David Humphreys has been Musical Director of Grantham Choral Society since September 2019.  He now combines extensive freelance work as both conductor and organist with work in the civil service, having previously spent fifteen years in cathedral music where he held roles at St Albans, St Edmundsbury and Peterborough Cathedrals. During that time he directed and accompanied cathedral choirs on a daily basis and in numerous concerts and recordings, whilst also working extensively with local choral groups. He also spent two terms as Acting Director of Music at Peterborough, when he was responsible for the cathedral’s entire music programme, including all provision for choral services. 

 

David studied at the Royal Academy of Music with David Titterington and then with Thomas Trotter. He read music at the University of Cambridge, where, as an award-winning organ scholar at Jesus College, he gained his fellowship of the Royal College of Organists. He has appeared on BBC radio and television on numerous occasions, has toured widely across Europe and in the USA, and has directed and performed with ensembles including Britten Sinfonia and Instruments of Time and Truth. He has performed for a number of royal engagements, including, whilst at St Edmundsbury Cathedral, playing for the Office for the Royal Maundy in the presence of Queen Elizabeth II.

 

David is committed to developing the next generation of young musicians, and enjoys an active role as a private teacher. He founded Peterborough Cathedral’s highly successful Youth Choir in 2015, overseeing its development and concert and recording debuts. He has taught for Oundle for Organists and at the University of Cambridge and for nearly a decade helped run the professional development network for cathedral organists. He enjoys bringing the organ to a wider audience and is an experienced recitalist, playing at venues across the UK including Westminster and St Paul’s cathedrals. His final solo CD, from Peterborough Cathedral, released in 2015 on the Regent label, received widespread critical acclaim, Church Music Quarterly summing it up as ‘fabulous music played on a superb organ by a gifted and exciting organist’, whilst Gramophone hailed it as ‘a disc full of delights’, with ‘about as compelling a case for the Fantasia and Fugue in G by Parry as it has ever received on disc.’