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Music Staff

Director of Music

Callum Alger

Callum Alger is our Director of Music at the Collegiate Church of St Peter, Wolverhampton, in addition to studying on the Advanced Postgraduate Diploma (Professional Performance) course at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, with a Headley Music Scholarship, under the guidance of Daniel Moult. In 2019, he graduated with a first-class honours degree in Music Performance, where he studied the organ with Henry Fairs and David Saint, and choral conducting with Paul Spicer.

During his studies, he was accompanist to the critically-acclaimed Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Chamber Choir, accompanying the choir on their most recent CD Rosa Mystica with Somm Recordings. Callum was fortunate to spend a semester studying at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater ‘Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy’ in Leipzig under the tutelage of Martin Schmeding.

He has previously held positions at Westminster Cathedral, St Thomas' Church, Stourbridge, Portsmouth Cathedral (in conjunction with the Portsmouth Grammar School), and St Matthew's Church, Northampton.

Callum has performed extensively as a soloist in the UK. He won first-prize at the IAO/RCO Organ Playing Competition (2018) in Peterborough, and Dame Gillian Weir Messiaen Competition (2018) in Birmingham, and was twice a finalist in the Northern Ireland International Organ Competition. Recent recital venues have included Westminster Abbey, St John’s Smith Square and St Albans Cathedral (St Albans International Organ Festival). He is an Associate of the Royal College of Organists, and Trinity College, London, and has performed on BBC Radio 3 and 4.

In 2019, Callum released his debut CD Klangreden with Regent Records, featuring the Garnier organ at the University of Birmingham, and the Walker organ at St Chad’s Cathedral, Birmingham. Klangreden is centred on the performance of Lutheran chorale-based repertoire, in which Callum’s music-making has been described as “unfailingly elegant” [Choir and Organ].

Publicity Photo - RCO Comp 2018.jpg
Assistant Director of Music

Charles Francis

Charles joined us as Assistant Director of Music in September 2022, having spent two years as the Organ Scholar at St Philip's Cathedral, Birmingham. He is currently studying on the undergraduate course at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, with Daniel Moult and Nicholas Wearne as his first study tutors.

In July 2022, Charles was winner of the IAO-RCO Organ Playing Competition at the IAO Music Festival in Edinburgh.

Organ Scholar

Vacant

Deputy Organist

Toby Barnard

Toby Barnard plays for the Wednesday Choral Evensongs.

He studied music at Cardiff University and has an MA (with Distinction) in Organ Performance from Birmingham Conservatoire.

He is Conductor of Walsall Choral Society and Associate Principal at St Peter's Collegiate School.

Organist Emeritus

Peter Morris

Organist Emeritus

David Rendell was Assistant Director of Music from 1967 to 2010 and is still very active in the music department. He held the music together for 42 years, through four Rectors and seven Directors of Music. Countless former choristers and organ pupils have very good reason to thank him!
David helps on Monday and Friday evenings with chorister training and runs the choristers' handbells group.

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