Officers
Maurice Merrell
Maurice Merrell has had a life-long involvement with all aspects of organ and church music.
He is an organist of much experience, and was for thirty years Organist and Director of Music
at the Central London church of St. George, Bloomsbury. There he played for a wide range of
services, bringing him into contact with choirs and soloists, and also planning and organising
many prestigious recitals and concerts. He is Managing Director of a well-known and
long-established firm of organ-builders, a position he has held for many years. Besides being
a Fellow of the Incorporated Society of Organ Builders (also serving on the Council) he is
currently President of the London Organists’ Guild.
Maurice Merrell is a Founder Member of the Guild of Musicians and Singers and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 1981.
Michael Walsh
Michael Walsh studied singing and organ at the RSCM and Trinity College of Music where he
was awarded prizes for choir training, conducting and research. His main performing interest
has always been in sacred music and, after eighteen years as Head of Music at a large
comprehensive school and a Lay Clerk in Chichester and Portsmouth Cathedral Choirs, he now
divides his time between working as a freelance musician and as Manager of The Better Book
Company, a publishing company based in Chichester.
He is currently Conductor of the St. Richard Singers, Artistic Director and Conductor of the Chichester Symphony Orchestra, Musical Director of the Chichester Amateur Operatic Society and Composer-in-Residence to the chamber choir Chichester Voices. Over the years Michael has conducted many concerts during the Chichester Festivities, including a notable Fauré Requiem in aid of Kosovo, the 'Millennium Messiah' in Chichester Cathedral in the BT “Voices for Hospices” series and 'The Armed Man - a Mass for Peace' by Karl Jenkins in aid of the St Richard's Hospital Cancer Day Care Unit.