Director of Music

​Dr G W E Brightwell enjoys an international career, which has spanned over 30 years in church music. As a student at the University of Durham, he held four scholarships. He was the first person to hold, concurrently, the organ scholarship and an alto choral scholarship at Durham Cathedral under the direction of Dr James Lancelot. Upon graduation, he was appointed Tutor in Music at Durham and Congregation Organist, playing for university graduation ceremonies, which included the honorary degree ceremonies of HRH The Prince of Wales, now HM King Charles III, Sir Georg Solti (Orchestral Conductor), Sir Steve Redgrave (Olympic Rower), Dr Marjorie ‘Mo’ Mowlam (UK Secretary of State for Northern Ireland 1997-1999), Dame Rosemary Cramp (pioneering Professor of Archæology), Maya Angelou (American Memoirist and Poet), and Evelyn Rothwell, Lady Barbirolli (Concert Oboist). Following two years as College Organist at Sidney Sussex College, in the University of Cambridge, he was appointed University Organist and Director of the Chapel Choir at the University of Glasgow. At Glasgow, he played for the honorary degree ceremonies of HRH The Prince of Wales, now HM King Charles III, HM Otumfuo Nana Osei Tutu II King of Asante, Sir Philip Ledger (Principal of the RSAMD and formerly Organist of King’s College, Cambridge), Sir Billy Connelly (Comedian and Actor), Sir James Macmillan (Composer), Sally Beamish (Composer), Sir Magnus Magnusson (Journalist, Translator & Mastermind Quizmaster), and Lord Martin of Springburn (Speaker of the UK House of Commons, 2000-2009). A period in the USA followed as Director of Music at St Paul’s Parish on K Street in Washington DC, and St Thomas’ Episcopal Church and School, Houston, TX. Since 2020, he has been Director of Music and Titular Organist at St Nicholas Basilica in Amsterdam where he is responsible for running the premier church music in The Netherlands, directing some 60 singers across three adult choirs and acting as curator of the 1889 Sauer organ. He is artistic director of the Amsterdam Orgelzomer recital series, which annually attracts international organists of the highest calibre. His choirs have broadcast live on BBC television and radio, and on Dutch TV, twice broadcasting across Europe for the Eurovision Mass immediately prior to the Pope’s Easter and Christmas addresses. Dr Brightwell is a singer (tenor), and a composer and arranger. His compositions are published by Encore Publications.

In addition to his work as a church musician, he is a teacher, musicologist, and writer. He completed his MA by thesis, and PhD with Professor Jeremy Dibble on the history of London’s Royal College of Music during the directorate of Sir George Grove, 1883-1895. His research interests include institutional history, English cathedral music, music and liturgy during the English Reformation, choir psychology, and English cathedral accompaniment. He has published articles and book chapters with Ashgate Press, the Grolier Encyclopedia of Music, The Book Collector, and book reviews in the journal of the American Libraries Association Notes, and in the Journal of the British Music Society.