It has been announced today that Dr Simon Lindley, musician of international renown and Master of Music at Leeds Minster since 1975, will retire next year.
Simon Lindley is both organist and director of the Minster's world-renowned choir. He is also Music Director of St Peter's Singers, one of England's leading Chamber Choirs, and organist at Leeds Town Hall.
Rector-Designate of Leeds Minster, the Revd Canon Sam Corley says, “For more than 40 years, Dr Lindley has poured his many talents and his considerable energy into the life of the Minster and into the musical life of this fabulous City. We have much to thank Simon for and we shall of course be celebrating his many achievements in due course.
“I am particularly grateful to Simon that the timing of his announcement gives us time to plan the recruitment of a successor to take forward the leadership of the music department here at the Minster. But, for now, it goes without saying that we shall miss him enormously.”
Simon's last service as Master of Music will be the service to mark the 175th anniversary of the dedication of the present church, to be held at 4pm on Saturday 3 September 2016.
Simon says, “I have enjoyed, and will continue to enjoy for some months yet, my work at the Minster immensely. It is challenging and sometimes exciting but never dull. The privilege of working with splendid musicians and clergy has been the backbone of a long period of service and the appreciation from Leeds folk continues to be greatly valued by us all here."
As well as directing many community choir events in support of charitable causes, Simon is Conductor of Sheffield Bach Choir and Doncaster Choral Society, and Music Director of Overgate Hospice Choir, Halifax and Leeds College of Music Community Choral Society.
He is widely travelled as a solo organist, and an extensive discography includes two best-selling Naxos releases (French Organ Music and Handel Concertos), and an award-winning performance of Khachaturian's Organ Symphony with the BBC Philharmonic.
Simon, who was educated at Magdalen College School, Oxford and the Royal College of Music, has Honorary Doctorates from the University of Huddersfield and Leeds Beckett University in recognition of his services to choral music locally, nationally and internationally. In 2006 he was presented with the coveted Spirit of Leeds award by Leeds Civic Trust.
His liturgical compositions and carol arrangements are performed throughout the English-speaking world. His setting of Ave Maria is in the repertoire of many church choirs and has been recorded many times, most recently by Katherine Jenkins in her Sacred Arias anthology.
He is from a musical family; his great-grandmother, Marie Brema, a friend of Elgar, sang the part of the Angel in the premiere of Elgar's Dream of Gerontius and he himself gave an acclaimed performance of Elgar’s Organ Sonata at the 1975 Henry Wood Promenade Concerts broadcast on BBC Radio Three live from the Royal Albert Hall.
He has been Senior Lecturer in Music at Leeds Polytechnic (1976-87) and Senior Assistant Music Officer for Leeds City Council (1987-2011). He was president of the Royal College of Organists from 2000 to 2003, and of the Incorporated Association of Organists from 2003 to 2005.
He is a Fellow and Vice-President of the Royal College of Organists and of Trinity College of Music. He holds honorary Fellowships from Leeds College of Music, the Guild of Church Musicians, the Guild of Musicians and Singers, and, most recently, from the Royal School of Church Music.