Laurence John is the assistant director of music at St Davids Cathedral. He has previously held organ scholarships at Hereford and Exeter Cathedrals, and The Queen’s College, Oxford.
At St Davids, Laurence is the principal accompanist to the cathedral choir for both its weekly round of services and other engagements. He directs the cathedral’s voluntary choir, the Cathedral Singers, takes a share in the training of the choristers, and is involved in the cathedral’s musical outreach programme.
During his undergraduate studies at the University of Oxford, Laurence was organ scholar at The Queen’s College. He accompanied the chapel choir, described by Classic FM as ‘one of the world’s most renowned choirs’, for weekly services as well as concerts, tours, recordings, and two BBC Radio 3 broadcasts. Beyond the college, Laurence played for the choir at Westminster Abbey, HM Chapel Royal St James’s Palace and on a tour to America, where he accompanied services and concerts in many major cathedrals and churches, including Grace Cathedral, San Francisco.
He has worked as an organist, pianist, and harpsichordist with a number of the country’s leading orchestras, including the Academy of Ancient Music, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, and Instruments of Time and Truth. Whilst a student at Hereford Cathedral School, Laurence accompanied the internationally acclaimed Cantabile Girls’ Choir and played for winning performances by the choir in the final of Songs of Praise School Choir of the Year competition and at the International Eisteddfod in Llangollen; broadcast on BBC One and S4C respectively.
Laurence is a prize-winning Associate of the Royal College of Organists. Having previously learnt the organ with Robert Lucas (Ross), Peter Dyke (Hereford Cathedral) and Henry Fairs (Birmingham Conservatoire), he now studies with Stephen Farr.
