As part of our aim to strengthen and grow the reach of our work, make it more visible, and to encourage and support both existing and new volunteers to help us fulfil our mission we are delighted to confirm details for seven* of the Regional Managers starting their new roles with the RSCM on 1 October 2020.**

*work continues on the appointment of a Regional Manager for France and North West Europe.

**Martin Foyle starts work with the RSCM on 5 October 2020

Read on for a short biography about each of the Regional staff.

Catherine Chapman – Northern England 

(covering Cumbria, Durham, Lancashire, Leeds, Manchester, North & East Yorkshire, Northumbria and Sheffield) 

Music has always been a central part of Catherine’s life: she was a chorister in her parish church choir (directed by her mother) from age 5, and her grandfather too was a gifted church organist and director of music. Within the family they had a string quartet and SATB choir, and music constantly resounded around the house.  Catherine studied violin and piano at the Royal College of Music Junior Department before reading music at Cambridge University, and then going on to teach music in schools.    

  Via a rather circuitous route (including Zimbabwe, Bristol, London and Zambia), and having acquired a husband and three children, Catherine found herself teaching music in Sheffield and for a short time directing the music at St John’s Church, Ranmoor. Moving a little further north, she became Volunteer Team Leader for RSCM in January 2019. Having now been appointed RSCM Regional Manager for the North of England, Catherine is greatly looking forward to the new opportunities this presents.  Catherine believes that Christian worship provides the ultimate fulfilment of our musical gifts, and she feels privileged to be in a position to work with the RSCM to help enable the sharing and enhancement of these gifts.  

Martin Foyle – South West and West Midlands 

 

(covering Bristol & Swindon, Channel Islands, Cornwall, Devon, Gloucestershire, Hereford & South Shropshire, Portsmouth & Isle of Wight, Somerset, Wessex, Winchester, Worcester) 

Before joining the RSCM as Regional Manager (South West & West Midlands) in October 2020, Martin held a number of senior positions in business, most recently as Sales and Marketing Director and European Managing Director for companies operating within the Water Industry.   

He studied Business at Aston University and spent much of his career travelling extensively across the UK, Europe and the USA, fostering connections and relationships and supporting commercial activities across wide geographic areas.   

 Martin has been an individual member of the RSCM for approaching 25 years and sings in his local parish church choir in Bristol. He is married and spent much of the recent lockdown home-schooling his 11-year-old son.

Andrew Moodie – South and South East England  

(covering Canterbury, Essex & East London, Ely, Guildford, London, Norfolk, Oxon Bucks & Berks, Peterborough & Northampton, Rochester, St Albans Hertford & Bedford, Suffolk, Southwark & East Surrey and Sussex)  

Andrew has served as an Area Secretary, Awards Administrator, ETO, YPO and Chair of RSCM Peterborough and Northampton Area, and for a number of years played the organ for the Southern Cathedral Singers.  

  From the mid-1990s he was an Assistant Regional Director and Education Team Leader and was appointed Regional Co-ordinator for the South of England in 2015, having taken early retirement from teaching. He has led a number of three day and day courses, as well as training events for awards examinations. He is an examiner for bronze, silver and gold awards. 

Simon Russell – Central and East England 

(covering Birmingham, Chester, Coventry & Warwickshire, Derbyshire, Isle of Man, Leicestershire, Lichfield, Lincoln, Liverpool and Southwell & Notts) 

Simon was born in Liverpool. He studied organ at Birkenhead School with Timothy Lawford and then at Cambridge as Organ Scholar at St Catharine’s College, where he continued studies with Gillian Weir and the late Peter Le Huray. After Cambridge he was appointed Assistant Organist at Chester Cathedral but decided after a while to keep music as a hobby and gain fortune from computer keyboards working for Pilkingtons, ICI and Astra Zeneca.  

 He was firstly accompanist and then Music Director of the Hoylake Choral Society from 1982 until he moved, in 2000, to Nantwich in South Cheshire where he is Organist at St Mary’s Parish Church. Since May 2014, he has been a full-time professional freelance musician and from 2015, the Regional Co-ordinator for the North of England for the Royal School of Church Music. He is also an examiner for the London College of Music.

Elena Henriquez – Ireland 

Elena, who is originally from Spain, has lived in Dublin for the last 20 years. She has been involved with St Mary Pro-Cathedral Girls’ Choir.  

  Elena has brought years of organisational experience and enthusiasm to the RSCM Ireland committee from her background in both education and musical spheres. Elena is looking forward to continuing to expand the work of RSCM throughout Ireland and bringing together musicians and performers who enjoy church music. 

Ian Munro – Scotland

Ian Munro has been the Volunteer Team Leader for the RSCM in Scotland since August 2019, and is looking forward to taking up the post of Regional Manager for Scotland this October. Ian holds music degrees from universities in Edinburgh and London where he specialised in orchestral percussion. However, the music of the Church has always been important to him and he is fortunate to enjoy a career which allows him to enjoy both interests!  

 In addition to his work at the RSCM, Ian is Musical Director of the Kilmarnock and District Choral Union and the Pentland Singers. After six and a half years as Organist and Choirmaster of St Luke’s Church of Scotland in Paisley, Ian was appointed to the same post at St Machar’s Ranfurly Church in Bridge of Weir in April where he is now following in the footsteps of his grandfather who held the same post there for fifty years. In addition, Ian teaches percussion and piano privately as well as being on the instrumental staff at St Aloysius’ College in Glasgow.  

William Reynolds – Wales  

William Reynolds joined the RSCM Voluntary Team as Co-ordinator for Wales in January 2020, having been involved with the RSCM for several years prior to this as Education and Training Officer and Awards Administrator for the Swansea & Brecon Area, and as a validated RSCM Voice for Life Awards Examiner and a tutor for the RSCM Complete Church Organist course.  

  William is Organist and Director of Music at St Mary’s Collegiate Church, Swansea, and is a Visiting Music Tutor at Swansea University. Previous church music appointments have included Organist at Christ College, Brecon; Sub-Organist at Cardiff Metropolitan Cathedral, and Organ Scholar at Bangor Cathedral. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists. William studied music at University of Wales, Bangor (under Prof John Harper), where he gained the degrees of BMus, MA and PhD (his doctoral research surveyed Music and Liturgy in Wales and the Borderlands, c.1485-1645). He has had some of his research published in the Journal of the Royal College of Organists, Journal of the British Institute of Organ Studies, and Welsh Music History, with Cathedral Press publishing some of his performing editions of seventeenth-century anthems. In 2012 he was presented with The Archbishop of Wales’ Award for Church Music for his services to church music in Wales, especially at St Mary’s, Swansea.