London Oratory School, a world-famous boys’ choir, which sings the Vigil Mass at the Oratory every Saturday. Perhaps most widely known for its role on the soundtracks of major films such as the Lord of the Rings and the Harry Potter series, the Schola has toured extensively, most recently to Rome and Spain. Recent concerts include Bach’s St John Passion, Monteverdi’s Vespers and a joint performance of Bach’s B minor Mass with the Choir of Westminster Cathedral.

Charles was involved in two of the papal liturgies on the occasion of Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to London, conducting the brass in James MacMillan’s Tu es Petrus, commissioned for the Mass at Westminster Cathedral, and playing the organ for the Prayer Vigil at Hyde Park for a congregation of 80,000. Since 2011 he has been a Gregorian Chant Director at the Church Music Association of America’s annual Colloquiums in Pittsburgh, Salt Lake City, and Indianapolis. He has also given choral workshops for choirs in Jerusalem, Nazareth and Bethlehem.

Email: oratoryjuniorchoir@gmail.com


Pettman Organ Scholar - IVAN LEUNG

The Oratory’s organ scholarship was established in 2011, through the generosity of Mr Ian Pettman. The Pettman Organ Scholarship is endowed in lasting and loving memory of Ian’s late wife June. Ian and June were both great supporters of the Oratory’s liturgical and musical traditions. June died in 2006 and Ian in 2016.

The scholarship allows a student to gain experience of traditional Roman Catholic liturgical music performed to the highest standards, both through practical involvement and observation. The scholar is principal accompanist for the Oratory Junior Choir and also assists and participates in the Latin liturgies. A distinctive aspect of the Pettman scholarship is that it also supports other aspects of the scholar’s training, including organ tuition and travel to study historic organs abroad.

Previous scholars include Felix Yeung (Director of Music, St John’s Cathedral, Hong Kong) Jeremy Lloyd (Assistant Director of Music, Rochester Cathedral), Joseph Beech (Sub-Organist, Durham Cathedral), Graham Thorpe (Director of Music, Bradford Cathedral) and Polina Sosnina (Associate Organist, Church of St Martin-in-the-Fields London and Director of Music, Brasenose College, Oxford).

Ivan Leung became our eighth Pettman organ scholar in September 2023.  Ivan studied organ with Michael Murray at the University of British Columbia, Canada and received his Masters degree in organ from the Royal College of Music in London in 2022. He is currently pursuing the Artist Diploma course at the RCM studying organ with David Graham, and improvisation with Sophie-Véronique Cauchefer-Choplin.

He was organ scholar of Farm Street Church, London 2019-23, and is also organist at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception and Saint Benedict Church in Hong Kong.  Ivan has given recitals in Canada, Germany, Hong Kong and the United Kingdom and also composes.

He was awarded the Flentrop Scholarship in 2022, for a study trip of historical organs with the distinguished organ builder Flentrop in the Netherlands.