John Birch

Who was John Birch?

John Anthony Birch was a British organist and choral director.

He was educated at Trent College, Derbyshire and left in July 1947 to study at the Royal College of Music, London. In 1953 he became Organist and Master of the Choristers at a prominent Anglo-Catholic church: All Saints, Margaret Street, London. In 1958 Birch moved to Chichester to be Organist and Master of the Choristers at Chichester Cathedral. During his time at the Cathedral, he worked closely with Dean Walter Hussey in the commissioning of new choral works for the Cathedral Choir, including pieces from composers Leonard Bernstein, William Walton, Lennox Berkeley, William Albright, Bryan Kelly and Herbert Howells.

In 1959, Birch was appointed as a Professor at the Royal College of Music, where he continued to lecture until 1997. He was one of the founders of the revived Southern Cathedrals Festival in 1960.

Birch was University Organist at the University of Sussex from 1967 to 1994 and worked as a Visiting Lecturer in Music from 1971 to 1983.

In 1982, Birch became Director of Music at Temple Church.