RSCM Ireland

Royal School of Church Music in Ireland   ~   Scoil Ríoga Cheol na hEaglaise in Éirinn

RSCM Ireland Coordinator

Peter Parshall was appointed Co-ordinator for RSCM Ireland in 2004.

Born in 1971, Peter was Organ Scholar of Westminster College, Oxford between 1990 and 1993. During this time, he studied the organ with David Saint at the Birmingham Conservatoire. In 1994, Peter was appointed Director of Music at St Mary Magdalen Church, Oxford, where, in 1997, he was instrumental in the establishment of a professional eight-voice choir, which sings at the weekly High Mass as well as undertaking concerts and recordings.

As a recitalist, Peter has played in venues all over the UK and abroad, notably in Australia whilst on tour with the professional choir Voces Sacrae, an ensemble that he co-founded. From 1999 until August 2001, he was Director of Chapel Music at Westminster College, Oxford. He was much in demand as an accompanist in the Oxford area and worked with many of the university’s college choirs. In March 2002, Peter was appointed to the post of Organist to the Cathedral Singers of Christ Church and was responsible for accompanying the services in the cathedral for approximately one third of the year.

Peter worked closely with the RSCM Southern Cathedral Singers (now Southern Voices), accompanying and directing services in cathedrals all over the Midlands and South East of England. He has also tutored on several of the residential courses run by the RSCM, at Oxford, Durham and Canterbury Cathedrals and also at York Minster. Peter is the co-editor of the choral anthology, Weddings for Choirs, published by Oxford University Press, and is a contributor to the New Dictionary of National Biography. As a composer, Peter has had choral works commissioned and premiered by choirs in the UK, Ireland and the USA. His music has been performed widely by a number of choirs, including broadcasts on BBC Radio 4 and RTE Lyric FM. He was formerly on the staff of the Music Department at Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin and was until recently Director of Music at St Bartholomew’s Church, Clyde Road in Dublin.