Music Director - Matthew Kelley
Matthew Kelley is an organist and composer, born in Worcester, who began work as Music Director of Brockenhurst Choir in September 2024, having previously worked as the choir’s accompanist through 2023 and 2024. He is based at Canford School in Dorset where he works as School Organist, assisting with both teaching and extra-curricular activities within the music department. Away from the school, he has a freelance career playing the organ for services and recitals at various churches across Dorset and Hampshire, most regularly at Wimborne Minster.
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Matthew started working in secondary schools in 2023, holding the post of Graduate Musician at King Edward VI School in Southampton until August 2024. Before this, he worked as the Graham Rogers Organ Scholar of Chelmsford Cathedral from September 2021 to August 2023, where he also held the position of Acting Assistant Organist from September 2022 to April 2023. He began learning the organ in 2010 under Christopher Allsop whilst he was a chorister with Worcester Cathedral Choir, took on his first playing role as Senior Organ Scholar of Great Malvern Priory in 2015, and was later the 2017/18 Organ Scholar of Guildford Cathedral under the directorship of Katherine Dienes-Williams.
Matthew graduated from Durham University in 2021 with a first-class degree in Music. Whilst there, he held the post of Musical Director at St Chad’s College, and directed the Durham University Choral Society through 2020/21. He is recognised as a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists (FRCO) and also has a DipABRSM for Music Performance on the piano. He also enjoys playing jazz, and is in demand as an accompanist, repetiteur, and continuo player.
As well as a performer, Matthew is an award-winning composer, winning the junior category of the BBC Proms Inspire Young Composers Competition in 2015 with his piece Fantasia for Strings. In 2024, his piece Christ Inviting won first prize within the Isaac Watts Composition Competition, celebrating the 350th anniversary of the minister and hymn writer. He has also been commissioned to write for groups such as the BBC Singers and the RSCM Millennium Youth Choir, and has one choral work, Morning Thoughts, published through the RSCM Press.
Away from music, Matthew is a keen reader, cook, sailor and cyclist. He lives with his partner, Catherine, in Dorset.
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