The Cathedral Music Department is lead by the Director of Music, with an Organist & Assistant Director of Music, a team of nine professional Lay Clerks and an Organ Scholar.
There are two choirs that lead the worship at the Cathedral during the year, the Cathedral Choir and the Cathedral Consort.
Visiting choirs are welcomed to the Cathedral when the Cathedral Choirs are on holiday and any enquiries should be sent to music@stgeorges.org.uk
Previous Directors of Music have included Nick Gale and Norman Harper, and previous Organists have included Nicholas O'Neill.
Jonathan Schranz
Director of Music
music@stgeorges.org.uk
Jonathan Schranz is a freelance conductor based in London. He studied for an MMus and LRAM in Choral Conducting at the Royal Academy of Music where he was awarded a Distinction along with numerous prizes, and holds a first class music degree from the University of Cambridge.
Jonathan enjoys a diverse career ranging from leading choral workshops in high security prisons to performing at private functions with his funk band, The Handlers. In addition to his role at St George’s, he is Musical Director at the University of Greenwich, conducting the 90-strong student and staff chorus, and he also runs the Victoria Children’s Choir, the outreach choir of Westminster Cathedral. He works as a Section Leader and Assistant Conductor for the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain and is founder-director of a number of his own groups including The Fisher Consort and Graduale. Jonathan has led choral workshops for the Royal School of Church Music, South West Camerata and Libricini, and is in demand as a guest conductor.
A firm believer in the transformative social impact of choral music, Jonathan is Head of Musical Development for the charity Sing Inside which delivers singing workshops in prisons across the country. His Master’s thesis, exploring the benefits of choral music within a prison chaplaincy, has been presented at the Universities of Leicester and Oxford.
Website: www.jonathanschranz.co.uk
Frederick Stocken
Organist & Assistant Director of Music
music@stgeorges.org.uk
Frederick Stocken has been involved with church music since he was a chorister at Southwell Minster. He was Organ Scholar of St Catharine’s College, Cambridge where he studied with Peter Hurford. He won five prizes at ARCO and three at FRCO and has given recitals in venues around the UK and as far away as Japan. His PhD in nineteenth-century harmonic theory is from the University of Manchester.
As a composer Frederick has had diverse commissions, including his First Symphony for the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra premiered in the Royal Albert Hall, and a ballet, Alice, for the State Theatre in Giessen, Germany. His church-music commissions include an orchestral mass for the Brompton Oratory, and a commission for the Southern Cathedrals Festival. Other major works include his Violin Concerto and Second Symphony, both premiered at St John’s Smith Square. His music has been published by OUP and Banks Music, and has been broadcast on the BBC, Classic FM and elsewhere.
Frederick’s Scale Shapes (Chester Music) is a well-known tutor for piano, and Graded Keyboard Musicianship, written jointly with Anne Marsden Thomas, was published by OUP. He is currently writing The New Oxford Organ Method with Anne Marsden Thomas.
Frederick teaches for the Royal College of Organists, the Royal Academy of Music and the Junior Academy of Music.
Website: www.frederickstocken.com
Hector Coley
Organ Scholar
Biography to be added here...